Lecture Notes and Reading Assignments
Reading assignments refer to Bennett et al., Cosmic
Perspective.
You do NOT have to read the sections titled "Mathematical Insight"
unless otherwise noted.
Lecture
1 :
Thursday, Jan. 12
Our Cosmic Address; Powers of 10
Motion of the Earth
Pick up syllabus
Honors students pick up honors requirements
Reading: Chapter 1, Chapter 2.1
Lecture
2: Tuesday, Jan. 17
Patterns in the Night Sky
Hand out HW #1
Reading: Chapter 2.1, S1.2
Lecture
3: Thursday,
Jan. 19
The Moon: Why we
see only one side. Phases. Eclipses
Solar Eclipses
The Saros Cycle
Why are there Seasons?
The Astronomical Basis for Calendars
Reading: Chapter 2.2, 2.3, 2.4
Lecture
4: Tuesday,
Jan. 24
Pick up Starry Night Lab and Practice Quiz #2
The Apparent Path of Planets in the Sky:
Retrograde Motion
Ptolemaic versus Copernican Model
Tycho, Kepler, Copernicus
The scientific method
Lecture
5: Thursday,
Jan. 26
Newton's Laws
The 4 forces of nature
String Theory; Reductionism in Physics
Reading: 4.1, 4.2, 4.4
p. 462-463 in Chapter S4
Lecture
6: Tuesday,
Jan. 31
Overview of the Solar System
Theory for the formation of the solar system
Reading: Chapt. 7.1, 7.2
Lecture
7:
Thursday, Feb. 2
Proto-stellar disks around
other stars
Searches for planets around
other stars
Review of light; the
Doppler Effect
MIDTERM
#1:
Tuesday, Feb. 14. In class. Covers everything
through the
end of Lecture 7
Lecture
8:
Tuesday, Feb. 7
Mercury
Venus
Lecture
9:
Thursday, Feb. 9
The Earth
Feb. 14: Midterm #1
Lecture 10: Thursday, Feb. 16 (Ben O.)
Mars
Lecture
11:
Tuesday, Feb. 21
The Moon
Asteroids
Lecture
12:
Thursday, Feb. 23
Jupiter
Jupiter's Moons
Lecture
13:
Tuesday, Feb. 28
Saturn and its Moons
Uranus and Neptune
Pluto, the Kuiper Belt and
Comets
Lecture
14: Thursday,
March 2
The Sun
Introduction
to Spectroscopy
Lecture 15: Tuesday, March 7
The
Sun
Lecture 16: Thursday, March 9
The
Sun
IR
Camera Demonstration
March 14, 16: Spring Break
Lecture 17:
Tuesday, March 21
Solar
Observing
Review for exam
Lecture 18: Thursday, March 23
Midterm #2
What
is on Midterm #2
Lecture
19:
Tuesday, March 28
Properties of Stars
Lecture
20:
Thursday, March 30
The HR Diagram
Star-formation
Lecture
21:
Tuesday, April 4
Star-formation
Evolution of a Solar Mass Star
Evolution of Massive Stars
Lecture
22:
Thursday, April 6
The Stellar Graveyard:
White Dwarfs
Neutron Stars and Pulsars
Black Holes
Lecture
23:
Tuesday, April 11
The Stellar Graveyard, continued:
Black holes
Gamma Ray Bursts
Lecture
24:
Thursday, April 13
The Milky Way Galaxy
Galaxies
Lecture
25:
Tuesday, April 18
Clusters of Galaxies
The Expansion of the Universe
Lecture
26: Thursday,
April 20
The Expansion of the Universe
Midterm
#3: Tuesday, April 25
Lecture 27:
Thursday April 27
Galaxy
Formation
Quasars
Cosmology
The Beginning of the Universe
Lecture 28:
Tuesday, May 2
The
Beginning of the Universe
The Future of the Universe
Astrobiology
FINAL EXAM: Tuesday May 9, 11-1pm