~ Welcome to Astronomy 106

Welcome to Astronomy 106

23 Sep 2000
All astro LABS BEGIN monday, August 28

Time:	Lecture 9:10-10:05 MWF in Room C112, MatSci Bldg
Instructor:	Dr. Robert Sheldon
Office Hours:	MWF 8-9, & TBA, Room 348 Optics Bldg
Phone:	UAH:824 2860 MSFC:544 1652 E-mail: sheldonr@uah.edu
Teaching Assistants:	Yuki Kaneko Office Hours: MWF 10:30-12 Office: OB 432 824-3138 kanekoy@email.uah.edu	Landon Freeman Office Hours: TuTh 4-6 freemal@email.uah.edu	Nate Lewis Office Hours: Mon 4-6 lewisn@email.uah.edu
Text:	Universe, 5th edition William J. Kaufmann, III, W.H. Freeman and Company, NY

COURSE DESCRIPTION:

Exploring the Cosmos, parts I and II, is designed to give you an overall look at the history of astronomy, the techniques and equipment used to make astronomical observations, the life cycle of stars, the theories of the evolution of our solar system and galaxy, and the theories of the our entire universe. Part I of this course will cover chapters 1-8 and 17-24, which include the basics of our view of the sky, telescopes, the nature of light, our solar system, and the life cycle of stars all the way to black holes. Part II will cover the remaining chapters, which include the evolution of galaxies, clusters and superclusters, basic cosmology, and a survey of our solar system's bodies.

These courses are meant primarily for non-science majors, though they are also the introductory courses for physics students with an astrophysics interest. Students will be expected to perform only basic algebraic and mathematical calculations to support various theories; no high level mathematics is required. (Basic Algebra is a course pre-requisite!) While learning about the solar system and the stars, you will learn physical relationships between quantities such as temperature, pressure, brightness, distance, speed, angle, etc. You will also learn to interpret data to make informed decisions about astronomical theories, particularly in the laboratory exercises which accompany the lecture.

The laboratory exercises will also include a simple observing project which will be due later in the semester. Other than that project, there are few observational requirements for this course. However, the graduate students teaching the laboratory and I are all available to conduct viewing exercises as required. There are small telescopes in the astronomy laboratory that you may check out from the lab instructor or from me. If you know of an upcoming astronomical event or would just like the opportunity to look through a scope at whatever might be visible, please make your request known and we'll schedule a viewing. If you wish to be notified of any last-minute observing activities, send me an email message so that I may add you to my viewing list. Also, the Von Braun Astronomical Society has an observatory and planetarium on Monte Sano Mountain which is open quite often to the public for planetarium shows and general observing. Visit their website at www.vbas.org for more information

HOMEWORK:

Homework assignment due dates are listed below with assignments due at the beginning of class, folded, stapled, with your full name written legibly on the outside. Many homework problems are based on information contained in the "boxes" within the chapters. Late homework may be submitted TO ME with a penalty of 25% per day late; written excuses required from an appropriate authority for no penalty.

RETURNS:

Homework assignments will be returned in class within two class periods. All homework will be available before an exam. If you are absent when assignments are returned, you can retrieve them from a box outside my office. Exams will also be returned in class within two class periods or can be picked up from me during office hours after the second class period; I do not leave exams in the box outside my office.

SOLUTIONS:

After the due date, solutions to the homework assignments will be posted on the main syllabus web page as gif files. The solutions are good study aids as I often supply more information than necessary to answer the question. This is my way of "going over the homework".

EXAMS:

My exams reflect the homework, examples that I work in class and discussions in lecture and in your book. Exam grades may be scaled to give a class average of 75%, should the class average be lower than this. If you don't come to class and/or don't do homework, you will find it difficult to pass the exams! No early exams. Notification of absence for an exam must be made within 24 hours of exam time. There is an answering machine on my office phone for this purpose. Makeup exams, which may be oral or more difficult, will only be given for absences with a written excuse from the dean.

LABORATORY:

The laboratory will be taught by a graduate student and/or experienced undergraduates. The grade will be averaged with your class grade as shown above. Many students do well enough in the lab to raise their overall class grade. ATTENDANCE IS MANDATORY TO PERFORM THE EXPERIMENTS; LAB REPORTS BASED ON EXPERIMENTS THAT YOU DID NOT PERFORM WILL NOT BE ACCEPTED.

TENTATIVE LAB SCHEDULE

PREFLIGHTS/WARM-UPS/QUIZZES

I am trying out a new teaching style that tries to use the WWW as a fast-response feedback loop. Before each Wed/Fri class, a Quiz will be posted on the WWW, which must be completed before 8:00 AM on the day that it is assigned. PLEASE do not try to take the quiz after the deadline time, I will not be able to accept it. These quizzes will form the basis of the following lecture. A web site describing this approach can be found at the JiTT Website.

GRADING:

The final grade will be derived from:

Exam #1----------15%
Exam #2----------15%
Final Exam---------20%
Labs-------------25%
Quizzes-----------10%
Homework---------15%

I use an absolute scale for letter grades:

90-100 = A
80--90 = B
70--80 = C
60--70 = D
00--60 = N/C

Note that beginning in 2000, the "F" grade is replaced with a "N/C" for all 100-level physics courses. That is, failing will no longer reduce your GPA, but it will be treated as if you had withdrawn.

TENTATIVE LECTURE SCHEDULE:

WEEK	DATE	CHAP	TOPIC	QUIZ	HOMEWORK	SOLUTIONS
1	Aug 23	1	The Universe		[1]:2,3,6,10,12,16,20,21,23,24
1	Aug 25	2	The Heavens	Quiz 01
2	Aug 28	2	The Heavens		[2]:5,6,8,9,10,13,21,24,28,30
2	Aug 30	2	The Heavens	Quiz 02		Chap 1
2	Sep 01	3	Eclipses	Quiz 03	[3]:1,2,3,9,11,14,15,20,22,27
3	Sep 04		* Holiday
3	Sep 06	3	Eclipses	Quiz 04		Chap 2
3	Sep 08	4	Gravitation	Quiz 05	[4]: 3,4,6,10,12,14,16,17,22,27
4	Sep 11	4	Gravitation			Chap 3
4	Sep 13	4	Gravitation	Quiz 06
4	Sep 15	5	Light&Matter	No Quiz	[5]: 4,5,7,10,11,14,18,21,25,28	Chap 4
5	Sep 18	5	Light&Matter
5	Sep 20	6	Telescopes	Quiz 08		Chap 5
5	Sep 22		*TEST 1*
6	Sep 25	6	Telescopes		[6]: 3,4,6,7,12,13,15,18,19,21
6	Sep 27	6	Telescopes	Quiz 09
6	Sep 29	7	Solar System	No Quiz
7	Oct 02	7	Solar System		[7]:1,2,7,9,12,13,14,16,18,19	Chap 6
7	Oct 04	8	Living Earth	No Quiz	[8]:3,5,6,7,10,11,12,13,18,19
7	Oct 06		* Holiday
8	Oct 09	8	Living Earth			Chap 7
8	Oct 11	17	Vagabonds	Quiz 12	[17]:5,8,9,11,12,15,19,22,25,26
8	Oct 13	17	Vagabonds	No Quiz		Chap 8
9	Oct 16	18	Our Star		[18]:2,6,8,13,14,17,21,25,26,31
9	Oct 18	18	Our Star	Quiz 14		Chap 17
9	Oct 20	18	Our Star	No Quiz
10	Oct 23	19	Nature of Stars		[19]: 2,5,8,9,10,14,19,20,25,34	Chap 18
10	Oct 25	19	Nature of Stars	No Quiz
10	Oct 27	19	Nature of Stars	No Quiz		Chap 19
11	Oct 30		*Test 2*
11	Nov 01	20	Birth of Stars	No Quiz	[20]: 3,6,7,8,12,14,15,17,19, 24
11	Nov 03	20	Birth of Stars	No Quiz
12	Nov 06	21	Evolution of Stars		[21]: 2,3,5,9,11,13,14,17,24,25
12	Nov 08	21	Evolution of Stars	Quiz 21
12	Nov 10	22	Death of Stars	Quiz 21		Chap 20
13	Nov 13	22	Death of Stars		[22]:3,4,7,9,12,14,17,18,24,26
13	Nov 15	22	Death of Stars	NoQuiz		Chap 21
13	Nov 17	23	Neutron Stars	NoQuiz	[23]:2,3,4,12,13,15,17,18,23,27
14	Nov 20	23	Neutron Stars			Chap 22
14	Nov 22		* Holiday
14	Nov 24		* Holiday
15	Nov 27	23	Black Holes		[24]:4,6,10,11,12,14,15,16,20,22	Chap 23
15	Nov 29	24	Black Holes	No Quiz
15	Dec 01	24	Black Holes	NoQuiz
16	Dec 04	30	SETI			Chap24
16	Dec 06		Study Day
16	Dec 11		Final Exam		8:00-10:30

Last Modified Aug 28, 2000

Welcome to Astronomy 106

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