Courses offered by the Department of Physics and Astronomy are designed to bring the student to an increasingly independent level of investigation in experimental and theoretical physics.  Denison offers a variety of facilities and equipment for teaching and research in the physical sciences.

Course and laboratory work in astronomy explores the physical and observational background of such topics as the history of astronomy, naked eye observations, the planets and moons, the origin of the solar system, stellar classification, stellar evolution, galactic astronomy, and cosmology, with an emphasis on the quantitative nature of modern astronomy.