| Week | Monday's Date | Topic |
| 1 | Sept. 3 | First class on Sept. 7: Introduction to the course. |
| 2 | Sept. 10 | Overview -
Scientific Method, Mathematics Background, and Overview of Astronomomical Objects.
Chapter 1: 1.1, 1.2, Distances to Astronomical Objects Box 1-3, Chapter 1.7 and supplemental material on the class website. -includes Powers of Ten, angular measurements and parallax. Gravity.Chapter 2.7,Newton's Laws |
| 3 | Sept. 17 |
Gravity. Chapter 2.7,Newton's Laws continued.
Orbits and Escape velocity, Box 2-2 (Weighing the sun). (Sept. 19: the last day to change courses.) |
| 4 | Sept. 24 |
Chapter 7.6 (Tides) Kepler's Laws Chapter 2.5, 2.8 General Relativity (part of 22.6 - P. 553 to 557) |
| 5 | Oct. 1 | FIRST TEST OF THE TERM: Monday, Oct. 1 Radiation. Chapter 3.1 to 3.4. and "More Precisely" Box 3-2. Dual nature of light,electromagnetic radiation, diffraction and interference, energy, Thermal radiation, black body curves, Wien's Law, Stefan-Boltzmann Law. |
| 6 | Oct. 8 |
Radiation continued. Flux (e.g. Box 3-2) and luminosity (e.g.
equation in Box 17-2). Spectra Chapter 4, emphasizing 4.1 and 4.2. Creation of absorption and emission lines via excitation and ionization. Radio Line emission: Chapt 18.4 21 cm radiation via the spin-flip transistion. Radio Continuum emission: synchrotron and free-free. |
| 7 | Oct. 15 |
Doppler Shift and Radial Velocity. Chapter 3.5, 4.4, Box 3-3. Telescopes and Spectra Chapter 5. Telescopes 5.2, 5.3, part of 5.4 (seeing), parts of 5.5-5.7 CCDs, photometry, spectroscopy Light gathering power, Resolving Power, Diffraction Limit, Seeing Our Solar System Chapter 6. Planets. Focus on material presented in class and the physical data in Appendix Table 3B. Focus on Mars.(Chapters 8-13) Includes material presented in class such as the Greenhouse Effect. Note Discovery Box 8-1 about retention of atmospheres. |
| 8 | Oct. 22 |
Solar System continued. Climate Change on Earth. Searching for life on Mars. |
| 8 | Oct. 29 | SECOND TEST OF THE TERM: Monday, Oct. 29. Planetary System Formation. Chapter 6 (some extra details in Chapter 15.) Formation of the Moon. Chapter 8.8. Exoplanets Chapter 15 and material presented in class. Our Sun. Chapter 16. |
| 9 | Nov. 5 | Other Stars. Luminosity, Magnitudes, Hertzsprung Russell Diagram, Masses and
Lifetimes. Chapter 17. (Nov. 14: Voluntary Withdrawal Date) |
| 11 | Nov. 12 |
Interstellar Medium and Star Birth. Chapter 18 & 19 Stellar Evolution of a 1 solar mass star: Red Giants, Planetary Nebulae, White Dwarfs Chapter 20. Stellar Evolution of M > 5 solar masses: Supernovae, Pulsars, Gamma-ray bursts. Chapter 21 Stellar Populations: Chapter 23 (p.583-584). Black holes. Chapter 22 and Supplemental Material. - the student should review Gravity in preparation. |
| 12 | Nov. 19 | Galaxies: Hubble Classification, Milky Way Structure, and Hubble's Law. Portions of Chapters
23 + 24 + 25. |
| 13 | Nov. 26 |
Dark Matter portions of Chapters
23 + 24 + 25 + 26. Cosmology. Chapter 26 Examples of sections that should be read: start at P615 == section on Hubble Law, start at P664 == section on Big Bang, start at P677 == Cosmic Microwave Background. |
| 14 | Dec. 3 | Debunking Doomsday 2012 Last day of classes is Dec. 5. |