A written report of length at least 8 pages (double spaced with 1 inch margins) will be due on the last day of classes (Wednesday, July 28). The reports are a way for you to find out information about some areas of astronomy that are not covered in class or to go into more depth on those that are. I will need to have approved your topic by Lecture 4 (July 14)!

The report should include all documentation of references (which can include books, magazine articles, or the internet). At least one internet reference must be included and a total of at least four references must be used. When referencing the internet, include the name of the site and it URL address.

A few words about quotes: Any time you use the same wording (4 consecutive words or more) that is used in a source, you must place it in quotes. If the quote is more than two lines, then instead of placing it in quotes, it should be single spaced with two inch margins. After any quote, place the author and page number of the quote in parentheses (author, page number). Don't go "quote happy" and keep the number of direct quotes under five.

The report will be graded for (1) accuracy, (2) overall information, (3) completeness, and (4) organization. Don't make any dramatic gramatical or spelling mistakes (I define "dramatic" as any such mistake which I can find)!

Lecture 1 - The Sky and Time: Ancient Astronomy. Ancient astronomy or archeoastronomy, sundials, constellation lore and mythology, telescopes, observatories (orbiting, ground-based, lunar based, etc.), telescope making, astrology, celestial navigation, amateur astronomy, astronomy in music, astronomy in literature, binocular astronomy, astrophotography, gravity, Kepler's Laws (with math), spectroscopy, astronomy on the internet, Hubble space telescope, adaptive optics, Aristarchos, Aristotle, Ptolemy, Johannes Hevelius, Copernicus, Tycho Brahe, Johannes Kepler, Galileo, Isaac Newton, William Herschel, Elisabeth Hevelius, Caroline Herschel, Maria Mitchell.

Lecture 2 - The Sun and Stars. Spectral classification of stars, binary & multiple stars, variable stars, novae, current astronomy findings about stars and stellar evolution, globular clusters, stars & their names, the Sun, sunspots and Earth's climate, H-R diagram, nebulae, stellar evolution, variable stars (AAVSO), white dwarfs, pulsars, supernovae, the SOHO Observatory, recent evidence for black holes, neutrinos, fusion, quantum theory, Ejnar Hertzsprung, Henry Norris Russell, Arthur Eddington, S. Chandrasekhar, Stephan Hawking, Annie Cannon, Henrietta Leavitt, Jocelyn Bell.

Lecture 3 - The Milky Way and Universe. The search for extraterrestrial intellegence, radio astronomy, X-ray astronomy, gamma ray astronomy, elementary particles and cosmology, current findings about the universe, details of the early universe, classification of galaxies, the "distance ladder" of astronomy, the Hubble Deep Fields, evidence for the Big Bang, active galaxies, quasars, relativity, cosmic microwave background, inflation theory, Grand Unified Theories (GUTs), the Milky Way, gravitational lensing, structure of the universe, dark matter, Edwin Hubble, Harlow Shapley, Karl Jansky, Albert Einstein, Margaret Burbidge, Vera Rubin, Margaret Geller.

Lecture 4 - The Solar System. The search for planets around other stars, light pollution, cosmic collisions, magnetic fields of planets, weightlessness, U.S. or Soviet or Russian manned space program, tides, formation of planetary rings, atmospheric phenomena (rainbows, halos, etc.), planetary missions (Galileo, Cassini, Voyager, Viking, Mariner, Pathfinder, etc.), greenhouse effect of Venus and Earth, water on Mars, life on Mars, the moons of Jupiter (Saturn, Uranus, or Neptune), Pluto, comets, asteroids, meteors and meteorites, planetary evolution, latitude and longitude, weather and climate, zodiacal light, exploration of Mars, astronauts, living in space, J. G. Galle, Edmund Halley, Percival Lowell, Clyde Tombaugh, Robert Goddard, Werner Von Braun, Yuri Gagarin, John Glenn, Neil Armstrong, Edwin Aldrin, Michael Collins, Jan Oort, Carl Sagan, Sally Ride.

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