Syllabus
Ast 301 - Introduction to Astronomy - Fall 2011
MWF12 - #47530
MWF1 - #47540
Instructor: Dr. Derek Wills, Professor of Astronomy (RLM 15.314, (512) 471-1392, oo7@astro.as.utexas.edu).
TAs: Inh Jee, Kyle Kaplan
Textbook: "Astronomy: A Beginner's Guide to the Universe", by Chaisson and McMillan (6th edition). A copy is on reserve in the Physics-Math-Astronomy Library in RLM.
Office hours: Inh's are Tu 12:30-1:30, W 11-12, F 3-4, Kyle's are M 2-3:30 and F 9:30-11, mine are TTh 1:30-3. If you can't come at these times, ask us for another appointment.
Grades: There will be four in-class tests and an optional comprehensive final, all of equal length - only the best four of these five are counted. There are also pop quizzes whose total points equal those from one test. This grading system will not be changed; there is no graded homework, no term papers, and no extra credit work. You don't have to take the final exam if you are happy with your grades on the four in-class tests; you treat it just like a fifth test except that it's comprehensive, and you have 3 hours in which to do it. You can't lower your grade by taking the final, as you don't count it if it is your worst test. The final (and ONLY the final) is an open-notes exam, when you can bring your OWN written or typed lecture notes (no laptops, commercial notes, textbooks, review questions, old tests...).
Tests: This class is largely lecture-based, so study your notes when preparing for tests rather than just trying to memorize material from the book. Make-up tests will not be given since you can miss one test and still count the other four for your course grade. I will hold a review session the night before each test; attendance is voluntary but strongly recommended. The in-class test dates are Sep 16, Oct 10, Nov 2 and Dec 2. The final exam is Dec 12 from 2-5 pm (the date and time are set by UT). Be warned that I do not tolerate dishonesty on tests - I report cases to the Dean of Students, and recommend an F for the course. Please bring a photo ID to tests.
Review questions: I will occasionally give out some review questions that you should treat like homework, even though they will not be graded. Kyle will hold a help session for each set of questions before the answers are posted; again, attendance is voluntary but recommended, and to get the best value from these sessions you should try the questions by yourself first. I'm also giving you a list of relevant questions from the textbook for you to test yourself on (see the reverse side of this sheet).
Mathematics: This is a science course, and you will have to do some mathematics, mainly on the review questions. The tests are mostly non-numerical, and all the techniques you need will be covered in class.
General comments: Keep up with the material as we go through the course. The syllabus tells you the relevant parts of the textbook to read. Class attendance is crucial - IF YOU DON'T PLAN ON COMING TO MANY CLASSES, DROP THIS COURSE WHILE YOU STILL CAN!!
Disabilities: UT Austin can provide academic accommodations for qualified students with disabilities (Services for Students with Disabilities, 471-6259).
Star parties: Every Wednesday evening the 16-inch telescope on the RLM roof is open for viewing, and on Friday and Saturday nights the 9-inch one on Painter Hall is open; staff and TAs conduct these free events.
Astronomy Students Association: The ASA welcomes your (free) membership.
Some possibly interesting web sites:
Iridium satellites Austin predictions (more info)
Course syllabus and grade calculation - Ast 301
Chapter 0:
- powers of ten (App. 1)
- metric system, scales and sizes, light travel time
- angles (More Precisely 0-1, p 9), the skinny triangle
- parallax and the parsec (also p 268), seeing (p 81)
- motions of the earth: rotation (sidereal vs solar day), revolution (seasons), precession, the tropical year [0.2]
- the moon: phases, sidereal vs synodic month, synchronous rotation and tides (also pp. 137-140), solar and lunar eclipses, eclipse seasons [0.3]
Chapter 1:
- motions of the planets: retrograde motion [1.1]
- planetary configurations and visibility of inferior and superior planets (also p. 164), sidereal vs synodic periods
- Kepler's laws [1.3]
- mass and weight, Newton's laws and gravity. Your weight on e.g. the moon, falling objects. Newton's modifications of Kepler's laws. Predictions of Newton's laws, orbital and escape speeds, earth satellite orbits [1.4]
Chapter 2:
- properties of light: wavelength, frequency, photons (p 59) [2.1]
- the EM spectrum, atmospheric windows [2.3]
- black-body (thermal) radiation (Planck, Wien, Stefan), stars' luminosities and apparent brightness (pp 270-272) [2.4]
- spectral lines (absorption, emission), the sun's spectrum [2.5]
- atoms, the spectrum of hydrogen (orbits vs excited states) [2.6]
- the Doppler effect [2.7]
Chapter 3:
- telescopes (refracting, reflecting), chromatic and spherical aberration, the Hubble Space Telescope (pp 74-75) [3.1]
- light-gathering power, surface accuracy, angular resolution [3.2]
- seeing, adaptive optics, new telescopes, CCDs (3.1) [3.3]
- radio telescopes and interferometers [3.4]
- astronomy at other wavelengths [3.5]
Chapter 4:
- solar system planets (terrestrial, Jovian) [4.1]
- searches for other planetary systems [4.4]
Chapter 10:
- stars' distances, proper motion [10.1]
- stars' luminosities and apparent brightness [10.2]
- stars' temperatures and spectral classes [10.3]
- stars' sizes [10.4]
- the H-R diagram; red giants and white dwarfs [10.5]
- spectroscopic parallax [10.6]
- stars' masses and radii (binary stars - visual, spectroscopic and eclipsing), the mass-luminosity relation, stars' mainsequence lifetimes [10.7]
Chapter 9:
- nuclear fusion in the sun, proton-proton chain, solar neutrinos [9.5]
- energy transport in stars, the solar model [9.2]
Chapter 11:
- dust and gas in our galaxy [11.1]
- 21 cm radiation [11.3]
- formation of main-sequence stars via proto-stars [11.4]
- brown dwarfs [11.5]
- star clusters as a check on star formation theories [11.6]
Chapter 12:
- post-main-sequence evolution, red giants [12.2]
- death of sun-like stars, white dwarfs [12.3]
- evolution of high-mass stars [12.4]
- supernovae (Types I and II) [12.5]
- star clusters as a check on stellar evolution theories [12.6]
Chapter 13:
- after the supernova: formation of neutron stars [13.1]
- discovery of neutron stars as pulsars, the Crab Nebula, synchrotron radiation (pp 426, 427) [13.2]
- black holes: escape speed, the event horizon and singularity [13.5]
- falling into a black hole [13.7]
- detection of black holes in our galaxy, Cygnus X-1 [13.8]
- (more massive black holes - 14.7, 15.5)
Chapter 14:
- our Milky Way galaxy [14.1]
- size and shape of our galaxy [14.2]
- stellar populations [14.3]
- rotation curve and mass of our galaxy, dark matter [14.6]
Chapter 15:
- other galaxies (spirals, ellipticals, irregulars) [15.1]
- galaxy clusters and distribution (also 16.5), galaxy distances [15.2]
- galaxy redshifts, Hubble's law [15.3]
Chapter 17:
- Olbers's paradox, the expanding universe and its age [17.2]
- critical density and the fate of the Universe - open/closed? (dark matter in the Universe, 16.1), accelerating? [17.3], [17.4]
- the cosmic microwave background radiation [17.5]
- the flatness problem, cosmic inflation [17.7]
Calculating your course grade
All tests are multiple-choice, with 32 5-answer questions. The A/B/C/D cutoffs are 24/20/16/12 correct answers on a single test. There will be 10 pop quizzes, each 3 multiple-choice questions with one bonus point, so a possible total of 4 points each, and you count the best 8 of the 10 (so again 32 points total). Pop quizzes cover material from the last few classes - you may use your notes for these, but you do your own work (no collaboration).
The best 4 of the 5 tests plus your score on the pop quizzes must total at least 120/100/80/60 for A/B/C/D in the class (out of a possible total of 160). See below for the finer grade divisions. If you are happy with your total after the 4 in-class tests, you can stop with whatever grade that corresponds to, and not take the final. If you are taking the course pass/fail (most are not), you need a total of 60 (a D-) for a pass. Taking the final cannot make your course grade worse, but for it to be helpful you need to study for it!
Plus/minus grading - the finer divisions we will use are strictly as follows: D- = 60-66, D = 67-72, D+ = 73-79, C- = 80-86, C = 87-92, C+ = 93-99, B- = 100-106, B = 107-112, B+ = 113-119, A- = 120-126, A = 127 or more.
Class web page - we will use UT's Blackboard for this. Material posted there is usually available in hard copy as well. Test keys are posted outside the classroom (and on Blackboard), and test scores will be posted outside the classroom on the class day after each test. I do not email test grades or put them on Blackboard - they will be posted by a secret number that you choose and put on your scantron under "Special Codes" - it need not be the same number for every test, and you don't even need to enter one if you don't want to. I record the grades by name only.
