Astrophysics fall trimester  2005 

 syllabus   &  course expectations  &   course links

 Astronomy Picture of the Day        the latest astrophysics discoveries
  what's up in the 
sky this week       Skywatcher's Diary for this month  
 

 
Monday,
August 30
Tuesday,
August 31
Wednesday,
September 1
Thursday,
September 2
Friday,
September 3
class
 
 
 
 bring 2nd lab book for our lab today
 
reading
(always done before class)
 5(1,2)

make a list of "behaviors" of light (ways in which light can interact with matter)

do they support a particle or wave interpretation (or both)?
walker (physics text)

28(1,2)

know the formula that predicts the angle of constructive interference diffraction for the two-slit experiment:

what things does this angle depend on directly?
inversely?
5(3,4,5)

know

1) how to describe a blackbody

2) what the rules of blackbody light curves are: how is a hotter bb's curve different from  a cooler one?

3) what a photon's energy depends on
 on flux vs luminosity:

new: box 5-2 flux examples
box 5-3

review 5(4)

new: 19(2) and box 19-2
 
homework





web stuff
 
 
 
 
 
lab
 
 
 
we start the spectra lab 
 image processing lab due
news & discoveries
 
 
 
 


 
Tuesday,
August 23
Wednesday,
August 24
Thursday,
August 25
Friday,
August 26
class
 
 
 
 have you given me your signed cherry sheet
reading
(always done before class)
 
section 6(4) on CCDs 
Sky on a Chip:
The Fabulous CCD
(article handed out in class on lilac)
 5(5-6):

know the  three basic types of spectra and what physical states of matter produce them

coming attractions:

monday: 5(3-4); know the blackbody laws, and know the 3 ways that a hotter blackbody curve differs from a cooler blackbody curve
homework



10 properties (of stars) to find from spectra due today
web stuff
 
 
stellar evolution summary

images for first lab

CCDs
and how they work
lab
find two lab books
(student store has
them for sale)
bring 1 lab book today for first lab

we meet in the Elab
 lab continues;

we meet in the Bryan 1st floor computer cluster across from the elevator
 
news & discoveries
summer discovery highlights:

10th planet discovered

newborn black holes: just seconds old

rare pre-supernova star identified

shock wave hits Supernova 1987A
wind ring