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Very Large Array (NRAO/AUI)

John Scalo

RLM 15.204 · (512) 471-6446 (office), 478-2748 (home) · email

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--Printable syllabus (pdf)

This syllabus is somewhat incomplete in details, but will be filled in with a subsequent version, probably by the next lecture period. None of the essential material, concerning instructor, textbooks, grading, etc, will be changed. The subsequent version will fill in the office hours, dates of exams, topics of each week’s lectures, … and will always be available at the course web site (when that site is ready, probably Friday)

Classroom and time: Welch 3.502, MWF 9-10

Professor: John Scalo

Office: R.L. Moore 15.204 (Dean Keaton and Speedway)
Phone: 478-2748 (home; best place to call me, any time 9am to 9pm); office number is 471-6446.
Email: scalo@astro.as.utexas.edu or parrot@astro.as.utexas.edu
Office hours: XX

Meetings at times besides office hours can usually be easily arranged. I also urge you to feel free to call me at my home or office, or to talk to me after class (in the foyer just outside the classroom--I have free time after most of our classes); for short questions there is usually no need for you to walk all the way to my office, and I welcome phone calls at home.

Teaching Assistants: There are four teaching assistants, each in charge of three discussion sections.

63985, 64010, 64025: Jacob Hummel, R.L. Moore 16.340, 471-4475, jhummel@astro.as.utexas.edu.
64000, 64005, 64040: Athena Stacy, R. L. Moore 16.212, 471-8443, minerva@astro.as.utexas.edu
63990, 64015, 64030: Paul Robertson, R. L. Moore XXX, paul@astro.as.utexas.edu
63995, 64020, 64035: Rongfeng Shen, R. L. Moore XXX, shen@astro.as.utexas.edu

Office hours: Will probably be on the next edition of this syllabus.

Class Website: link to it through https://www.as.utexas.edu/astronomy/education/courses.html Or directly at https://www.as.utexas.edu/astronomy/education/spring10/scalo/303.html.
The class website will contain the syllabus, an outline of most class lectures, extra reading in the form of articles that may be assigned (you can read them online or print them); a link to eGradebook, where you can check your exam scores; and a simple way for me to distribute handouts or make slight revisions to the reading assignments (see "Announcement" at the web site). I urge you to check the website often.
[It is possible I will switch this to Blackboard; I will let you know as soon as I do.]

Required books: Extraterrestrial Life, 5th Edition, by Evans

Contact by Carl Sagan.

The novel Contact will be used only for the last section of the course, so you should begin reading it around Spring break. In part this book is meant to give you an alternate view of that subject matter (detection of extraterrestrial signals). The picture presented in that book is technically fairly accurate, but of course is over two decades old. In discussion sections you will discuss ways in which it has changed, or ways in which the book’s speculative possibilities have not yet been realized. Watch the movie if you like, but it contains no content of relevance here, so in no way is it a substitute.

These books have not yet arrived at the Coop. While we wait, I will place copies on reserve at PCL, and a scan of the first reading assignments online at the class web site. (Note: The Evans book is not available at any online bookseller as far as I know, new or used, so don’t waste your time searching like I did. This textbook is a lowcost edition that is printed as needed by Pearson Publishing.)

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