Linked from the Home Page of Sukanta Bose

ASTR 135 (Descriptive Astronomy): Course Details for Spring 2007

• Every student must have a copy of the course syllabus and the schedule, which is posted here in the RTF (Rich Text Format) format and in the PDF format.

• The rubric that your TAs will use for grading your studios and group activities will be made available to you in every studio exercise. Here is a PDF file of that rubric for your download.

• Note that this course has a studio component. Check with the registrar's office for your studio's meeting times and location. There will be no studios in the first week of classes; they will begin in the week of January 15, 2007, in Webster room 249.

• Announcement: The last week of regular studios/labs is this week (April 16 - 20). We will work on the 13th exercise, on interferometry. Next week is make-up week for missed studios. If you missed a studio in the past owing to extenuating circumstances, contact your TA this week about making it up next week! You should present necessary documentation (such as a doctor's or coach's letter) to your TA in order to avoid any penalties.

• I will give 3 planetarium shows for the whole class in the week of January 8, 2007. It is MANDATORY for everyone to attend a show. The University Planetarium is located in Sloan Hall, Room 231. The sections will meet there as follows:
  • Sections 1 and 2: Wednesday, January 10, 5:30-6:30pm
  • Sections 3 and 4: Wednesday, January 10, 6:30-7:30pm
  • Sections 5 and 6: Thursday, January 11, 6:30-7:30pm

Lecture tutorials

• The sample solutions to the lecture tutorials can be accessed from this link. The username and pass for logging into this page were given in class on a few occasions over the last two weeks.

Mid Terms

• Both mid-term exams will be held in CADD room 21 (same place as the lectures) from 9:10am - 10:00am. As was announced in the course syllabus/schedule (linked above), the first mid-term exam is on February 14 (Wednesday).

• Practice taking a test by attempting the multiple-choice (and other) problems suggested on the following website.

• First mid-term exam

  • The study-guide for the first mid-term can be accessed from this link. The username and pass for logging into this page were given in class on a few occasions over the last two weeks.
  • You will be quizzed on the following chapters/pages for the first mid-term exam:
    • In your primary text-book, by Hester et al., read all chapters up to the end of Section 5.1.
    • In the book on Lecture-Tutorials, by Adams et al., practice all exercises on pages 1 through 56 (and not through page 62 as mentioned in the study-guide).
  • The scores from the first mid-term are posted here.

• Second mid-term exam

  • The second mid-term exam has been postponed. It will be held from 9:10-10am in CADD 21 on WEDNESDAY, March 21. There will be a lecture on Monday, March 19, that will cover some material for that exam.
  • The study-guide for the second mid -term can be accessed from this link. The username and password are the same as for the lecture-tutorial solutions.
  • The scores from the second mid-term are posted here.

Final Exam

• The study-guide for the final exam can be accessed from this link (updated 4/25/07, late evening). The username and password are the same as for the lecture-tutorial solutions. The final exam is on Thursday, May 3, from 8am-10am in CADD room 21.

Astronomy-135 links

Your primary text-book by Hester et al. is a very useful reference for the material taught in the class. To learn more about topics covered in the class, here are some astronomy links that you may find interesting!

Lunar Phases and Eclipses

• A "gif" animation on the phases of the Moon. After clicking on the link, you may need to wait for a few seconds before you see the phases advance.

• Another animation of Lunar phases

• Blue Moons & Double Blue Moons

• Lunar Eclipse

• Solar "Eclipse"

• Tides and the reason behind them

Seasons on Earth

• Which is the culprit: the tilt or the elliptic orbit?

• Summer Solstice

• Winter Solstice

• Equinoxes

Constellations and the celestial sphere

• Constellations

• More on Constellations

• Myths about Stars and Constellations

• The Celestial Coordinate System. Separate figures of celestial and topocentric coordinates.

• World time zones

On the orbits of planets

• The Solar System: Note that Pluto is not a planet!

• Ptolemaic System

• An elegant animation explaining Ptolemy's epicycles

• Kepler's Laws

• An amusing animation on Kepler's second law

Light!

• How light works!.

• Transverse and longitudinal waves.

• Relation between brightness and luminosity.

• Wien's law. In this context, also try the interactive graph here.

• Stefan-Boltzmann law.

• Different types of spectra.

Telescopes

• Types of telescopes

• World's largest telescopes

• What are the advantages of a reflecting telescopes ?

• The Hubble Space Telescope

The properties of stars

• Here is a comprehensive link.

The Sun

• A good summary on the prope rties of our star.

Interstellar medium

• A nic e resource on the subject.

The evolution of stars

• Stellar structures

• A simulation on stellar evolution

• A NASA site on stellar evolution and death

Galaxies

• In addition to the discussion on the main page, also look at the topics linked from this website, such as on Hubble's "tuning fork" scheme for the morphological classification of galaxies.

The Cosmos

• A very comprehensive discussion (you will need to use the "Next" but ton on this website to navigate to different sub-topics.)

• NASA's own "cosmology" w ebsite.

For questions and suggestions, please email me!