Astronomy 2 – Overview of the Universe

Course Information

UCSC – Spring Quarter 2004

Instructor: Greg Laughlin

Telephone: (831) 459-3208 (leave message)

E-mail: laughlin@ucolick.org (I will answer E-mail every evening)

Office: 279 Interdisciplinary Sciences Building

Teaching Assistant: Chanda Prescod-Weinstein

E-mail: chanda@astro.ucsc.edu

Office: 355 ISB

Teaching Assistant: Sarah (Sally) Robinson

E-mail: ser@astro.ucsc.edu

Office: 255 ISB

Class Meeting: MWF 9:30-10:40 AM

J. Baskin Engineering, 152

Sections: W 11:00-12:15 PM 126 ISB Chanda

W 11:00-12:15 165 ISB Sally

W 2:30-3:40 165 ISB Sally

Th 3:00-4:10 PM 165 ISB Chanda

Midterm Review: Thursday April 29^th, 6-8 PM, Location : Thimann 001

Midterm Exam: Friday April 30^th, In Class

Final Review: Tuesday June 8^th, 5-7 PM, Location : Thimann 001

Final Exam: Wednesday June 9^th, 12:00-3:00 PM

Office Hours: F 3-5 PM (Greg: 165 ISB)

W/F 11-12 AM (Chanda: 355 ISB)

W 12:15-2:15 (Sally: 255 ISB)

Observing Help: Wednesdays, At Dusk, East Field (if the sky is clear)

Lick Observatory Wednesday May 5^th 3PM –12:00AM

Field Trip

Strategy:

I’m arranging the topics to be covered in this class in a different way than is traditionally done. Normally in AY2, we start with ancient astronomy and the basics of the night sky, progress through the age of scientific discovery (e.g. Kepler, Galileo, and Newton), and then study the solar system, the sun, the stars, stellar evolution, galaxies, and finally cosmology. There are good reasons for teaching the course in this order. In my experience, however, I’ve found that this approach tends to push the most exciting recent discoveries in astronomy to the very end of the class, making them harder to absorb and appreciate.

In this class, after one-lecture orientation, I will start with the Big Bang (that is, at the beginning of time) and move forward through the Universe in time as the class progresses. We’ll first study cosmology, then galaxies, then star formation, then stellar evolution, then planets, and finally we’ll end up with the solar system and our current place within it. As the program of classroom study gradually brings us closer to the here and the now, I’ll also be assigning weekly naked-eye observing projects. These observing projects are very important. They are designed to give you a true perspective of the solar system, the stars, and the galaxy, and to give you a life-long familiarity with the night sky (or at least the springtime sky). My goal is for these two perspectives – the modern scientific perspective that we will obtain in class, and the intuitive experiential perspective obtained from observing the sky – to converge at the end of the class. Making this happen is going to take work and dedication on both my end and on yours.

The McGraw-Hill Corporation has printed out a reshuffled textbook for the class to accommodate the unusual order of subjects, and copies of the text should be in the Bay Tree Bookstore. Note that this “special” text contains material from the standard Arny book, “Explorations, An Introduction to Astronomy”. If you have a used copy of the Arny book, for example the one that was used in Prof. Steve Vogt’s Fall AY2 class, feel free to use it. The edition that I’ve ordered is a bare-bones black-n-white softcover affair, which brought the cost down as far as possible. In my experience, students prefer to look at high-resolution astronomical photos for free on the Internet rather than shell out more than a Benjamin to the Man. The Internet is a resource that we will use continuously in this class. The class website is http://www.ucolick.org/~laugh/AY2.html

Sections and Office Hours:

This class covers a huge amount of material, and in order to absorb it effectively, it is extremely important that you attend sections and office hours. In the section meetings, the Teaching Assistants will work to help you understand the material that is being presented in lecture, with a special emphasis on concepts. They will get you going on the homework problems, and they will supplement the material that I cover in lecture. Some of the homework problems are tricky. For specific, hands-on help with the homework, I urge you to attend the Teaching Assistants’ office hours, and also my office hours. In my experience, no student who regularly attended office hours has ever failed the course, even if they considered themselves hopelessly bad at math.

Lecture Notes and Information:

Information to help you study will be posted within several hours of each class on the class website. Note, however, that you must consistently attend both the classes and a weekly section in order to make it through this course. I don’t lecture “out of the book”, and the notes that I post on the web will be of rather limited utility if you weren’t in class.

Grading:

The grading in this class is designed to reward persistence and hard work (as opposed to lazy math whizzes).

10% of the course grade will be based on a daily multiple-choice quiz (one or two problems per lecture). Pick up the quiz at the beginning of class and turn it in (in the pile for your last name) at the end of class. Make sure to pick up your quiz at the start of the next lecture period.

10% of the course grade will be based on attendance and participation in sections. The Teaching Assistants will tell you how they plan to assign this portion of the grade.

25% of the course grade will be based on weekly homework assignments. These assignments are given on Mondays and are due in class one week later. Each assignment will have 3-5 problems, including an observational problem. You should keep an observational notebook, and copy the relevant pages of the notebook for inclusion with your homework. Out of respect for the Teaching Assistants, late homework will not be accepted. Please make every effort to ensure that your homework is neatly written and grammatically correct. Grading sloppy, poorly written homework is no fun.

25% of the course grade is based on the Midterm Exam. This exam will be multiple choice and will use the pink Scantron form (get one at the Bay Tree Bookstore). The exam will take place in class on Friday April 30th. Note that you must take this exam to pass the class. There will not be a make up exam.

30% of the course grade is based on the cumulative final exam. This exam is also multiple choice, and uses a Scantron sheet. The exam will take place at the time and place scheduled for this class: Wed. June 9^th, 12:00-3:00 PM in J. Baskin Engineering 152 (the regular classroom).