Phys104: Astronomy
(On-line)
Welcome to ASTRONOMY online!. Even though this is an online course, you'll note that I will not dwell much on the technology. It should be transparent to the curriculum. I want to focus on Astronomy (albeit we will have to use the internet technology to engage ourselves in this venture.)This course attempts to do more than just fill a slot in the curriculum. It will provide you with an introduction to one of the most exciting subjects that you will encounter during your academic career. Not only is the material itself exciting, but this particular offering of the course makes it possible to do this from the comfort of your living room (or wherever your home computer may be set up.) You can be sitting there in slippers and sipping a coke (or whatever kind of beverage pleases you.) This course will be exciting not just from the perspective of content knowledge and the experiential activities you'll be engaging in but also from that of pedagogy and how this course is taught. It will, in a sense, be radical from both perspectives! You will be introduced not only to the fascinating discoveries in our very own solar system, but beyond that to the limits of our galaxy and the bounds of the universe. We will explore, thanks to the latest space probes (and some information is coming in daily, details we could only have dreamed of) on the planets and their satellites. We will extend our studies to the exotic, including black holes and quasars and pulsars and what cosmology and relativity tell us about the origin and the ultimate destiny of the universe. All this will almost be meaningless without real relevance to our fragile Earth, the place we live and to ourselves and how we fit into the cosmos. This course should be anything but boring!
Things should be particularly exciting this fall. One, we mark the 50th anniversary of the launch of Sputnik. So it has been fifty years that we have been in the Space Age. In that time we have learned more about space and the universe than we ever knew before. Some estimates are that 95% of what we know today about the solar system, the galaxy and the universe have been learned since then. It couldn't have happened at a better time. And a simple fact is, we have two aliens roaming around the solar system, two robots, Spirit and Opportunity, crawling around Mars. And Cassini is still going arounf Saturn. What a time to be studying Astronomy!
You will learn an enormous amount of science. Astronomy differs from most sciences in that we are not able to test our hypotheses in the laboratory as we might in a traditonal physics or chemistry course. All the information about the stars, galaxies and the universe itself comes to us through tiny beams of light. We must study these beams of light and from them determine the chemical makeup of objects, their thermal and physical properties and predict their evolution and life cycle. Inference from the known physical processes and the acquired data is indeed our foremost tool. It is exciting too. No where on earth can we create vacuums like exist in outer space. No laboratory can reproduce the temperatures and pressures that take place in stellar interiors. We can only describe in theory the kinds of relativistically degenerate states of matter that make up while dwarfs and neutron stars.
Our studies do not attempt to make scientists out of you. Science so often is avoided (if possible) in many programs. And frequently students who have to take science (eg. a science requirement) will take something they had success with before. Intellectually there is no reason anyone enrolled in this college cannot be successful in this class. We need to satisfy our curiosities and try to pull together the information that makes this the cogent subject it is. We will use basic scientific principles, usually without the cumbersome burden of excessive mathematics, to better understand the universe we live in. Recognize that the American public is, on the whole, scientifically illiterate, beseiged daily with a plethora of facts, some sense and some nonsense, all in the name of science. Hopefully, by completing this course, you will be better informed to be a better consumer (a sort of pragmatic reason) and a better citizen, capable of helping to determine public policy that affects our very future. But because this course is on-line, you will need a tremendous amount of discipline to learn the astronomy.
This is not to say that things will be excessively difficult. On the contrary, we find that teaching on-line allows us to articulate our objectives and teach specifically to them. We will use streaming video for our lectures. Understand that some of the lectures have been digitaclly recorded earlier, even in the winter, but the topical nature is correct, following our syllabus. To accomodate the slowest modem we break the lectures up into parts. The way we'll do this is to join a streaming video and then come together for interaction through Blackboard. The lectures will be found in Blackboard, and you can view them over and over again at any time (day or night) so in some ways this is better than a regular face to face class. The interaction as a group takes place in the Blackboard CHAT Room. I can also answer questions via e-mail so we'll be in touch pretty regularly this summer.
There is another important consideration. You will be exposed to a tremendous amount of material. But I am firmly convinced that, while you will understand better how the solar system, the galaxy, and the universe works, many of these details will become "foggy" with time. You will not, however, forget the first time you see the rings of Saturn or the moons of Jupiter. (Jupiter is just spectacular this fall and we have several students doing some research on signals they are retrieving from the giant planet. We just got back from Hawaii at the American Astronomical Society meeting where we presented a paper on this project) This course, in addition to everything else, is observationally based. I want you to see things you have not dreamed of. The heavens offer sights that will amaze you. Yes, we have a great observatory. Several prominent colleges in this state have copied our design and built in features we've recommended. We have a computer controlled 14" telescope that does a nice job of helping us see the heavens. However, because of the nature of the media for this course, you will not be scheduled to use it for observations. Instead you will build your own small telescope as part of the course and we are trying to remain true to keeping you from having to come to campus. If you have a small telescope or powerful binoculars, you may use that for your observing activities as well. Still, observing is a formal requirement of the course. Also, there are a number of indoor experiments you will do that can make astronomy more meaningful, like investigating the nature of light, spectra, how telescopes work and we've got some computer simulations that help you to better understand what astronomers do.
Our class, both
the "lecture" (although
we are eliminating lecture in the traditional sense of the word and replacing
it with Content ) and the "lab" (we
replace that with Observational Activities)
are "taught" (this word too should be replaced) online. The
main source of content knowledge will be the textbook in the traditional
sense. We do offer a textbook for your use so we can gather some specific
information. But much of the information will come from other sources,
namely the multimedia forms used with the internet..Consequently, you
are expected to be online at least twice weekly and follow our learning
schedule. We also recognize that this course is intended to be observationally
based, in other words we expect to see with our own eyes things we've
never seen before. It forms a special foundation for this course. We
cannot replace that with the world wide web. But, we can supplement it
for the Hubble Space TelescopeHubble
Space Telescope and other devices have given us images we
could not have imagined. We'll be looking at the NASA archives, JPL,
the HST,the Galileo, Cassini probes, etc. This kind of information won't
be printed for a while. The available text book is a paperback called Explorations:
An Intro to Astronomy by Arny and published by Dushkin/McGraw
Hill. There is no addtional charge.for the Starry
Night Pro Planetarium Program 
packaged
with your text. I have been contacted by the publisher that the book
may not be available until later tin September. To make up for that they
will copy the first four chapters and provide them for you. You'll pay
the full price of the book abut when it becomes available they will just
trade the copies for the entire text. No big deal! For the Labs and your
observational activities we will combine hands-on involvment
in
astronomy.
You will
build a telescope,
a spectroscope and a celestial sphere. But we will concentrate on what
we can do in the heavens and what we can see. That will require combining
the Starry Night Pro with the sky. We intend to supplement
this with streaming video directly from our college's telescope, real-time!
I am firmly convinced that if you read the assigned material in the paperback
text, use the online text as outlined, answering the questions, etc.
and complete the observational activities, you can't miss!
I have also been selected a NASA
Solar System Ambassador . 
I
am updated with the most current information about all the solar
system probes including Galileo, Cassini and the others. This information
is something you cannot get from a textbook and I will have it in
class for you.
You'll need some kind of E-Mail account so we can send E-mail and keep in touch, etc. This is a MUST! We have to be able to communicate, not just you to me, but among the class as well. I will need your home E-Mail account, the one you will use most of the time, most likely the one from your internet provider. I have the college e-mail address but if you use something else, just let me know and I will make a list with all e-mails on it.
Now, we can't do it all. You will be shown a few simple, straight forward techniques that work and will get the job done. Your instructor does not know them all. No one person does. It will be doable! Because this is so experimental (and with such a risk, we have to be prepared for the remote chance of failure too) our syllabus will be fluid and may change week to week. It will always be improved. In fact, we'll sort of develop it as we go along, collaboratively. Note, I said collaboratively, not cooperatively. This will be a very new way of doing things. We are still in a pilot program so I beg your patience. I will not ask of you more than you could reasonably be expected to do. Things will change as new information is available, new web pages on the internet and new NASA discoveries. You are getting the most up to date course possible. You should not print out the syllabus as things will change. You need to get in the habit of using it online in real time.
There are some opportunities for you. Yes, YOU! Occassionally we need and want student researchers to help us on observing runs to O'Brien (30" telescope at Marine, MN) and perhaps Mt Lemmon (Arizona) or WIRO in Wyoming. The department has a NASA grant to support some of these activities. Your imagination is about the limit, and then some. These opportunities will be discussed in class online and through E-Mail. Of course, you'll need to develop some skills first, but you will. With that in mind, let's go.:
WHAT YOU NEED:
Computer System: Access to Pentium PC with at least 64 MB RAM, sound card and speakers. We won't use everything to start with. You will need to establish connection with an internet service provider. Some of the files used are big (eg. video files that are 10 MB are not uncommon.)
Text book and Supplies: From the CSC Bookstore you'll
need to purchase the textbook, Explorations - An Introduction
to Astronomy, latest version . 
This
version includes the Starry Night Pro Software. Additionally
the bookstore will stock a College Astronomy Kit, PS-13 which
includes: a Celestial Sphere, a Refracting Telescope and a Cardboard
Spectrometer, each in kit form. These will be used in your laboratory
activities. Both the text and lab kits have been ordered and should
be in shortly. (I believe a year ago the lab kit cost $22.) .
E-Mail Account: This is obvious to all of us. You
certainly have an account at the college, but I need to know your E-Mail
address that you access most frequently. I not only will be sending
you info about the course, but also will send you the latest updates
when I get them.
Examinations: There will be three periodic exams and
a final exam. They will be online at Blackboard.com. I'll explain how
to access them in a timely fashion. I will need all the data about
you first, so as soon as I get a class list with student ID, etc, I
have set up your accounts. It is not there yet. The exams will be done
on-line and MUST be completed before class of the day they are listed.
The exams are multiple choice, on-line and typically take less than the one
hour allotted. The Final Exam will be two hours long, roughly one hundred multiple
choice questions. Questions for all exams are selected randonly by the computer
from a pool so no two people will get the same exam. Most students have expressed
satisfaction with the testing.
There will be TWO major parts of this course used to determine your grade:
Content: There will be three periodic hour long examinations. (You already had one and you'll get two more in the time remaining.)These will generally be multiple choice tests and be accomplished online. So you can take the exam from anywhere, even in your bathrobes while wrapped around a cup of hot chocolate at home. We call them "Opportunities to Excel." A Final Exam will also be administered during the Final Exam week at the scheduled time. The Final Exam will be comprehensive over the entire course. It too, will be online. So even if you are in the Kingdom of Tonga (for example) you can take the final exam at the scheduled time.
Observing and Related Activities: There will be a total of twelve sessions scheduled. Because we are somewhat weather dependent will have to be flexible. In general, whenever it is clear, we'll go out. Because of the winter temperatures, be sure to dress warmly because it gets cold out. In Minnesota, astronomers suffer! Hah! Three of these twelve will come from an observing journal. The mandatory ones will be the Lunar Sample (because NASA sends them on a certain date only) That leaves eight other activities. We'll discuss them in class. Actually, we'll count (for grade) the eleven best grades. This does not mean you should plan to "skip" or "cut" a lab, but that rather than placing the extra burden of making up some time sensitive activity (eg. when the lunar samples come from NASA) when you might be ill, you can rest more easily.
Because all three of these areas (periodic tests, final exam and labs) are important to measuring your learning, each will be weighted the same. i.e., for each of these areas you will receive a grade and the average of the combined grades will determine your final class standing. The advantage to this simple policy is obvious. It would be unwise to expect to get a good grade in the course while deficient in the other.
BLOCK 2:
Introduction: The Nature of Astronomy
The Cosmic Landscape
History of Astronomy
Backyard Asronomy
Gravity and Motion
Light and Atoms
Telescopes
Opportunity to Excel # 1
| The Earth
|
| The Moon
|
| Survey of the
Solar System |
| The
Terrestrial Planets |
| The Outer
Planets |
| Meteors,
Asteroids, and
Comets |
| Review
|
| Opportunity to Excel # 2 |
| Women in
Astronomy |
| The Sun, Our
Star |
| Measuring the
Properties
of Stars |
| Stellar
Evolution |
| Stellar
Remnants: White
Swarfs, Neutron Stars, and Black Holes |
| Review
|
| Opportunity to Excel # 3 |
| The Milky Way
Galaxy |
| Galaxies
|
| Cosmological
Beginnings: How the Universe Got to Its Present State |
| From Here to
Eternity: The Eventual Fate of the Universe |
| The Search for
Extra-Terrestrial
Intelligence Desperately Seeking ET: Life in the Universe |
| Review |