All class assignments, including reading, homework and labs, will be
listed here. All homework listed is due Friday of that week unless
otherwise indicated. By midnight on the day before anything
listed as "reading" is due, login to Blackboard and fill out the
pre-class survey.
Observing Assignment (now for extra credit): No Night
Without Astronomy
Each night of the week, one local college (Saturday night = Haverford)
will host an astronomy open house, including telescope observing if
the night is clear. Each of you is required to go to one of the
sessions at Swarthmore, Haverford, or Drexel (because I know they have
presentation plus observing. This list could increase.) on a CLEAR
night between Oct 18 and Nov 24 and attend the night's
lecture/demo/slide show and also participate in the public observing.
Swarthmore = Tuesday 7:30
Drexel = Wednesday 7 pm in October, 6 pm in November
Haverford = Saturday 7 pm in October, 6 pm in November
See link for details on these events.
Hand in a brief write-up of your experience by the end of the
semester: A brief (about a page) description of the presentation you see and one
thing you learn will get your lowest homework score dropped, and a
brief (about a page) description of the observations you
make and their relation to something we've done in class will get your
lowest homework score dropped. So you can drop up your two lowest
homework assignments by completing both parts of this extra credit.
I recommend that you try to go to a session that isn't
close to Full Moon because the observing will be better.
Week 1 Aug 31, Sept 2, 4
Reading:
Wednesday, Sept 2
1) Carefully read and explore the online course
webpage
2) Read "Foundations 1.1" box on page 16 of your textbook (Hester et
al., 21st Century Astronomy, 2nd edition). Then
carefully review Appendix 1 (Mathematical Tools).
Friday, Sept 4 - Read Chapter 1
Homework:
1) Fill out Doodles to indicate availability
for discussion section and office hours:
For discussion section
For office hours
2) Problems just for practice (there will be no homework to hand in):
From Chapter 1 - 1, 10, 12, 13, 15.
Lab:
1) Attend one Sky
Tour session (weather permitting). Bring a Star Wheel to the Sky
Tour - Make a Star Wheel. You don't need to make a color
printout of the sleeve. B/W is fine.
2) Angles Lab available
for download.
(Due on Wednesday, Sept 16).
Week 2 Sept 9, 11
Reading:
Wednesday, Sept 9 - Chapter 2.1, 2.2 up until the end of the
description of Figure 2.8 at the beginning of page 30.
Friday, Sept 11 - Chapter 2.3, 2.4
Homework: Homework 1 SOLUTIONS
Show
all work, include all units, and use a sensible number of significant
digits. You can either use back-of-the-envelope estimates for the
calculations (work still must be shown and/or explained) or something
like a calculator or WolframAlpha.
Part I: Problems from your textbook, 21CA, Chapter 1 - 1, 10, 13
(repeats from Week 1), 18
Part II: We learned in class that the angular size of an object is
inversely proportional to its distance. We also learned that the
angular size of the Sun in our sky is 0.5 degrees across. Proxima
Centauri, the star nearest to the Sun, is a red dwarf star with only
1/7 the diameter of the Sun.
(a) If the Sun was replaced with
Proxima Centauri, how big would it appear in our sky?
(b) The Sun
is 8 light minutes away from us, and Proxima Centauri is 4 light years
away from us. What is the angular size of Proxima Centauri in our
sky?
Part III:
Look up the size of a helium nucleus and a helium atom on the
internet. Write down the values you find (including units) and your
source. Using an 8 inch diameter baseball hat to represent a helium
nucleus (like we used it to represent the Sun in class), how large
would a scale model need to be to contain an entire helium atom?
Where would the outskirts of this scaled atom be located?
(e.g. Founders Hall, the Liberty Bell, Texas, the Moon).
Lab: None due
Moonphase Lab available for
download. (First iteration due on Friday, Oct 23, but
observations must begin immediately.).
Week 3 Sept 14, 16, 18
Reading:
Monday, Sept 14 - NONE - Just review your understanding of the thought questions you
discussed in groups on Friday Sept 11. There is no pre-class
survey.
Wednesday, Sept 16 - Chapter 2.5
Friday, Sept 18 - Chapter 3.1, 3.2
Homework: Homework 2 SOLUTIONS
Problems from 21CA textbook, Chapter 2 - 1, 5, 12, 16
Lab:Wednesday, Sept 16 - Angles Lab due
Week 4 Sept 21, 23, 25
Reading:
Monday, Sept 21 No pre-class survey. "The Galileo Affair" from
Scientific American August 1982 and "Islamic Astronomy"
from Scientific American April 1986, both written by Owen Gingerich.
"The Starry
Messenger", by Galileo Galilei, excerpted from The Dicoveries and
Opinions of Galileo - translated with an introduction and notes by
Stillman Drake.
UPDATE: September 21 - Two pages were missing from the library scan of
Islamic Astronomy. I didn't catch this until Sunday night. A full
version of this article (without images) can be found here.
Wednesday, Sept 23 - Chapter 3.3, 3.4, 3.5
Friday, Sept 25 - NONE
Homework: Homework 3 SOLUTIONS
Problems from 21CA textbook, Chapter 3: 6, 13
Two recently
discovered planets have been in the news lately: WASP-18b and
CoRoT-7b. The diameter of WASP-18b has been estimated to be 1.1
times that of Jupiter. (The sizes and masses of all Solar System
planets are in the appendix of your textbook). What is the
gravitational force you would feel on each of these planets, relative
to the force you feel on the Earth? Look up the other information
you need for these calculations in these two articles: WASP-18b
and
CoRoT 7b
Lab: None Due. Milky Way star counts lab now available
Week 5 Sept 28, 30, Oct 2
Take home Exam 1 handed out Friday, Oct 2
Reading:
Monday Sept 28 - Chapter 6
Wednesday Sept 30 -
NONE
Friday Oct 2 - (no blackboard survey) Chapter 4.2, 4.4
Homework:Homework 4 SOLUTIONS
21CA, Chapter 3: 1, 16, Chapter 6: 11 (be sure to
answer with a level of detail that includes material we discussed in
class that was not necessarily covered in your textbook).
Lab: NONE
Week 6 Oct 5, 7, 9
Take home Exam 1 due Wednesday, Oct 7 at the beginning of class
Reading: None
Homework: Go to a screening of BLAST! the movie: Tuesday Oct 6
or Wednesday Oct 7 at 8 pm in Sharpless Auditorium. Running time = 1
hour, 15 minutes (so if its clear, you will be done early enough to do
the Star Counts observations).
Lab: Milky Way lab due on Friday Oct 9
Week 7 Oct 19, 21, 23
Reading:
Monday Oct 19: Chapter 4.5, 4.6, 4.7
Wednesday Oct 21: none
Friday Oct 23: Chapter 13.2 and 13.3 (yes, chapter 13)
Homework: Homework 5 SOLUTIONS
1. Write a short and informal review of BLAST!,
including one thing you learned from the documentary.
2. Chapter 4, Question 18
3. a) Sketch a 1D and 2D spectrum of Hydrogen as observed in class on
Friday October 2. (If you had an excused absence, use the information
in the ppt class slides). On both sketches, label the emission lines and axes
(including numbers on the x-axis that shows the approximate range in
wavelength of your observed spectrum).
b) Sketch the 2D spectra of two different stars - one with twice the
surface temperature as the other. Label the
absorption lines, the continuum radiation, and your axes (including numbers
on the x-axis that show where the peak of each spectrum is
relative to the other).
Lab:Wednesday Oct 21- First Moon phase lab due
Week 8 Oct 26, 28, 30
Reading:
Monday October 26: Chapter 13.5
Wednesday
October 28: Chapter 14.2, 14.3
Friday October 30: None
Homework: Homework 6 SOLUTIONS
Chapter 13: 9, 10, 15, 16
Lab: If the weather is clear - Attend an organized night time
observing session to gather data for the stellar
temperature lab.
Week 9 Nov 2, 4, 6
Reading:
Monday Nov 2: 16.1 and 16.2 (optional: 16.3 - 16.5. We'll talk about
planetary nebulae and white dwarfs in class, but we won't motivate
with nearly the level of detail in these sections of your book).
Wednesday Nov 4: None
Friday Nov 6: 17.3
Homework: Homework 7 SOLUTIONS
Chapter 14: 12 (a only), 13
Chapter 16: 3, 16 (Express answers to 16 in units of Solar
luminosities. Note that the value of Solar luminosity given on page
403 of your book is a typo. The luminosity of the Sun is 3.85 x 10^26
Watts.)
Lab: If the weather is clear - Attend an organized night time
observing session to gather data for the Stellar
Temperature lab due
Week 10 Nov 9, 11, 13
Take home Exam 2 handed out Monday, Nov. 9
Take home Exam 2 due Friday, Nov. 13
Reading: None
Homework: None
Lab: Monday November 9 - Stellar Temperature lab
Week 11 Nov 16, 18, 20
Reading:
Monday November 16 - Excerpt from Timothy Ferris's book The Whole
Shebang on black holes, short Scientific American article about the
Milky Way's black hole
Wednesday November 18 - None
Friday November 20 - Chapter 18.1 - 18.3
Homework:
1. Chapter 17, Problem 4
2. Chapter 17, Problem 16 (a) and (b)
3. Astronomers think there is a black hole at the center of the Milky
Way that is 4 million times the mass of the Sun. What is the
Schwarzschild radius of this black hole? If a star was orbiting this
black hole at a distance of 1 parsec away from its center, at least
how fast would it need to be orbiting? (Use equations and knowledge
from our study of orbits and Newtonian gravity.)
Lab: None due. Final Moon Phase Lab now available
Week 12 Nov 23, 25
Reading: NONE. re-watch the Hubble video for its content and
awesomeness, and re-read 18.1 - 18.3 if you need a refresher.
Homework: None
Lab: Monday November 23 Final Moon Phase Lab due
Week 13 Nov 30, Dec 2, 4
Reading:
Homework:
Lab: None
Week 14 Dec 7, 9, 11
Reading:
Homework:
Lab: Friday Dec 11 - Hubble Lab due
Exam 3 due in exam period