Astronomy 321 Course Topics Fall 2007

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Topics to be covered include most (or possibly all) of the following. Please note that the order in which topics will be covered and the emphasis placed on different topics will depend on weather conditions and on which planets are visible in a given semester.

* Units of distance in astronomy (AU, ly, pc, plus metric system review)

* The celestial sphere: celestial poles, celestial equator, and ecliptic

* Coordinate systems on the sky: Right Ascension and Declination; altitude and azimuth

* Angular size vs. physical size, units of angular measure

* Apparent motions of the stars (diurnal motion), and role of latitude on Earth

* Apparent motion of the Sun (annual motion); equinoxes and solstices; precession

* Apparent motion of the planets, effects on planet visibility

* The magnitude system for measuring brightness; apparent vs. absolute magnitude

* Astronomical systems of time: solar time, sidereal time, universal time and more

* Using telescopes: primary and secondary mirrors, eyepieces, setting circles

* Geometrical optics and telescope design: refractors and reflectors

* Telescope mounts: equatorial vs. altitude-azimuth design

* Inherent limitations of a telescope: diffraction and the Airy disk

* Limitations imposed by Earth's atmosphere: "seeing", atmospheric "windows"

* Astronomical detectors: the human eye, photographic plates, CCD cameras

* Quantitative measurements in astronomy: photometry and spectroscopy

* Photometry of star clusters: creating a color-magnitude diagram

* Observing at other wavelengths: X-ray imaging of a star cluster using Chandra

* Astronomical resources on the world wide web; creating your own web page

*** turn over for course information ***