Frequently Asked Questions
I will try to answer here your main questions from lecture (not just
"frequently asked" ones, but any well-posed questions). Please ask
again if anything is still not clear!
Note I will occasionally go back later and add to or amend an answer.
- January 11, FAQ 1 Celestial sphere, precession of the equinoxes, celestial motion, circumpolar stars: pdf html
- January 18, FAQ 2 Kepler's Laws, orbits: pdf html
- January 23, FAQ 3 Orbital energetics, the Bohr atom: pdf html
- February 3, FAQ 4 Atomic transitions, stimulated emission, spectra: pdf html
- February 6, FAQ 5 Cross-section, Maxwell-Boltzmann distributions, Boltzmann and Saha equations, blackbody radiation: pdf html
- February 8, FAQ 6 Differential distributions, optical devices, plate scale: pdf html
- February 10, FAQ 7 Signal and background, multiwavelength observations: pdf html
- February 13, FAQ 8 Solar layers, sunspots, solar activity: pdf html
- February 15, FAQ 9 Solar system formation, surface temperatures: pdf html
- February 20, FAQ 10 Exoplanet detection, microlensing: pdf html
- February 22, FAQ 11 Luminosity, magnitudes, spectral response: pdf html
- February 27, FAQ 12 Stellar atmospheres, pressure broadening: pdf html
- March 14, FAQ 13 Equations of stellar struction, energy transport, fusion, neutrinos: pdf html
- March 16, FAQ 14 Star formation scales, stellar burning, stellar death: pdf html
- March 19, FAQ 15 Electron and neutron degeneracy, white dwarfs, neutron stars: pdf html
- March 21, FAQ 16 Black holes, galactic dynamics pdf html
- March 26, FAQ 17 Galaxies, standard candles, Cepheids, Hubble Law: pdf html
- March 28, FAQ 18 Clusters and superclusters: pdf html
- March 30, FAQ 19 Special relativity: pdf html
- April 4, FAQ 20 General relativity, gravitational redshift, gravitational waves, wormholes: pdf html
- April 6, FAQ 21 Dark matter: pdf html
- April 9, FAQ 22 CMB, expansion of the Universe: pdf html
- April 11, FAQ 23 Curvature of the Universe, cosmological redshift, Friedmann equation: pdf html
- April 13, FAQ 24 Acceleration of the Universe pdf html
- April 16, FAQ 25 Big Bang Nucleosynthesis, the very early Universe pdf html