ASTRONOMY 1010: OUTLINE

OUTLINE FOR ASTRONOMY 1010 Fall 2008

August 26:

READING:

1. Introduction
2. Powers of 10 Notation
3. Astronomical Distances
4. Angular Measurement
5. Slide Show

August 28:

READING:

1. The Celestial Sphere
2. Circumpolar Constellations
3. Some Definitions
4. Celestial Coordinates
5. Solar Day vs. Sidereal Day
6. Constellations

September 2:

1. Seasons
2. The Sun's Coordinates
3. Precession
4. Phases of the Moon
5. Moonrise
6. Eclipses
7. Pictures of Eclipses

September 4:

READING:

1. Synchronous Rotation
2. Lunar Month vs. Sidereal Month
3. Finding Planets on the Sky
4. General Rules of Planetary Motions
5. Sidereal vs. Synodic Period
6. Retrograde Motion of the Planets

September 9:

READING:

1. Relative Size of Earth and Moon
2. Relative Size of Earth and Sun
3. Quiz #1

September 11:

READING:

1. Review of Quiz #1
2. Evidence for a Spherical Earth
3. Parallax
4. The Diameter of the Earth
5. Epicycles
6. Magnitudes
7. The Almagest
8. The Babylonian Calendar
9. Ancient Astronomy in Other Lands

September 16:

READING:

1. Nicolaus Copernicus
2. Tycho Brahe
3. Kepler's Three Laws of Planetary Motion
4. Inertia
5. Galileo's Astronomical Observations

September 18:

READING:

1. Newton's First Law: Inertia Revisited
2. Mass vs. Weight
3. Newton's Second Law
4. Newton's Third Law
5. Newton's Law of Universal Gravitation
6. Newton's Revision of Kepler's Third Law
7. The Mass of Saturn

September 23:

1. Orbital Motion
2. Weightlessness
3. Escape Velocity
4. Quiz #2

September 25:

READING:

1. Review of Quiz #2
2. Temperature Scales
3. Units of Energy
4. Energy Conservation
5. Kepler's Second Law Revisited
6. Center of Mass
7. The Wave-Particle Duality of Light
8. The Electromagnetic Spectrum
9. Radiative Energy
10. The Frequency of Light

September 30:

READING:

1. Some Frequency/Wavelength Examples
2. Thermal Radiation
3. Wien's Law
4. Some Mathematical Examples
5. Some IR Pictures
6. Stefan's Law
7. Luminosity vs. Brightness
8. Emission-Line Spectra
9. Absorption-Line Spectra
10. Kirchoff's Laws

October 2:

READING:

1. Doppler Shift
2. Energy Levels in Atoms
3. The Chemical Elements
4. Ions and Isotopes
5. The Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle
6. Spectral Line Broadening
7. The Hydrogen Atom

October 7:

READING:

1. Refraction
2. Mirages
3. Refracting Telescopes
4. Chromatic Aberration
5. Reflection
6. Reflecting Telescopes

October 9:

1. Diffraction
2. Diffraction Gratings
3. Resolution
4. Seeing
5. Light Gathering Power
6. Quiz #3

October 16:

READING:

1. Review of Quiz #3
2. Telescopes at Different Wavelengths
3. Pictures of Telescopes

October 21: READING: Sections 6.1 - 6.6

1. Inventory of the Solar System
2. The Definition of a Planet
3. The Classification of Planets
4. Motions in the Solar System
5. Spacecraft to the Planets

October 23: READING: Rest of Chapter 6; Chapter 15

1. Spacecraft to the Planets (Continued)
2. The Formation of the Solar System
3. Conservation of Angular Momentum
4. Differentiation
5. Evidence for the Solar System Formation Model

October 28: READING: Pages 174-175

1. Extrasolar Planets
2. Selection Effects in the Search for Extrasolar Planets
3. The Atmospheres of Planets and Moons
4. The Origin and Evolution of Planetary Atmospheres
5. Why is the Sky Blue?

October 30:

1. Scale Model of the Solar System
2. Quiz #4

November 4: READING: Sections 7.1 - 7.3

1. Review of Quiz #4
2. The Ozone Layer and the Ionosphere
3. The Greenhouse Effect
4. Convection
5. The Coriolis Effect

November 6: READING: Sections 7.4 - 7.5

1. The Interiors of Planets
2. Heat Flow out of Planets
3. Magnetic Dynamos
4. Aurora
5. Pictures of Aurora

November 11:

1. Plate Tectonics
2. Hot Spot Volcanism
3. Radioactive Dating

November 13: READING: Section 7.6

1. Radioactive Dating (Continued)
2. Tidal Forces
3. The Earth's Changing Sidereal Day
4. Quiz #5

November 18: READING: Chapters 8 and 9

1. Review of Quiz #5
2. The Surface of the Moon
3. The Formation of the Moon
4. The Spin-Orbit Resonance of Mercury
5. The Surface of Mercury
6. The Surface of Venus

November 20: READING: Sections 11.1 - 11.4, 12.1 - 12.4, 13.1 - 13.5

1. The Surface of Mars
2. The Mars Rovers
3. The Atmospheres of the Jovian Planets
4. The Interiors of the Jovian Planets

February 25: READING: Sections 11.5 and 12.5

1. Overview of the Galilean Moons
2. Io
3. Europa
4. Callisto
5. Ganymede
6. The Moons of Saturn

December 2: READING: Rest of Chapter 13

1. The Moons of Uranus
2. Triton
3. Pluto and Charon
4. Planetary Rings
5. Quiz #5

December 4: READING: Chapter 14

1. Review of Quiz #6
2. Asteroids
3. Comets