Syllabus for Astronomy I

Syllabus for Astronomy I (Fall 2001)

Lecture Section 13, Tuesday-Thursday, 3:30-4:20 pm in Corcoran 101

Prof. W.C. Parke
Samson Hall, Room 308
Tel: 994-7225
E-mail: wparke@gwu.edu

Aug 28^th – Oct 4^th	Chapters 1-4 (12 lectures)
	The big picture; The scale of things; Measurement of distance & angles, Parallax; Length, mass, time; Motion of the Earth & Moon, seasons, eclipses; The celestial sphere, precession. The Copernican revolution and early views of the Solar System; The birth of modern astronomy: Brahe, Kepler & Galileo; Kepler’s laws, Newton’s laws, & gravitation.
October 9^th	Examination I
Oct 11^th – Nov 1^st	Chapters 5-6 (7 lectures)
	Electromagnetic radiation, waves, wavelength, frequency & velocity; Wien’s law, Stefan’s law; Blackbody radiation, temperature, and Doppler effect; Spectroscopy, the Bohr atom; Kirchhoff’s laws - continuous and discrete spectra. Telescopes - refractors, reflectors, detectors; Radio, infrared, and high-energy astronomy.
November 6^th	Examination II
Nov 8^th – Dec 6^th	Chapters 7-9, (10-16) 17-18 (9 lectures)
	The Solar System, character and origin; The Earth - tides, atmosphere, interior; The Moon and the Planets; Debris and Earth crossing bodies; The Sun.
December 18^th	Final (Examination III) (4:00 pm)

The textbook, Universe, by Kaufmann & Freedman, 6th edition, will be used in conjunction with the material presented in class. (The book is also available in a split edition, the first called Universe: The Solar System which covers the material of Astronomy I).

The listed topics are meant to serve as a guide to the material we plan to cover during the semester. Reading assignments should be completed before the corresponding lecture. There is a laboratory component to the course, for which a separate syllabus will be distributed.

There will be three equally weighted examinations within the first semester. The laboratory will count for 20% of the grade. A remaining part of the course grade (~5%) will be accounted for by a number of quizzes.