| The Sky and the Earth |
Aug 26 |
Chap E.1 - E.2 |
We get acquainted, and then start talking about how the Earth's
daily and yearly motion is reflected on the sky. |
| Earth, Sun, and Moon |
Aug 28 |
Chap E.2 - E.3 |
We begin with how long-term motions of the Earth are reflected
on the sky, and then extend the discussion to the Moon. Also
check out the star charts at the end of the book, which will help with
your homework and your observing project. |
| Planetary Motions |
Sep 2 |
Chap E.4 - E.5, and 1.1 - 1.3 |
The apparent motions of the planets in the sky, the Ptolemaic
system, Copernicus, Galileo, Brahe, and Kepler |
| Gravity |
Sep 4 |
Chap 1.4 and 5.2 |
EXTREMELY IMPORTANT! This lecture will contain the basis for
half of the rest of the course. You don't need to read about
Tidal Locking, but everything else is critical.
|
| Fundamentals of Light |
Sep 9 |
Chap 2.1 - 2.4, and 2.7 |
Again, very important. |
| Atoms and Light, and Telescopes |
Sep 11 |
Chap 2.5 - 2.6, 2.8, and 3.1 - 3.5 |
The first part of this lecture (atoms and light) is extremely
important (and difficult). I'll go slow here. The stuff on telescopes
is mostly for fun, so don't spend much time on it. |
| Review |
Sep 16 |
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A buffer lecture to finish up topics. They'll be plenty of time
for you to ask questions to prepare for the test. |
| EXAM |
Sep 18 |
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| Stellar Luminosities, Temperatures, and Radii |
Sep 23 |
Chap 10.1 - 10.5 |
Read this material carefully. It can be a bit complicated. |
| Stellar Masses and How the Sun Doesn't Work |
Sep 25 |
Chap 10.7 |
Another dense region, but pretty important. Incredibly, the
second half of the lecture isn't covered at all in the book, and what the
book does say (in Chap 9), is rather misleading. So you'll
need to pay close attention in class.
|
| Stellar Stucture and Evolution |
Sep 30 |
Chap 9.5 and 12.1 - 12.5 |
No book ever does this right. In order to make this make sense, I
have to merge material from the hydrogen fusion part of Chap 9 with
Chapter 12. Skip the stuff on Novae and Type I Supernovae for now.
|
| Neutron Stars, Black Holes, Relativity |
Oct 2 |
Chap 13.1 - 13.2, and 13.5 - 13.7 |
Mind-boggling material. But don't worry if relativity gets you
confused. Everyone gets confused with it -- even astronomers. |
| Weird Binary Objects |
Oct 7 |
Chap 12.3 (Novae), 12.5 (Ia Supernovae),
13.3, and 13.8 (Binary Systems)
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Now we'll talk about the weirdest objects in the universe. That
means collecting all the topics on binary stars that we've skipped.
|
| Star Formation |
Oct 9 |
Chap 11.1 - 11.4, and 12.7 |
We'll do this more for the pretty pictures, than the science content.
But there is some interesting stuff going on in the field. |
| Review |
Oct 14 |
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We'll finish off the topics that have run overtime, and then
review. |
| EXAM |
Oct 16 |
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| The Milky Way |
Oct 21 |
Chap 11.3, 11.6, 12.6 - 12.7, 10.6, and 14.1 |
This lecture introduces the Milky Way galaxy via its interstellar medium
and star clusters. That material is scattered over several
chapters of the book.
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| Our Galaxy and Others |
Oct 23 |
Chap 14.2 - 14.3, 14.5, and 15.1 |
One of the most fun parts of astronomy. There are a lot of pretty
pictures on the subject. |
| The Missing Mass, and Galaxy Formation
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Oct 28 |
Chap 14.4 - 14.6, 16.1 - 16.3, and 16.5 |
I'm grouping together various measurements of galaxy mass, and
ideas about galaxy formation. This lecture will probably spill
over to next week.
|
| Introduction to Cosmology |
Oct 30 |
Chap 14.2, 15.2 - 15.3, and 17.1 - 17.3 |
We start the mind-boggling stuff. |
| The Big Bang Universe |
Nov 4 |
Chap 17.4 - 17.8 |
This material is difficult, but important. I'll do the best I
can to explain it. |
| Active Galactic Nuclei |
Nov 6 |
Chap 15.4, 15.5, and 16.4 |
Skim the material, but don't stress about it. I'll concentrate on quasars
and the black hole connection. |
| Review |
Nov 11 |
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Another question and answer session in preparation for your test. |
| EXAM |
Nov 13 |
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| Solar System Overview |
Nov 18 |
Chap 4.1 (and factoids from Chap 5 - 8) |
If you wish, you can also skim Chapters 5 through 8. Most of the
information is useless factoids, but I'll be hitting some of it
(particularly in the upcoming lectures).
|
| Formation of the Solar System |
Nov 20 |
Chap 4.3, 5.3, 6.3, 6.8, and 8.2 (Titan) |
I'll talk about the formation of the Solar System, the formation
(and evolution) of planets and their atmospheres. This connects
many of factoids that are presented in the chapters. The topic of
atmospheres will undoubtably spill over into the next lecture.
|
| Tides |
Dec 2 |
Chap 5.2, 8.1, and 8.4 |
After we finish with atmospheres, we'll talk about moons of Jupiter,
the rings of Saturn, and the Earth-Moon system. |
| Earth and Space |
Dec 4 |
Chap 9.4, 4.2, 5.7, and Box 7-1 |
Again, the material is scattered through many chapters of the book.
I'll be connecting things up. |
| Extra-Solar Planets |
Dec 9 |
Chap 4.4 |
This is a really new topic -- so new that textbooks can't keep up with
the discoveries. I'll try to bring you up to date. |
| Life in the Universe and Review |
Dec 11 |
Chap 18 |
Are there are other civilizations out there? We'll discuss the
possibilities from a couple different points of view. |