Proceedings of the 1st Aegean Cosmology Summer School (2001).
astro-ph/0205166

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Abstract. The following review is based on lectures given in the 1^st Samos Cosmology summer school. It presents an attempt to discuss various issues of current interest in Observational Cosmology, the selection of which as well as the emphasis given, reflects my own preference and biases. After presenting some Cosmological basics, for which I was aided by excellent text-books, I emphasize on attempts to determine some of the important cosmological parameters; the Hubble constant, the curvature and total mass content of the Universe. The outcome of these very recent studies is that the concordance model, that fits the majority of observations, is that with _m + = 1, 0.7, H₀ 70 km s^-1 Mpc^-1, _B 0.04 and spectral index of primordial fluctuations, the inflationary value n 1. I apologise before hand for the many important works that I have omitted and for the possible misunderstanding of those presented.

Table of Contents

BACKGROUND - PREREQUISITES

Basic Elements of Dynamical Cosmology

Thermal Beginning of the Universe

Cosmological Parameters

Distribution of Matter in the Universe

DISTANCE SCALE, HUBBLE CONSTANT & THE AGE OF THE UNIVERSE

Distances of Extragalactic Objects

Biases affecting Distance Determinations

Distance Indicators:

The Value of Ho and the Age of the Universe

DETERMINATION OF THE MATTER/ENERGY DENSITY OF THE UNIVERSE

The CMB fluctuation spectrum

The Hubble diagram with SNIa

Clustering of Galaxies, Clusters & QSO's

M/L observations

Cluster Baryon Fraction:

Large-Scale Velocity Field:

Rate of Cluster Formation Evolution:

SUMMARY

REFERENCES