Instructor: Professor Gordon Richards | Lecture: TTh 12:30-1:50pm; Room: Randell 326 |
Office: 812 Disque Hall | Phone: 215-895-2713 |
e-mail: gtr25 at Drexel domain (subj: PHYS131) | Office Hours: W 3:30-4:30pm, R 2-3pm |
Text: Astronomy: The Universe at a Glance (1st Ed.), Chaisson & McMillan | http://www.physics.drexel.edu/~gtr/teaching/phys131/ |
Course Description: Purpose and Learning Goals: Reading: Students are strongly encouraged to at least skim
through the readings for each lecture before class in addition to
reading the material in detail after the lecture.
In class, we will make use of Prather et
al.'s Lecture
Tutorials for Introductory Astronomy (3rd Ed.), but it is NOT required.
Mastering Astronomy: After your initial setup, to access Mastering, please see this link. The Course ID is "richards49271". You will need access to this weekly.
Lectures: Office
Hours: Homework & Quizzes:
Exams: Grading: Students are responsible to monitoring their progress
using
the online gradebook in Drexel Learn (and not in Mastering Astronomy).
It is your responsibility to let me know
(in a timely fashion) if I am missing any grades for you.
Acadmic Policies:
Students may not copy one another's exams or homeworks. All of these are considered cheating
and will be dealt with in the following manner. The first infraction
will result in a zero for all parties involved. The second infraction
will result in an F for the course and a report to the office of
academic affairs.
Student with disabilities requesting accommodations and services at
Drexel University need to present a current accommodation verification
letter (AVL) to faculty before accommodations can be made. AVL's are
issued by the Office of Disability Resources. For additional
information, see
drexel.edu/disability-resources/support-accommodations/student-family-resources/.
For Health and Counseling needs, students can find further information at Classroom Etiquette: Appropriate Use of Course Materials: Briefly, this policy states that all course materials including recordings provided by the course instructor may not be copied, reproduced, distributed or re-posted. Doing so may be considered a breach of this policy and will be investigated and addressed as possible academic dishonesty, among other potential violations. Improper use of such materials may also constitute a violation of the University's Code of Conduct and will be investigated as such. Finally, changes to the parameters of the course may need to be made during
the quarter. In the case of such events, students will be notified by
the instructor through their official Drexel e-mail.
If you have read this far, please send the instructor an e-mail (prior to the first lecture) for one unit of extra credit. Please indicate that you are aware that you need both the book and acccess to Mastering Astronomy, that you should only follow the links above to get to Mastering Astronomy (then bookmark it), that the gradebook is on Learn and not in Mastring Astronomy, and that I don't allow make-up quizzes or exams (and that, despite all these rules, it will be a fun and interesting course!).
Last Modified: 23 March 2022
The course description, credit hours, and enrollment restrictions can be found at this link.
Students will be exposed to a broad brush of topics in astronomy with a focus on what has been learned from cutting-edge research in the past decade. Students will become familiar with the night sky, astronomical instruments/measurements, our solar system, the evolution of stars and galaxies, and the history/future of the Universe itself.
We will be using: "Astronomy: The Universe at a Glance". It is a very
abbreviated version of "Astronomy: A Beginner's Guide to the Universe
(9th Ed.)" by the same authors.
Note that we will be using the
version that comes with the Modified Mastering Astronomy
software.
You should probably NOT buy it from Amazon as that will either come
with no Mastering Astronomy access code or a code that is out of date,
in which case you'll need to spend more money to get the access
code. I recommend
following these
instructions.
Please Read. Even if you have not bought the book yet, I need
you to have acccess to Mastering Astronomy from Day 1. You will be
provided some time in class to do so if you haven't done it already.
Access is free for the first 14 days, so don't worry if you aren't
sure whether or not you are going to stay in the class. As with
purchasing the eText, you will
follow these
instructions. After you have registered your account (free for 2
weeks) or logged in to an existing account, at the bottom of the page
it says "Get temporary access". Click on that and you will be ready
to go.
We will meet for lecture twice a week for 1 1/2
hours. Lectures will consist primarily of information based on the
readings. In-class activities (1-2 per lecture) during the lecture
will be part of your participation grade (and will count 5% of
your final grade). To receive credit for attendance and class participation we will be using Socrative. Please make yourself an account (free) before the first lecture. The classroom ID will be RICHARDS. Logging in from home or for another person will result in a 0 class participation grade for the quarter. However, you will be allowed to miss 2 lectures without any penalty.
Tentatively set for W 3:30-4:30pm and R 2-3pm. I may have to
adjust these after the first week of classes. For those that cannot
make those days/times, I can arrange for some online office hours in the
evening if there is enough demand.
Homework will be given each week on
the Mastering
Astronomy site (course ID: "richards49271"). The Homework should
be done completely on your own as it is meant to prepare you for the
Quizzes (and Final Exam). Weekly Quizzes on the previous week's
material (reading, lectures, and homework) will be given in the first
5 minutes of lecture every Tuesday. Quizzes will be mostly multiple
choice, labeling, matching, true/false, etc. There will be ~9 quizzes
during the quarter. I will drop your lowest quiz grade; no
make-up quizzes will be given, so don't be late (even by 2-3 minutes)
for class on Tuesdays. Homework will be available online from
Thursday afternoon until the start of class on Tuesdays.
Currently no midterm is planned. A (comprehensive) final exam will be
given during a time/date to be decided during the exam week. It will
be mostly multiple choice, T/F, etc. questions with a few short answer
and drawing problems. For the multiple choice and T/F part, your
score will be the average of your own score and that of your group.
I'll explain more about this in class.
10 point scale (90=A-, 80=B-, 70=C-, etc.) using the following weighting:
Students are expected to be familiar with Drexel's policies on
Academic Integrity, Plagiarism, Dishonesty and Cheating: www.drexel.edu/provost/policies/academic_dishonesty.asp,
Course Adding/Dropping: www.drexel.edu/provost/policies/course_drop.asp,
Course Withdrawal: drexel.edu/provost/policies/course-withdrawal,
Incomplete Grades: drexel.edu/provost/policies/incomplete_grades/, and
Grade Appeals: drexel.edu/provost/policies/grade-appeals/.
drexel.edu/counselingandhealth/student-health-center/overview/
drexel.edu/counselingandhealth/counseling-center/overview/
At this time, Drexel University requires everyone to wear a mask in all on-campus public and shared spaces, regardless of the vaccination status. Eating is not permitted in the classroom. If the student needs to remove their mask (to drink water etc.), they may step outside the class to do so and then return to class. Please, remember to always bring your mask to avoid class disruption.
It is important to recognize that some or all of the course materials provided to you may be the intellectual property of Drexel University, the course instructor, or others. Use of this intellectual property is governed by Drexel University policies, including the IT-1 Policy.
Topics to be Covered
Week
Subject
Chapter(s)
Reading
Learning Outcomes
1
Introduction & Constellations
Chapter 1, Appendix
1.1-1.3,1.6, Appendix 2 (9 pages)
1-L02, 1-L06
2
Earthly Phenomena:
Seasons, Lunar Phases, Eclipses, TidesChapter 1, Chapter 4
1.3-1.5, 4.2 (8 pages)
1-L03, 1-L04, 1-L05, 5-L02
3
Gravity, Light, Cameras, Telescopes
Chapters 2
2.1-2.3, 2.6, [2.7-2.8] (~12 pages)
2-L01, 2-L02, 2-L03, 2-L06
4
Solar System Intro:
Killer Asteroids & Pluto's ExitChapters 6 & 7
6.7-6.8, 7.1-7.2, 7.4-7.5,7.6b (~14 pages)
6-L07, 6-L08; 7-L02, 7-L04, 7-L05
5
The Planets
Chapters 3, 4, 5 & 6
3.7a,c; 4.4b, 4.6-7; 5.1-5.5, 6.1-6.3, 6.5-6 (~26 pages)
6-L01,L02,L05; 5-L01,L02,L03,L04,L05
6
Stars & Stellar Evolution
We are StardustChapters 8, 9 & 10
8.1,8.2a,8.3c,8.4-8.7, 9.1,9.2a,9.5, 10.4-5 (22 pages)
8-L04,L05,L06,L07; 9-L02,L03,L04,L05; 10-L04,L05,L06
7
Black Holes
Chapters 10, 11, & 12
10.6; 11.2-5,7; 12.1-6 (24 pages)
11-L01,L02,L04,L05; 12-L01-L06
8
Galaxies
Ours and OthersChapters 13 & 14
13.1-5,7; 14.1-2,4 (18 pages)
13-L01-L07;14-L01,L04
9
Clusters, Quasars, and "Dark Matter"
Chapters 13 & 14
13.6; 14.3,5-8; 15.1 (14 pages)
14-L02,L03,L05-L08
10
Cosmology
The Age of the UniverseChapter 15
15.1-4,6,7 (12 pages)
15-L01-L04,L06,L07
Final Exam:
Tuesday 7 June, 15:30-17:30pm, Disque 108 (bring a charged computer to use for the online portion)
Links
Astronomy Picture of the Day
BAD Astronomy
NASA
How to Buy a Telescope
Hubble Space Telescope Images
James Webb Space Telescope Images
Chandra X-ray Observatory Images
Observing Information
Drexel's Joseph R. Lynch Observatory (our 16 inch Meade telescope)
Heavens Above (for viewing satellites)
Sky & Telescope (the premier astronomy magazine)
Sky Charts
SkyMaps.com
Spring Sky Chart
Summer Sky Chart
Autumn Sky Chart
Winter Sky Chart
Northern Stars Planetarium Observing Resources
Philly-area Public Observing Nights
Note: These are weather dependent events and may be canceled in case of rain or significant cloud cover.
First Wednesday of each month
Second Tuesday of the month.
Every Monday, and the first Friday of the Month