"Have you noticed that the astronomers and mathematicians are much the most cheerful people of the lot? I suppose that perpetually contemplating things on so vast scale makes one feel either that it doesn't matter a hoot anyway, or that anything so large and elaborate must have sense in it somewhere."
-- Dorothy L. Sayers
This is the main (and only) webpage for Ay 20. Here you will find all the relevant information about the class including homeworks, solutions, information about the class project and random trivia about random astronomy related subjects. For many of you this is your first astronomy course.Some concepts are difficult to grasp in the first go, like magnitudes (whoever came up with that). So if you get stuck and just don't understand, come to talk to me or Anneila. Once you get it, anyone else who doesn't understand it will seem like a moron and you will be a part of the elite group of people called 'Professional Astronomers' :)
Office Hours: Anneila has office hours right after the class. I have office hours on thursday 5-6:30 pm in my office Cahill 265 or in the classroom (Cahill 219) depending on how many people show up. I will try to have extra office hours before midterm and final if you guys would like. If you can't make these, I am generally around in my office or just email me to make sure I will be around. Call my cell if its an emergency.
Homework Policy: Homeworks will be posted every Friday (as of now) and due next friday by 5 pm in my mailbox (Cahill 2nd floor) or at the end of class on Friday, whichever you guys prefer. I will post solutions after I have received all the homeworks. Homeworks will account for 40% of the total grade.
Extensions can be granted by me or Anneila for 24 hours. Only Anneila can grant longer extensions. If you guys have problems with the grading, I suggest you talk to me first and if we can't resolve the issues, then we can talk to Anneila.
Midterm: There will be a test, not so much a midterm.Closed book, closed handouts. Personal notes allowed. This will be 20% of total grade.
Project: The main goal about the project is to measure the transmission curves of some broadband filters. There will be 2-3 students (depending on the class size etc.) in each group measuring 4-5 filters. You guys should be doing most of the work in the week of Nov 9-13, 2009. In addition, there will probably be also a star gazing section that same week. This accounts for 15% of your total grade. I will post more info as we go along.
Final: 25% of total grade.
Interesting links: If you guys like to see some pretty pictures of well known objects from different filters or satellites, go to http://www.worldwidetelescope.org . You can choose to see the object in IR, UV, optical etc depending in which wavelgenth regimes the object has been imaged in. Objects to check out: Sombrero Galaxy (A lenticular galaxy shaped like the sombrero hat, hence named so), Crab Nebula, Eagle Nebula, Andromeda Galaxy (our closest neighbor), Carina nebula and lots more. The site would also give you some understanding of the celestial sphere.
Google also has a similar website called Google sky.
Another website to see some of the best images astronomy has to produce is the Astronomy Picture of the Day website. They put out new pictures everyday and give a brief outline of what the object is and some interesting information about it.
Spitzer,an IR space telescope, found another ring, a really big one at that, around Saturn: http://edition.cnn.com/2009/TECH/space/10/07/space.saturn.ring/index.html.
32 more exo-planets discovered by ESO in Chile!! Check it out: http://edition.cnn.com/2009/TECH/science/10/19/space.new.planets/index.html
Corrections: In class of Oct 7, 2009 about stellar radiation, in the notes on page 3, it mistakenly says that the Absolute magnitude is the magnitude of the star at 1 pc. It is actually the magnitude of the star at 10 pc.
Project: Here are the files from the lab (in no particular order):
Group 1:
Filter 1
Filter 2
Filter 3
Filter 4
Filter 5
Group 2:
Filter 1
Filter 2
Filter 3
Filter 4
Filter 5
Group 3:
Filter 1
Filter 2
Filter 3
Filter 4
Filter 5
Last Update: December 3, 2009