Professor
Harriet Dinerstein
Office: RLM 16.324
Hours: M 1:30-2:30, W 10:30-11:30, or by appt
Phone: (512) 471-3449
email
Course Website
TA
John Jardel
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COURSE DESCRIPTION: Astronomy 307 is a one-semester introductory survey course on modern astronomy, for
science and engineering majors. We will assume that you are comfortable with solving problems and using math as a tool
to help you master the course material. If this statement does not accurately describe you, you should consider switching
to Astronomy 301, the introductory course intended for non-science majors. There are several sections of Ast 301 offered
each semester.
Astronomy is a very broad subject to cover in a single semester, so we will move through the material at a rather rapid
pace. Our goal is to provide a comprehensive overview of the Universe from our Solar System to the largest scales. It's possible
that we may not be able to cover your favorite topic in sufficient depth to fully satisfy your curiosity; in that case, you may wish
to take one of the Astronomy Department's several follow-up courses on a variety of topics (Ast 309 series), in a future semester.
TEXTBOOK: We will use the 8th edition of the textbook "Universe" by Roger Freedman and William Kaufmann.
It employs a bit more math than most other introductory texts, but also provides you with guidance and hints for
approaching numerical problems, including worked examples. You are strongly encouraged to buy this (latest) edition of the
book, since older editions may not contain all the same material and problems. (If you do buy an earlier edition, make sure
that it isn't an abridged version; these will be missing one of the major units.) The text is also available as an eBook, either
with the paper book, or purchased separately at a lower price. The auxiliary CD "Starry Night" is mainly included for fun
and for help in visualizing the material in the first unit, on the night sky. Other resources that are available on the
book's website,
include animations, interactive figures, practice problems & quizzes, and so on.
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