NOTE Readings are in the digital textbook Open Stax: Astronomy by Fraknoi et al.
Date | Number | Topic | Reading (OpenStax) |
---|---|---|---|
Aug. 18 | 1 | Introduction: The scales of the universe. | Chapter 1 |
20 | 2 | Historical background. Og through Newton's Laws | Chapter 2:
Section 2.2
&
2.4
Chapter 3: Sections 3.1 to 3.3 |
25 | 3 | The "Four" Forces of Nature; Light and the electromagnetic spectrum | Chapter 5: through 5.1 |
27 | 4 | Thermal Radiation: the light from stars | Chapter 5: Section 5.2 and Chapter 17, Section 17.2 |
Sept. 1 | 5 | Spectral lines and spectroscopy: astronomical fingerprints | Chapter 5: Sections 5.3, 5.5 and 5.4 |
3 | 6 | Telescopes: powers, configurations, and instruments | Chapter 6: through Section 6.2 |
8 | 7 | Telescope instruments, space astronomy | Chapter 6: Section 6.3 and 6.5 |
10 | 8 | Our Sun as a star | Chapter 15 |
15 | 9 | The inside of the Sun and the Case of the Missing Neutrino. | Chapter 16 |
-- | -- | EXAM 1 | |
17 | 10 | Stars: colors, brightness, spectral classification | Chapter 17 |
22 | 11 | The distance to the stars, the Doppler effect and stellar motions |
Chapter 19: Section 19.2 Chapter 5: Section 5.6 Chapter 17: Section 17.4 |
24 | 12 | Stellar classification. The H-R diagram. Masses and binaries |
Chapter 17: Section 17.3 Chapter 18: Section 18.4 Chapter 18: Section 18.2 |
29 | 13 | The Main Sequence: Stellar lifetimes, star clusters and stellar evolution. |
Chapter 18: Section 18.4 Chapter 22 through Section 22.3 |
Oct. 1 | 14 | Star formation. | Chapter 21, through Section 21.3 |
6 | 15 | Stellar "middle age" and geriatrics | Chapter 22, Section 22.4-22.5 |
8 | 16 | Stellar death: white dwarfs, supernovae and neutron stars | Chapter 23: through Section 23.4 |
13 | 17 | The Stellar Freak Show-Bizarre outcomes of stellar evolution. Black Holes | Chapter 24: Section 24.5 and 24.6 |
15 | 18 | The Stuff between the stars; the Milky Way | Chapter 20 Chapter 25: Section 25.1 |
20 | 19 | The Milky Way Galaxy: a census | Chapter 25 |
-- | -- | EXAM 2 | |
22 | 20 | Galaxy types. Galaxy Interactions. | Chapter 26: through Section 26.2
Chapter 28, Section 28.2 |
27 | 21 | Distances to galaxies. Hubble's law and the Expanding Universe. | Chapter 26, Section 26.4-5 |
29 | 22 | The Galaxy Freak Show: Quasars and other bizarre galaxies | Chapter 27 |
Nov. 3 | 23 | Dark Matter and large scale structure. | Chapter 28, Section 28.4
Section 28.3 Section 28.5 |
5 | 24 | Cosmology I: Questions. The age of the Universe | Chapter 29, Section 29.1 |
10 | 25 | Cosmology II: The Big Bang and its aftermath. | Chapter 29, Section 29.2-29.4 |
12 | 26 | Cosmology III: The past and future of the Universe. | Chapter 29, Section 29.5-29.6 |
17 | 27 | Life in the Universe: I. | Chapter 30, Section 30.4 (the Drake Equation)
Chapter 30, Section 30.1-30.2 Chapter 20, Section 21.4-21.5 |
19 | 28 | Life in the Universe: II. Conclusions | Chapter 30, Section 30.2-30.4 |
-- | -- | EXAM 3 | |