This page will contain links to the presentations and
activities done in the lectures, discussion sections, and observing
sessions. These will only represent a portion of material covered in
the lectures.
Observing and discussion sections
Week 1: Sky Tour. Related information - This week's Sky at a
Glance from Sky and Telescope magazine online. Blog posts
explaining Why do
stars twinkle? and another Why
do stars twinkle?
Week 2: Information about and expectations for
class assignments discussed during the first discussion
section meetings. Math Review workshop: practice problems and lecture notes.
I will almost never circulate my own lecture notes, but am
sharing these because a number of students missed the review
because of a conflict. Use these at your own risk and please
don't ask me to translate them; they are unedited and messy but
are a faithful representation of all topics covered at the review
session.
Lectures
Monday, Aug 31: Using your body to measure angles in the sky,
measurement uncertainty
Wednesday, Sept 2: Solar
System Walk
Friday, Sept 4:
Announcements; Scale of
the Universe, excerpt from Cosmic Voyage
in HD. Also Cosmic
Voyage not in HD. PPT
slides from the brief lecture, or in .pdf format
Wednesday, Sept 9: Announcements;
Simulation of motion
of the stars, Thought
questions about Star motion through the Sky
Friday, Sept 11: Thought
questions about star motion through the Sky; Simulation of motion
of the stars
Monday, Sept 14: Announcements. Although
we won't use it in class, you may find the simulation of motion
of the Sun throughout the year helpful.
Wednesday, Sept 16:Announcements. 3D
simulation of Moon
Phases. A few PPT
slides about eclipses, or in .pdf format
Friday, Sept 18:
Announcements,
Some ppt slides,
Jupiter
and Saturn's retrograde motion,
Carl Sagan on Brahe and Kepler
Monday, Sept 21: no online material.
Wednesday, Sept 23: Announcements,
Phases of Venus slide
Monday, Sept 28: Announcements,
ppt slides of Solar System,
demotion of Pluto and asteroids on The Daily Show
Wednesday, Sept 30: Exam 1 instructions, Mike
Brown on finding Pluto
EXAM 1
Monday, October 5: some ppt
slides about how astronomers do astronomy. ONLY WORKS ON A MAC.
Monday, October 19: some ppt
slides about spectra. Also in pdf.
Wednesday, October 21: Announcements
Friday, October 23: Luminosity
function of stars - the x-axis of this figure is "apparent
magnitude". Recall that the magnitude system is backwards: higher
apparent magnitudes = fainter. Apparent magnitude = 15 ~ 10^-4 times
the luminosity of the Sun. Apparent magnitude = 0 ~ 100 times the
luminosity of the Sun.
Astronomer's periodic table from
textbook, Chemical composition
of the Sun, Figure 13.7 from
textbook on blackbody radiation.
Monday, October 26: HR diagram
one and HR diagram
two
Wednesday, October 23:
Movie about the Sun - Chapters two and three of the Sun episode of The
Universe series from the History Channel. Can be found on youtube as
well:
Part I and Part
II and the first 3.25 minutes of Part III
Monday, November 2: Announcements
Article about the solar neutrino problem.
Some images of Super-K and SNO neutrino experiments: in pdf and in ppt format.
Super HR diagram, that shows temperature, luminosity,
radius, lifetime, and main sequence star mass.
Wednesday, November 4: Announcements
1 minute animation of Relative sizes of stars
This
webpage by Professor Pogge at Ohio State University describes the
highlights of post-main sequence evolution of low mass stars.
Page with some nice pictures and information about planetary
nebulae
Awesome picture of x-ray and optical emission from the Cat's Eye nebula.
Monday November 9 Announcements
Some cool supernova remnants.
Friday November 13
Nova podcast about Supernova Event Network.
Neil DeGrasse
Tyson on death by black hole.
Monday November 16
Brief animation of falling into a
black hole.
Animation showing the motion of stars near the center of the Milky Way.
Friday November 20
Animation of the Hubble Ultra Deep field
Galaxy slides in pptx and in pdf format.
Simulated HR diagrams of star systems of different ages.
[For fun -
2007 Neil
DeGrasse Tyson interview on the Daily Show.]