| INSTRUCTOR: |
Dr Derek Wills, Professor of Astronomy
RLM 17.204 471-1392 |
| TEACHING ASSISTANT: |
Thomas Chang, astronomy graduate student
RLM 13.112 471-6486 |
| OFFICE HOURS: | I will be in my office every TTh 2:00 to 3:30 p.m. for help with the course material, homework, or general problems. Thomas's office hours are TTh 11:00 to 12:30. If you cannot come during either of or regular office hours, please ask either of us for an appointment at another time. |
| TEXTBOOK: | Astronomy Today by Chaisson and McMillan (second edition) |
| GRADES: | There will be four in-class tests (2/5, 2/28, 4/4, and the last class day, 5/2), each counting 20% of the course grade. The remaining 20% comes from the homework. There is no final exam. There is no dropping of grades or extra work; this grading system is firm, as much for your sake as for mine. |
| TESTS: | These are based on material in the lectures, unless otherwise clearly stated, so study your notes when preparing for tests, rather than trying to memorize things from the book. Make-up tests will not be given unless there is a compelling reason presented in advance (or, of course, unless you are ill and cannot let me know in time). I shall hold a help session the night before each test -- attendance is voluntary, and the sessions will be around 5:00 or 6:00 p.m. in RLM 15.216B |
| HOMEWORK: | This will be assigned at irregular intervals during the semester -- a total of 6-8 sets of questions. Our TA will conduct a help session before each HW set is due -- this will be in the early evening, and while attendance is voluntary, it is recommended. |
| ABSENCES: | Because I am an observational astronomer, my research sometimes takes me to UT's McDonald Observatory in West Texas or to other observatories. During my absence, the lectures will be given by another Department of Astronomy faculty member; his or her lectures are just as important as mine. I will be away observing on March 3 and 5 and possibly a few days in February. |
| DROP DATES: | You can drop any course without academic penalty until February 10. You can then drop courses until March 24 with a Q or an F, depending on your performance in the class up to that time. I am lenient about Qs so long as you have been making an honest effort. If, for example, you fail both Test #1 and #2 (it can be done if you work at it!), I will still give Q drops if you have actually taken those tests and done the homework. After March 24, it is harder to drop -- you have to see your Dean and have a good non-academic reason; the Dean may consult me about your progress but he or she makes the final decision about whether you will be allowed to drop. This is also the last day to change between pass/fail and a letter grade (you can only take the course pass-fail if it's an elective). |
| STAR PARTIES: | Every Wednesday evening, there will be telescopes set up on the observing deck if the weather is clear (14th level of RLM, east end of the building), with graduate students to show you various astronomical sights. There is also a 9-inch telescope on Painter Hall that you can use if you are checked out on it, or you can attend public nights on Friday and Saturday evenings. |
| MATHEMATICS: | This is a science course, and you will have to do some mathematics, especially on HW problems. The tests will not include much mathematics, and in any case all the techniques you need will be demonstrated in class. AST 301, 302, or 303 is the only prerequisite for AST 309R -- common sense and clear thinking are more important than math wizardry! |
We start with some essential background material, most of which you have probably covered in an earlier astronomy class -- and some of which you may well have forgotten!
We then look at the early days of radio astronomy, since radio astronomers have made many discoveries in the general area of cosmology, and we will be discussing these later in the course. Radio astronomers were responsible for the discovery of both quasars and pulsars -- very different types of objects. We will only briefly cover the properties of quasars but will return to them in more detail toward the end of the course. Pulsars are believed to be neutron stars, and we will briefly discuss these, along with an other possible end to a star's life -- the black hole, large versions of which are believed to power the quasars.
We then come to galaxies and cosmology - what we know or can deduce about the past and future of our universe. Finally, we return to the quasars and examine them in more detail, including their possible relevance to cosmology.
There are many introductory astronomy textbooks that are suitable for the earlier course that you took here or elsewhere, and you may still have the textbook from that course. If so, you will find much of the background material in there to be useful in this course. However, there are unfortunately no suitable textbooks for the various versions of AST 309, including this one. The text I am recommending is one of the better AST 301/302-level books that goes into most topics in more detail than you did in your introductory course, and it should be helpful in most of the areas covered in this course. We will use basically the first and last quarters of it (missing out the solar system and normal stars). It doesn't go into quite the depth that we will do in this course, so you cannot rely on it instead of coming to the lectures. If you still have your earlier introductory textbook and want to use that instead, that will work, so long as you are familiar enough with it to find the various topics that we cover.
In the following summary of the course, the numbers in parentheses are those chapters in Chaisson and McMillan that cover the various topics. But just because something is noted as being in, e.g., Chapter 5 doesn't mean that you need to read everything in that chapter. Some topics are not covered in much depth in the textbook, so don't rely on it for last-minute panic studying the night before a test. With regular class attendance and a reasonable set of notes from the lectures you should have no problems.