ASTR 10, Descriptive Astronomy (V0076)
Spring Semester, 2004
Instructor: Dr. Korpela

Contact Info

• Dr. Korpela: korpela@ssl.berkeley.edu, 510-643-6538

Updated

• HOMEWORK #2 will be due Feb 12.
• EXAM #1 is Mar 04. Those who need a makeup must contact Dr. Korpela by Feb 19 to arrange an EARLIER date.

Website:

If you haven't been to the website before now, an introduction to its important features can be found in the notes for the first lectures, in the Archive of Administrative Notes. As I said in class, those that can download materials from this site should do so, in order to save on photocopying (and the weight of what I carry!).

The Sky:

• Telescope Viewing: We'll be organizing a field trip to Chabot for telescope viewing, however, you can go to Chabot any Friday or Saturday night. Follow the Local Astronomy link below to investigate this and other options. Click for details of Chabot observatory. Look for Venus, Jupiter, Saturn, Mars and the Pleiades in the night sky! If you have binoculars, search Orion's belt for the Orion Nebula.
• Binoculars: I have been asked about buying binoculars for astronomy, and have created a Binoculars for Astronomy resource page.
• Remember to look up! Astronomy is, after all, the study of the stars etc! Think about the scale of distances, motions and times as you gaze at the sky. If you can see planets and/or the moon, try to picture where you are on the earth, and where the planet is in its orbit. The exercises we've done should help.
• Planets: This week Venus in the west after sunset. is the brightest object in the evening sky (apart from airplanes, sun, and moon). Jupiter and Saturn are in the east at sunset. Mars can be seen glowing red high in the south after sunset.
• Stars: Remember that almost everything that can be seen with the naked eye is part of our own Milky Way Galaxy! (The Andromeda Galaxy is an exception). Notice that it's hard to see the disk of our Galaxy with your naked eye, but we do in fact live way out on one side of that disk. Think about which stars are likely to be young, and which are likely to be old! Think about which are about to die, and how. Keep an eye on Betelgeuse! Think of all the pulsars and black holes you can't see with your naked eye! Remember that all of these objects that you can see with the naked eye are inside our own galaxy! (Exceptions are the Andromeda Galaxy (visible from dark locations) and the Large and Small Magellanic Clouds (visible from the southern hemisphere).
• Resource: Go to Sky and Telescope's Observing page to learn about the changing sky - planets, variable stars and so on. variable stars, and more!

Details on Upcoming Dates:

Homework #2 is due Feb. 12. It will be accepted for half credit until Feb. 19. However there is no class on Feb. 19 so it will need to be delivered to my Vista mailbox or emailed to me.

Upcoming exams:

• If you cannot make one of these dates, please arrange an alternate time
• The exams will be more like the quizzes than the homeworks, in that it will be multiple choice, true/false, and short answer. Rather than just read the textbook without particular focus, use the "What Was Important" guides to focus your studying. In addition, the homework solutions, in-class exercises, ConcepTest questions, and quiz questions highlight topics I find particularly important.

• Exam #1 will be March 04. Makeup exams for Exam #1 MUST be completed prior to the originally scheduled exam date. Please contact Dr. Korpela prior to Feb 19 if you need to reschedule.

Last Thursday Night's Lecture:

Last night's lecture notes may be found here (powerpoint) or here (html). .

Find out what the goals of last night's lecture were in the What Was Important notes. Some more details are found below.

Last night I handed out solutions to homework #1

My laptop wasn't working last night so we had an 80's style lecture, complete with drawings on the blackboard. The powerpoint presentation I was going to make is here.

We began last night with a discussion of the history of astronomy, beginning with ancient peoples noticing the phases of the moon and the seasons. We discussed "calendar circles" which were used by people worldwide to time the passage of the seasons. I disussed how the various sight lines on the calendar circle correspond to what we learned last week about the celestial sphere.

We then moved into a discussion of the astronomy of the Greeks (600-200 BCE). Aristarchus and Heraclides developed the first models to try to explain the motions of objects in the sky. Eratotsenes measured the circumference of the by measureing the shadows cast by the sun in different places.

We discussed Ptolemy's heliocentric system with it epicycles and how it explains the retrograde motion of planets and Copperinus's heliocentric system and how it explains retrograde motions.

We talked about Galileo's observation with his telescope, how Kepler developed his 3 laws of planetary motion, and how Newton developed his laws of motion and universal gravite. We also spent a bit of time talking about how gravitation causes the tides.

Miscellaneous:

You may have trouble parking some Thursdays because of the basketball games. Men's games create the most difficulty The schedule for CAL sports may be found here.

If you don't yet have the text, much of the material required for Homework #1 is contained in the handouts, and the remainder can be found in the (different) online textbook at http://www.astronomynotes.com.

If you are a little confused, don't panic. It is not my intention to fail students who attend the classes and seriously work on all the homeworks and assignments

GENERAL COURSE INFORMATION

Course Syllabus

Policies

Click the Reload Button on each page for The Latest Updates

TEXT will be The Essential Cosmic Perspective, 2nd College Edition, by Bennett et al.
This should be available from Ned's Campus Textbook Exchange on Bancroft Avenue. You may find a better bargain on line at bn.com or amazon.com.

USEFUL COURSE STUFF

Homework Assignments

Handouts

Weekly "What Was Important"

In-Class Exercises

Archive of Administrative Notes

Sky and Telescope's Observing Page

Web Resources for Each Chapter

Local Astronomy

Vista Home Page

INTERESTING LINKS TO WHET YOUR INTEREST

In addition to the FUN STUFF section below:

Here's a neat online version of The Powers of 10 to remind you of the awesome vastness of space!

Good and Bad Astronomy in Movies Includes "Signs" and "Men In Black II" among others.

If you're interested in the search for planets around other stars, try going here.

The exciting Search for ExtraTerrestrial Intelligence! For more information on the SETI projects, go to the SETI at UC Berkeley website .

Bad Astronomy in the Media (News, Movies, TV!)

Astronomy Picture of the Day

Universe Today (Current Space News from the Internet)

Astronomy Cafe (Website for the Astronomically Disadvantaged)

Take a Virtual Voyage Through the Milky Way

Exploratorium Home Page

Morrison Planetarium at the California Academy of Sciences

NASA Home Page