ASTR 1030 - Astronomy

Class Information

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Course Syllabus

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Course Schedule

bulletDr. Farris' Office Hours (not updated for May)

Exam grades are up for Spring 2009 (there was a big curve):

Code Name Exam Course Code Name Exam Course Code Name Exam Course
Gossip Ninja 2 63 D P33P 43 D #2 51 D
M833 44 C 1codename4u 71 C Scarecrow 53 D
Lilo 101 A Kids next door 90 A Acorn 92 A
(none) 71 B 00569451 84 A Gossip Ninja 1 67 D
(none) 75 C blue curtains 85 B Boontocka 5 71 B
zellie 100 A Billy Graham 1 72 C      

Upcoming schedule:

bulletMonday, May 18:  Mercury/Venus/Mars, the outer planets (Ch 7.1-16, 8.1-18)
bulletMM8 Lab (day):  Lab 4 - Lenses, Mirrors and Telescopes
bulletThis lab meets in Warf 114.
bulletMM9 Lab (night):  Lab 3 - Field of View
bulletTuesday, May 19:  ***Test 2***, Pluto, KBO's, debris (Ch 9.1-14)
bulletMM8 Lab (night):  Lab 3 - Field of View
bulletMM9 Lab (day):  Lab 4 - Lenses, Mirrors and Telescops
bulletThis lab meets in Warf 114.
bulletWednesday, May 20:  Stars, star birth (Ch 11.1-13, 12.1-11)
bulletMM9 Lab (night):  Lab 5 - Observing Saturn

Lab Information and Write ups

(Lab schedule, lab report guidelines, write-ups for the labs, etc.)

Links


PDF copies of the class notes:

May 8 May 11 May 12 May 13 May 14
May 15 May 18 May 19 May 20 May 21
May 22 May 26 May 27 May 28  

Solar System overview chart

Astro Images From Vol State

Area amateur astronomy clubs:

bulletGallatin's Cumberland Astronomical Society
bulletNashville's Barnard-Seyfert Astronomical Society

Apollo Lunar Mission Profile

Here are a couple of calendars for lunar eclipses  and solar eclipses.  The next "good" eclipse for Middle Tennessee is a lunar eclipse on the night of Dec 20/21, 2010.

A few flight profiles for a typical Space Shuttle Mission: Profile 1, Profile 2

Vanderbilt's Dyer Observatory will have public nights (extra credit) in 2009.

Astronomy Picture of the Day - A new, "cool" picture each day!

Lunar Picture of the Day - A new, "cool" picture of the Moon each day!

Mars' 2003 Opposition was among the best ever.

Example Test - This is an old test from a similar class I taught at Vanderbilt.  It will give you an idea of the style of test you can expect.  Note that this course covered different material than ASTR 1030, so don't expect the questions to be the same.  (In other words, don't freak out if you've never heard of the stuff in some of the questions!)

Some Geocentric vs. Heliocentric helps:

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More about Ptolemy...
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A simulation of deferents and epicycles...
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Animations of Kepler's three laws...

Here is the link to the simulation we used in class to show that orbiting is just falling with enough "sideways" speed.

SEDS and JPL have very nice, comprehensive information about the Solar System.  SEDS also has a nice deep sky catalog (Messier catalog).

Sky and Telescope and Astronomy Magazines have comprehensive websites for observers and amateur astronomers.

For help pronouncing all those Greek, Latin and Arabic words, check out the Astronomical League's Star and Constellation Pronunciation Guide and Solar System Pronunciation Guide.

Folks have some fun with the stellar spectral classes.

The Atlas of the Universe shows the universe at various scales from a few light years to 10 billion light years.

Mars Talk for Adventure Science Center, Astronomy Day 2003.

Up one level

Last Modified September 02, 2009.