| Day/Date |
Topics/Events |
Pre-Reading Sections |
Slides |
| Week 1 |
| Wed (1/6) |
Intros. North Star. Earth's Rotation. |
NA |
[pdf] |
| Fri (1/7) |
Lattitude. Moon phases. Tides. |
5.4(Latitude and Longitude), 13.1(Learning the Constellations), 8.1(Phases of the Moon), 8.3(Moon Lore), 8.4(The Moon Illusion), 16.1(Orbital Motion), 16.2(Newton's Universal Law of Gravitation), 19.1(Cause of Tides) +
Handout1 +
print/bring Handout2 |
[pdf] |
| Week 2 |
| Mon (1/11) |
HW1 due. Seasons. Constellations. |
5.2(Constellations), 6.1(Annual Motion of the Sun), 6.3(The Seasons), 6.4(The Ecliptic's Tilt), 6.5(Solstices and Equinoxes), 6.6(Precession), 9.5(The Chronicling of Years) |
[pdf] |
| Wed (1/13) |
Eclipses. Moon size. Moon rotation. Size-distance relationship. |
8.2(Eclipses), 10.4(Measuring the Diameter of Astronomical Objects), 37.4(The Moon's Rotation), + Handout3 |
[pdf] |
| Fri (1/15) |
Craters. Moon Origin. |
37.1(Surface Features), 37.2(Crust and Interior), 37.3(The Absence of a Lunar Atmosphere), 37.5(The Origin of the Moon), 48.5(Mass Extinction Events) |
[pdf] |
| Week 3 |
| Mon (1/18) |
No class - MLK Day. |
Much respect for an incredible human being. | [jpg] |
| Wed (1/20) |
HW2 due. Quiz 1. Retrograde motion/Epicycles.
Kepler's Third Law. |
11.1(Motions of the Planets), 11.2(Early Theories of Retrograde Motion), 11.3(The Heliocentric Model), 11.4(The Copernican Revolution), 12.2(The Nature of Planetary Orbits) |
[pdf] |
| Fri (1/22) |
Solar system planets: Terrestrial & Gas Giants |
32.1(Components of the Solar System), 32.2(Orbital Patterns in the Solar System), 32.4(Density and Composition), 42.1(The Role of Mass and Radius), 42.4(The Outer Versus the Inner Solar System) |
[pdf] |
| Week 4 |
| Mon (1/25) |
HW3 due. Moons. TNOs. Pluto. |
46.1(The Galilean Satellites), 46.2(Saturn's Moon Titan), 46.3(Neptune's Moon Triton), 46.4(Pluto), 46.5(The Trans-Neptunian Worlds) |
[pdf] |
| Wed (1/27) |
Extrasolar Planets and Searches: Biases/Incompleteness |
Wikipedia: Methods_of_Detecting_Extrasolar_Planets: 1.1(Astrometry), 1.2(Radial Velocity Method), 1.4(Transit Method), 1.8(Direct Imaging) + Extrasolar_Planet: 5.3(Orbital Parameters) |
[pdf]
[Transit]
|
| Fri (1/29) |
Planet Formation. Planetary Migration. |
33.2(Birth of the Solar System), 33.3(From Dust Grains to Planetesimals), 33.4(Formation of the Planets), 33.5(Late Stage Bombardment)[skim] |
[pdf] |
| Week 5 |
| Mon (2/1) |
HW4 due. Quiz 2. The Sun. Fusion. |
49.1(The Surface of the Sun), 49.2(Pressure Balance and the Sun's Interior), 49.5(Solar Seismology), 50.1(The Mystery Behind Sunshine) |
[pdf] |
| Wed (2/3) |
Solar activity. Spectra. |
51.1(Sunspots), 51.2(Prominences and Flares), 51.3(The Solar Cycle), 51.4(The Solar Cycle and Terrestrial Climate)[skim], 24.2(Identifying Atoms by their Spectra)[skim], 24.3(Different Types of Spectra)[skim] |
[pdf] |
| Fri (2/5) |
Parallax. The magnitude system. The Inverse-Square Law. |
52.1(Triangulation)[skim], 52.2(Parallax), 52.3(Calculating Parallaxes), 54.4(The Magnitude System) |
[pdf] |
| Week 6 |
| Mon (2/8) |
HW5 due. Nebulae!!! Wein's Law. The HR Diagram. |
55.2(Stellar Surface Temperature), 60.1(The Origin of Stars in Interstellar Clouds), 58.1(Analyzing the H-R Diagram) |
[pdf] |
| Wed (2/10) |
Main-Sequence Lifetimes. Giant Stars. |
61.3(Main-Sequence Lifetime of a Star), 62.1(Restructuring Following the Main Sequence), 62.3(Electron Degeneracy and Helium Fusion in Low-Mass Stars), 62.4(Helium Fusion in High-Mass Stars) |
- |
| Fri (2/12) |
Stellar Deaths and End-states. |
- |
- |
| Week 7 |
| Mon (2/15) |
No class - President's Day. |
- |
- |
| Wed (2/17) |
HW6 due. Quiz 3. The Milky Way. |
- |
- |
| Fri (2/19) |
Andromeda. Galactic collisions. Active Galactic Nuclei. |
- |
- |
| Week 8 |
| Mon (2/22) |
HW7 due. Galaxies. Ellipticals. |
- |
- |
| Wed (2/24) |
Galaxies. Clusters. |
- |
- |
| Fri (2/26) |
Galaxies. large Scale Structure. |
- |
- |
| Week 9 |
| Mon (3/1) |
HW8 due. Quiz 4. Cosmology. Large Scale Structure. |
- |
- |
| Wed (3/3) |
Cosmology. Dark Matter. |
- |
- |
| Fri (3/5) |
Cosmology. The Expanding Universe. |
- |
- |
| Week 10 |
| Mon (3/8) |
HW9 due. Age of the Universe. The Big Bang. |
- |
- |
| Wed (3/10) |
Universe topology. The future of the Universe. |
- |
- |
| Fri (3/12) |
Extra-terrestrial life. The Drake Equation. |
- |
- |
| Week 11 |
| Mon (3/15) |
HW10 due. Final Review. |
None | - |
| Fri (3/19) |
Final Exam, 8-11am, EMS B206 |
None | - |
![[jpg]](./files/mlkftw.jpg){kind=link}