Ph104    Descriptive Astronomy

Physics Department, Oregon State University

Fall 2013 term

Please note This is the tentative schedule of lecture topics, labs, and related readings from the textbook. The actual pace and organization of materials may differ some, depending on the class dynamics.

Week Date Lecture Material Reading (Units) Lab
1 09/30

Course Introduction. Beginnings.

Our planetary neighborhood. The Night Sky. Scientific Notation and Powers of Ten.
The Nature of Science. Beginnings of Astronomy.

1 - 5 No Lab this Week.
PreLab 1 due next week at start of lab.
  10/02
  10/04
2 10/07

Time and the Motion of the Planets and Stars.

Measuring distances. Parallax. Size of Solar System. Motion of planets. Lunar phases.
Various models of planetary motion. Kepler's Laws.

6-13 Lab 1:
The Scale of Things.
  10/09
  10/11
3 10/14

Some (more) Physics.

Newton's Laws of Motion. Gravity. Weightlessness.
Conservation Laws.

14-19 Lab2:
Measuring Distances in Astronomy.
  10/16
  10/18
4 10/21
Midterm Exam #1 Wednesday, 7:00-8:20 pm.

Even More Physics. Light and Matter.

Conservation of Energy and Momentum. Angular Momentum.
Review on Wednesday. The Nature of Light. Waves. Spectra. Doppler Effect.

19-20
21-25		 Lab 5:
Kepler's Laws.
  10/23
  10/25
5 10/28

Light continued. Brief Tour of Solar System.

Inner versus outer planets. Why we had to knock Pluto out of the solar system family.

32,42-46 Lab 3:
Light and Matter.
  10/30
  11/01
6 11/4

Solar Sytem continued. Telescopes.

Comets. Asteroids. Meteoroids. Planetary system creation.
Exoplanets. Telescopes, types thereof, etc...

46 - 48, 41, 33-34
26 - 30		 Lab 4:
Lenses and Telescopes.
  11/06
  11/08
7 11/11

Our Sun, Our Star. Stars Otherwise.

Stellar Properties. Thermal radiation. Nuclear reactions.
Classifying stars. Binary star systems. H-R Diagrams.

49 - 52
54 - 58		 Lab 6b:
Meteor Craters.
  11/13
  11/15
8 11/18
Midterm Exam #2 Wednesday, 7:00-8:20 pm.

Stellar Evolution. White Dwarves and Black Holes.

Low and high mass stars lives and deaths. Supernova.
Pulsars, neutron stars. Relativity. Black Holes.

59 - 67
53, 68		 Lab 6:
The H-R Diagram.
  11/20
  11/22
9 11/25
No class on Friday: Thanksgiving Day Holiday.

The Forefront of Modern Astronomy.

Cosmology. Our Galaxy - the Milky Way. Structure of the Universe.
Galactic Classification.

70 - 72
74 - 77		 No Lab this Week.
  11/27
  11/29
10 12/02

The Fate of Our Universe.

The Big Bang. Dark Matter.
The Expanding Universe. Dark Energy. The End?

78 - 82 Lab 8:
The Hubble Constant.
  12/04
  12/06
11 12/09
Final Exam Wednesday, December 11, 2013, 6:00-7:50 pm.

Finals Week.

 

   
  12/11
  12/13