DEPARTMENT OF ASTRONOMYASTRO
COURSE WEB PAGESASTRO

FALL 2000

PROFESSOR:
David L. Lambert
Office: RLM 16.316
Phone: 471-7438 or 502-9804 (home)
Email: dll@astro.as.utexas.edu
Office Hours: Anytime or by appointment
Class hours: TTh 930-1100 in RLM15.216B

REQUIRED TEXTBOOK: Observation and Analysis of Stellar Photospheres by Gray
This will not be followed religiously. Alternative books are listed in the first section of the notes that I had hoped to distribute prior to each class.

Exams and Grading: I expect as graduate students that grades not to be the obsession that they are with too many undergraduates at this place. Your primary goal should be to extend your knowledge into new areas, especially into topics of interest to YOU. This necessarily means developing greater depth in some fields than in others. This kind of development is antithetical to the normal concept of grades.

But (!) this is a core course providing coverage of material that will be of use to you almost independent of your field of research interests. And my experience tells me that what is required to pursue a Ph.D. successfully is not always understood by the young eager research student. It was certainly so in my case!

Therefore, I will keep grades. These will be based on problem sets and a comprehensive final examination. I may choose to assign a topic to be discussed either in written form as a short paper or in oral form as a short presentation in class.

General Remarks: I realize that our backgrounds are diverse. If you have not previously covered some of the auxiliary topics-statistical physics, atomic and molecular spectroscopy, basic astronomy, and the like-speak up. I can either cover the material or direct you to books and articles, many of which I have personally found useful. In any case, I would urge you to READ widely. Astronomy is such a beautiful subject that what seems to you a digression today may well be essential tomorrow.

COURSE OUTLINE:

The major topics to be covered are: