ASTRONOMY 100 DESCRIPTIVE ASTRONOMY
T,TH 5:30 p.m. NOTE: class meets BOTH tuesday and thursday at 5:30. (Observing Tues. evenings)
Instructor: Purrington
Office 5050 Stern Hall
Telephone 862-3177
e-mail:
danny@tulane.edu
web site: http://www.tulane.edu/~danny/ast100.html
Text: Bennett, Donahue, Schneider, and Voit, The Cosmic Perspective,
6th edition.
Other required supplies:
Edmund Star Finder (if ordered)
Scientific Calculator (about $12)
Recommended:
E. Karkoschka, The Observer's Sky Atlas
SYLLABUS
Weeks (and inclusive dates)
Jan. 13-25, Chapters 1-3. Introduction, history of astronomy, calendars, time and the motions of the earth, celestial coordinates.
Jan. 27-Feb. 3, Chapters 4-5. Light and optics; tools of astronomy.
Electromagnetic waves, aperture and resolution, Rayleigh criterion, radio telescopes, etc.
Feb. 8-15, Chapter 14. The Sun. Properties, structure, energy generation through nuclear fusion reactions; p-p chain.
Feb. 17-Mar. 1, Chapters 15-16. Stars, stellar spectra and classification, H-R diagram, stellar evolution, clusters, variable stars, binary stars, interstellar matter. First Exam, Feb. 17, chapters 1-5.
Mar. 3-17, [Spring/Mardi Gras Break, 3/6-13] Chapters 17-18. Endpoints of stellar evolution: white dwarf stars, neutron stars, black holes. Special and general relativity(see supplementary chapters).Second Exam, Mar. 17, chapters 14-16.
Mar. 22-31, Chapters 19-20. Milky Way galaxy, properties, rotation curve, dark mater. Galaxies, Hubble classification, evolution, dark matter, active nuclei and quasars.
Apr. 5-12, Chapter 21-22 . Cosmology and the early universe. Hubble expansion, Big Bang, inflation, cosmic microwave background, accelerating expansion, dark energy,.
Apr. 14-21, Chapters 6-13 (in part). The Solar System. No class Third Exam, Apr. 14, chapters 17-22.Last class Apr. 21.
Final Exam, APRIL 28, 5:30 p.m., Jones Hall 102, Chapters 6-13.
The slides are not meant to replace the lectures, and attendance is expected. I will frequently introduce some material not in the slides, either by accident or intent, partly to provide some advantage to those who attend class.
You will be required to download and turn in an image of the Sun from the National Solar Observatory Site (see our homepage) before mid-term, and a field from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (cas.sdss.org/dr3) during the second half of the semester. We will discuss this during class. I will check to see that you have completed these two assignments and will take that into account when assigning the final grade.
You will be expected to attend 3 observing sessions in order to receive full credit, though attendance will only affect your grade if you are on a borderline .
You may come every time, but if you intend to come only 3 times, space the sessions a month or so apart, or pick a time when the moon is near first quarter and a time when there is no moon. The skies change very slowly over time, so don't come three weeks in a row. Remember that there is no guarantee that we won't have 2-3 weeks in a row of cloudy weather, so do not count on getting your 3 sessions in during the last week of class. You will be expected to bring a notebook with you and take notes on what we observe.
We will have an afternoon session to observe the sun and possibly an early morning session.
As you can see from the syllabus, there will be three hour exams plus the final, which is not cumulative. The exams will count equally and will represent approximately 95% of your grade. The remaining 5% will be made up from several factors including class attendance (on occasions when I check roll), internet projects, etc.
Attendance is expected, even though I will not check roll after the first two weeks, unless there are a lot of absentees on a given night, in which case I maycheck roll.