A complete textbook-in-progress by the instructor, presented in PDF format, is the centerpiece of the course.

In this Special Topics course we discuss current theoretical and experimental developments towards the detection of astrophysical sources of gravitational radiation. The discovery of the Hulse-Taylor binary gives experimental evidence for energetic emissions of gravitational waves. Upcoming experiments target the direct detection of gravitational radiation, observational evidence for Kerr black holes, binaries of black holes, and serendipitous discoveries.