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| AST 309R · Galaxies, Quasars, & Universe |
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Help sessions. Some of the lecture before each exam will be devoted to reviewing the material on the exam. Additional help sessions
will be scheduled for help with the homework and class material.
Textbook. There is no required textbook. Course content will center on the lectures, supplemented with written materials
by the instructor, materials available on the World Wide Web, and suggested readings.
Drop Dates. You may drop a course without academic penalty until September 28. You can then drop courses until October 26
with a Q or F, depending on your performance in class up to that time. October 26 is also the last day to change to or from the credit/no
credit basis. After October 26, you may drop the course or withdraw from the University only for urgent and substantiated, nonacademic
reasons. Please consult the University's published calendar (http://www.utexas.edu/student/registrar)
to verify these dates and for further information.
Star Parties. Every Wednesday evening, if the weather is clear, there will be astronomical viewing with the 16-inch telescope on the roof
of RLM Hall. These sessions will start about 8 p.m. early in the term and 7 p.m. after daylight saving time ends. There is also a 9-inch
telescope on Painter Hall that is open to UT students on Friday evenings and to the general public on Saturday evenings. For observing hours, see
the Department of Astronomy public outreach Web page at http://outreach.as.utexas.edu/public.
You can use the 9-inch yourself if you are checked
out on it. McDonald Observatory in west Texas has star parties and public nights (see
http://mcdonaldobservatory.org/visitors/programs/;
phone 471-5285).
About the Instructor. Professor Shields was born in Los Angeles, California and grew up in Nebraska and Kansas. He earned a B.S. in
Physics from Stanford University in 1968 and a Ph.D. in Astronomy at Caltech in 1973. Following a postdoctoral fellowship at Harvard, he joined the
UT faculty in 1974. He now holds the title of The Jane and Roland Blumberg Centennial Professor in Astronomy, and served as Chairman of the
Department of Astronomy from 1990 to 1994. He teaches both graduate and undergraduate courses at UT. His research interests include studies
of nebulae, quasars and black holes, and he has published numerous research papers and popular articles.
Suggested reading:
The Big Bang, by Joseph Silk (2001), W. H. Freeman and Co., 3rd ed. A survey of cosmological ideas from the ancients to the latest scientific theories.
Emphasizes observations and theories of the early universe and galaxy formation.
A Short History of the Universe, by Joseph Silk (1994), Scientific American Library (Freeman). A nicely illustrated summary of modern concepts
of the evolution of the universe, ranging from the earliest moments of the Big Bang through the evolution of galaxies. Many suggestions for further reading.
The Cosmic Perspective, by Jeffrey Bennett et al. (2004, 3rd ed.), Addison Wesley. An introductory astronomy text; part VI deals with galaxies and the
universe. A shorter version called Stars, Galaxies, & Cosmology (2002) is similar but omits the solar system.
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