12/11

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The remaining Office Hours this week are Wed., 1 - 2 PM with Prof. Dinerstein and Thurs., 1 - 2 PM with Brian. The times were chosen to avoid direct conflict with final exam time slots. A few subsections of the Instructor's Notes are still in production, but in the meantime you may consult the Class Slides, which are quite complete for the topic of Stellar Evolution.

As you should be aware, on Friday, Dec. 13 we will have two exams during the official 2 - 5 PM time slot. Both will be held in the Astronomy Classroom. Everyone must take Exam 3, which will be given from 2:00 - 3:15 PM (you must arrive no later than 2:15 to take it). After a brief break, anyone who needs or wishes to take the Make-up Exam for Exam 1 or 2 will have the chance to take it from 3:30 - 4:45 PM. You must be present at 3:30 PM in order to take the make-up exam, which will count towards your semester grade only if it helps that grade.

Some Reminders: Bring a scientific calculator, but we will supply the paper. We will provide the latest Constants & Equations page, which is posted on the Supplements page. Other than that, the exams are closed-book. Also, in compliance with a recent memo from Associate Dean of CNS, Dr. Sasha Kopp, there will be assigned seating for these exams.

12/3

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There will be no Help Session on Wed., Dec. 4, since there is no homework due or test on Thursday. Brian and Dr. Dinerstein will hold special office hours (but not a help session) next week, to be announced on this page.

Term papers are due this Thursday, Dec. 5, ideally at the beginning of class. However, we will accept them later in the afternoon for full credit, and up to 3:00 PM on Friday for a small credit penalty. In other words, homework lateness rules apply, and 3:00 PM Friday is the absolute cut-off. A box will be set on a chair outside the Instructor's door - I will be giving a seminar early Friday afternoon, and therefore will not be in my office then, but will be back at 3:00 PM.

Since we did not finish all of the Course-Instructor Surveys on Tuesday, we will do so at the end of class on Thursday. It is important to have surveys for your hard-working TAs! Also, we will do the repeat of the first-day Background Survey at the beginning of class on Thursday, as people are arriving. Please give your own answers to the questions without discussing them with your neighbor. This is a participation activity, so your actual score does not affect your grade, but the more students participate the more useful it will be.

11/29

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For those who turned in first drafts of their term papers on time, they were returned with comments and suggestions on Tues., Nov. 25. I was pleased to notice that all of those drafts were picked up! We will be returning graded HW 6 papers this coming week, and will talk about the post-Main Sequence evolution of stars. In addition, the last 15-20 minutes of class on Tuesday will be devoted to the Course-Instructor Survey, for both Ast 352K and Ast 152M, and for the Instructor and both T.A.s.

11/22

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Our last homework assignment, HW 6, is due at the beginning of class on Tues., Nov. 25. Because of the change from the usual pattern, the Help Session will be moved to Mon. for the week Nov. 24 - 28. Look for a message from Brian on where it will be held. In addition, Prof. Dinerstein's Monday office hours will be shifted to 2:30 - 3:30 PM due to another meeting. Several pages of notes on Binary Stars have been posted, to ensure that you have all the equations you need for the homework.

Feedback on your term paper drafts will be available on Tuesday, and Wed. office hours will be canceled in view of the impending Thanksgiving break.

11/17

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You are encouraged to turn in the first draft of your term paper by the original deadline of Tues., Nov. 19, but it will be accepted with no penalty until 3:00 PM on Wed., Nov. 20. Papers turned in later than that are not guaranteed to receive careful reviews and suggestions for improvement. A small amount of "placeholder" material is allowed at this point. The Final Draft remains due Thurs., Dec. 5.

We are now discussing Orbits and Binary Stars, the fundamental method for determining stellar masses. This will be followed by a discussion of post-Main evolution, most likely the last topic to be addressed. HW 6, will be distributed Tues., Nov. 19 and due Tues., Nov. 26. This is your chance to make up for a missed homework or one with a low score.

11/11

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We plan to return Exam 2 in class on Nov. 12, and to begin the next major topic, stellar motions and orbits. Updates are or will soon be posted on the Readings and Instructor's Notes pages. Feedback on the Term Paper outlines is also coming soon.

There will be no homework due the week of Nov. 18 - 22, since the first draft of your paper is due then. One last homework will be given out Tues., Nov. 19 and due on Tues., Nov. 26. The Help Session will move to Monday (4-5 PM) that week.

11/6

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As promised, a Tutorial on the notation for element abundances in stars is now posted. It is Supplement 7, and should be reviewed together with the In-Class Activity from Nov. 5.

Exam 2 will be given on Thurs., Nov. 7. Bring your calculator and pens & pencils. We will provide blank paper and the updated Constants & Equations list, along with the exams. You will choose 3 questions out of 6 possibilities to be graded for credit.

Next week we will begin discussing stellar motions and mass determinations from binary orbits, followed by an overview of stellar life cycles ("evolution").

11/1

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We will have two important events next week. The summary, outline, and partial reference list for the term paper are due Tues., Nov. 5 (see Term Paper page for the requirements for this assignment). Exam 2 will cover Sections V - VIII of the Instructor's Notes, will be given on Thurs., Nov. 7. The format and rules will be the same as for Exam 1. Office hours and a Wed. help session will be held the week of Nov. 4 - 6 for students who want help preparing for the exam.

10/28

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A couple of unfortunate typos occurred in Homework 5; see the Homework page for details and corrections. Students must not have tried problem 4, since no one has reported the typo yet!

Suggestions for your individual term paper topics will be emailed to the email address on the official class roster. If you have not received this by noon on Tues. Oct. 29, it will be available on paper after class. Reminder: the assignment originally due on Tues., Oct. 29, will now be due Tues., Nov. 5.

10/25

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Homework 5 has been distributed and posted. In class, we only got through the background you need for questions 1 and 2, but additional sections of the Instructor's Notes may help you with question 3. (The quantity f is called the "oscillator strength" and it indicates the intrinsic line strength; the equivalent width is labelled by W and expressed in units of either Angstroms or milli-Angstroms, 10^-3 A.) We will cover the necessary material for questions 3 and 4 in class on Tuesday.

Since paper topics have not yet been finalized, the assignment originally due next Tues., Oct. 29, will now be due a week later - Tues., Nov. 5. The instructor will be sending emails to each student regarding their term paper topic choices. Some nominal topics are too broad and thus difficult to research. I expect that some of you will modify or narrow the focus of their paper, as you begin to delve into the literature and maybe find some surprises.

10/18

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We are now well into the section of the course devoted to Spectroscopy. An additional 15 pages have been posted on the Instructor's Notes page. If you are starting to work on HW 4, these new pages should be useful, particularly for questions 2 and 3, which address topics we have not yet discussed in class (but we will do so on Tuesday). Because we are slightly behind the intended schedule, Brian will hold an extra office hour on Thurs., Oct. 24 from 4 - 5 PM, for those students who want a little extra time to complete the HW. In compliance with course policy, homework may be turned in with no penalty up until 3 PM on the day after the nominal due date (see Course Syllabus).

10/15

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Exam 1 has been graded and returned (in class on Tues., Oct. 15). To understand the significance of your numerical score, see the Grading Scale table on the new Grading page.

We have now started the first of several units on spectroscopy and stellar spectra. Readings in the books on reserve are posted. The corresponding sections of the Instructor's Notes are being updated for posting, but Class Slides are already available.

Since there is no homework due this Thursday, we will not hold a formal Help Session on Wed., Oct. 16, but Brian will be available in his office at that time (4 - 5 PM).

10/7

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The exams are being graded, and will be returned in class on either Thurs., Oct. 10 or Tues., Oct. 15. Remember that a list of possible term paper topics of interest to you (at least three choices) is due on Tues., Oct. 15. We will work with each student to help define a topic that is suitable and not too broad to research effectively, while avoiding excessive duplications of topics within the class. See the Term Paper page.

All Office hours are cancelled for this week (Oct. 7 - 11) due to conflicts with a scientific conference and professional travel. In addition, the Wednesday Help Session will not be held, since no homework is due on Thursday and the exams will not yet have been returned. However, class will be held both Tuesday and Thursday, with a special guest speaker on Thursday: Dr. Sarah Tuttle, who will talk about astronomical instrumentation and the HETDEX project.

9/27

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Our first in-class exam will be Thurs., Oct. 3, as stated in the syllabus. It will cover Sections I - IV of the Instructor's Notes. If you downloaded Section III a while ago, you may want to do it again, as this section has recently been revised. The current draft of the Constants and Equations Cribsheet that will be provided to you at the exam is posted as Supplement 3. Corrections and suggested additions should be sent to Prof. Dinerstein.

Other items that may be useful for preparing for the Exam are the in-class activities, class slides, homeworks, and optional readings, all of which are now up to date. The professor and both T.A.s will hold office hours and the Wed. Help Session this week.

9/20

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We have been discussing the magnitude scale and photometry, including colors. New sections of the Instructor's Notes are being added periodically. Homework 3 was handed out on Thursday and is due Thurs., Sep. 26 at the beginning of class.

9/16

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An observant student has pointed out that Homework 2 says it is due on Sep. 17, which is Tuesday. This is a typo!!! HW 2 is actually due Thurs., Sep. 19 at the beginning of class.

We will be holding Office Hours and the Wed. afternoon Help Session this week; these are opportunities to get help on the homework or have other questions answered. Some materials that may be helpful for the homework can be found among the Instructor's Notes and Class Slides, and Supplement 2, a compendium of constants and unit conversion factors. A new page entitled Reading lists relevant chapters in the optional books, all of which are on reserve in the PMA Library.

As announced both Tuesday and Thursday, a username/password interface has been implemented for the course content materials. These were provided in class but will not be posted or emailed, since that would defeat their purpose as a security measure.

9/13

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Homework 2 was distributed in class on Thursday. Some newly posted materials that may be helpful for the homework are new sections of Instructor's Notes and Class Slides, and Supplement 2, a compendium of constants and unit conversion factors. A new page entitled Readings lists relevant chapters in the optional books, all of which are on reserve in the PMA Library.

As announced both Tuesday and Thursday, a username/password interface has been implemented for the course content materials. These were provided in class but will not be posted or emailed, since that would defeat their purpose as a security measure.

9/11

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There was a typo on p. 14 of the Instructor's Notes: the equation following the words "An alternate form for Delta (R.A.)" in the middle of the page had an incorrect extra cosine factor. This section of the notes has now been corrected, so you should re-download the pdf for Sections I.E&F. Parts of Section II on Properties of Electromagnetic Radiation are starting to be posted. Note: We will do another in-class activity requiring scientific calculators on Thurs., Sep. 12.

Reminder: Homework 1 is due at the start of class on Thursday. We are holding Office Hours and a Help Session as listed at right. Homework 2 will be distributed and posted at the end of class, and due the following Thursday.

9/9

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Section I of the Instructor's Notes, on "Positional Astronomy," is now posted; starting later this week you will need a password (to be announced in class) to access most course materials. We will soon be moving on to a new topic, electromagnetic radiation.

Please bring a calculator with trigonometric functions to class on Tues., Sep. 10 for a group exercise designed to provide practice for Homework 1. The homework is due at the start of class on Thurs., Sep. 12 (see the Syllabus for lateness policies). If you need help getting started on the homework or have questions about the course material, options include several weekly Office Hours and a Help Session. Details are posted at right.

9/6

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During the first full week of classes we have been discussing Positional Astronomy (also known as "practical astronomy"): the subject of the positions and motions of stars and the Sun in the sky. Some sections of the Instructor's Notes as well as some of the Class Slides have already been posted.

Homework 1 has been distributed and is posted on this site. It is due at the start of class on Thurs., Sep. 12 (but see the Syllabus for details on homework policies). We will hold Office Hours starting next Monday, and a Help Session on Wed. at 4:00 PM in RLM 13.132. These provide several opportunities during Monday through Wednesday to obtain help getting started on the homework, or just understanding the course material. The notes posted so far include the equations you may need to do homework problems 1, 2, and 3. If you want to do problem 4 over the weekend, see ch. 1 of Ostlie & Carroll, on reserve in the PMA Library, for formulae for precession and parallax.

8/30

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A Brief Syllabus is posted (see left menu bar); the detailed syllabus can be accessed as a pdf from the Syllabus page. The first section of the Instructor's Notes, a few diagrams shown in class, and some links of interest, are also available.

At our first class meeting on Thurs., Aug. 29, we: (1) conducted a survey of prior knowledge of the course content; (2) reviewed the syllabus and course policies; (3) talked about units used by astronomers; and (4) reviewed angular measure and how to locate objects on the sky in the local or horizon reference frame. We will continue the topic of positional astronomy next week. More Instructor's Notes will be posted, but if you would like more information about the subject, try ch. 1.3 in Ostlie & Carroll, or ch. 2.1-2.2 and (Supplemental chapter) S1.1-S1.2 in any recent edition of Bennett's The Cosmic Perspective. These books are on reserve in the PMA Library for Ast 352K.