Physics 230, "Stellar Astronomy", Fall 2004

This material can be found online at URL

http://spiff.rit.edu/classes/phys230/phys230.html

Outline for the course, class schedule, etc.

Syllabus, including reading assignments and test dates.

Scores after Test 2

Lectures (some material may change during the course of the quarter)

1. Challenges to studying the stars
2. Tools: Geometry and Time
   • Special topic-of-the-day: The Genesis mission
3. Tools: Optical Telescopes and Optical Detectors

4. Tools: Non-optical telescopes
5. Tools: Spectrographs
6. Tools: Interpretation of Stellar Spectra

7. The Sun: View from the Outside
8. The Sun: View from the Inside
9. Test 1

10. Special Guest: Ed Hirst, mission manager for the Genesis spacecraft mission
11. Stars in the Neighborhood: Distance and Luminosity
    • answers to the worksheet on 61 Cyg A
12. Stars in the Neighborhood: The HR diagram

13. Stars in the neighborhood: Mass via eclipsing binaries
14. Interstellar Medium: Dust
15. Interstellar Medium: Gas

16. Interstellar Medium: Star Formation
17. Stellar energy generation on the main sequence
18. Stellar evolution on the main sequence

19. Interpreting the HR diagram of clusters
20. Late stages of evolution for low-mass stars
21. Late stages of evolution for high-mass stars

22. Neutron stars
23. Black holes
24. Test 2

25. The structure of the Milky Way
26. Pulsating variable stars and the size of the Milky Way,

    A Gamma Ray Telescope in the news .... and some examples of air-showers caused by cosmic rays hitting the atmosphere

27. Who are the galaxies in the neighborhood?

28. Planets around other stars: how to find them
    • U of R astronomers find evidence for a planet
29. Planets around other stars and the formation of life
30. The Search for Extraterrestrial Life

Homework sets. You must use the Webwork system to generate problem sets and provide answers.

• Set 0: Introduction to Webwork due Friday, Sep 10, at 10:00 AM.
• Set 1: Geometry and Telescopes Changed! Now due Saturday, Sep 18, at 10:00 AM.
  • Answers to Homework 1
• Set 2: Detectors and the Sun due Friday, Sep 24, at 10:00 AM.
  • Answers to Homework 2
• Set 3: Stars in the local neighborhood due Friday, Oct 8, at 10:00 AM.
  • Answers to Homework 3
• Set 4: The ISM and Star Formation due Friday, Oct 22, at 5:00 PM.
  • Answers to Homework 4
• Set 5: Stellar Evolution due Thursday, Oct 28, at 11:00 PM.
  • Answers to Homework 5
• Set 6: Using stars as tools due Monday, Nov 8, at 11:00 PM.
  • Answers to Homework 6
• Set 7: Other planets, other life? due Monday, Nov 15, at 11:00 AM.
  • Answers to Homework 7

Extra Credit Projects (each student may hand in up to 2 extra credit projects during the quarter)

1. Solar Rotation Period
   Due Friday, Oct 1, at 10 AM.
2. The Orion Nebula at many wavelengths
   Due Friday, Oct 15, at 10 AM.
3. Angular Size of the N11 Nebula
   Due Friday, Oct 15, at 10 AM.
4. Estimate the distance to the Gemstone Cluster
   Due Wednesday, Nov 10, at 10 AM.
5. Transits of the Sun
   Due Monday, Nov 15, at 10 AM.
6. Measure the Radius of the Earth
   

Quizzes

Other Astronomy Information

• The RIT Observatory website
• Astronomy Picture of the Day
• Solar sails can propel a spacecraft through the solar system without any fuel. How? It's just conservation of momentum ....
• The 2002 Nobel Prizes in Physics go to three astronomers. Two of them are being recognized for their work on the detection of solar neutrinos.
• Want to make your own simulations of the night sky?
  • Stellarium shows you any portion of the night sky as seen from Earth
  • Celestia lets you fly through the solar system or the Milky Way galaxy
• The Universe is big, really big. The Scale of the Universe website might give you a feeling for its enormity.

The Moon doesn't really fit into a course on stellar astronomy, but you can find a good book on-line: The Photographic Moon Book by Alan Chu.

This page maintained by Michael Richmond. Last modified Nov 10, 2004.

Copyright © Michael Richmond. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons License.