Astro 501 -- Fundamental Astronomy

Graduate Survey Course covering the fundamental concepts in positional, stellar, and extragalactic astronomy

Class Time: MWF 11:15 - 12:05 Class Room: 541 Davey Lab

Professor: Robin Ciardullo Office: 519 Davey Lab

Office Hours: MF 3:30-4:30 or any other time Zoom Address: https://psu.zoom.us/j/3404085003

e-mail: rbc@astro.psu.edu Web page: https://sites.google.com/psu.edu/robin-ciardullo/teaching/astro-501

This course is an overview which will touch on topics throughout astronomy. Ten percent of the grade will be based on class participation. For the remaining 90%, half of the grade will be based on the homework, and the other half will come from the tests (midterm and final).

Problem sets will be assigned (very roughly) every other week. Science is a collaborative discipline, so you are encouraged to work with other students on these problem sets. However, your writeups must be expressed in your own words and not shared with other members of the class. Late homework will be penalized with a 10% deduction in points for each day past the due date. Please DO NOT start the homework the night before it's due!! Come ask me for help if you are stuck on any problems.

There are two on-line textbooks associated with the class. Both can be accessed from any Penn State computer. If you are not on a Penn State computer, you can still access the texts via Penn State's GlobalProtect Virtual Private Network (VPN). The software to do this can be downloaded at https://downloads.its.psu.edu/.

• Fundamental Astronomy by Karttunen et al. covers much of the material of this course (although in a different manner than I do). You can find the book at https://link-springer-com.ezaccess.libraries.psu.edu/book/10.1007%2F978-3-662-53045-0.

• Extragalactic Astronomy by Peter Schneider is useful for the latter half of the course. It is at http://link.springer.com/book/10.1007%2F978-3-540-33175-9.

Finally, if you would like to know more about any subject, or want a different slant on things, there are numerous other papers and notes associated with this course. Many are/will be given in the links below, while others are included in the class notes.

A list of topics to be covered in the class appears below. The pdfs of the powerpoint slides for each topic will be linked to these entries before class.

Outline of Class

• I. Positional Astronomy
  Karttunen Reading: Chapter 2

  • Spherical Astronomy, Astronomical Coordinate Systems

  • Motions of the Earth and Astronomical Time

  • Astrometry

• II. Telescopes and Detectors
  Karttunen Reading: Chapter 3; Additional Reading: Bevington Chapters 2 - 4

  • Telescopes, Optics, and Basic Telescope Design

  • Detectors, Spectrographs, and Statistics

• III. Stars -- Basic Data
  Karttunen Reading: Chapter 17.2 (stellar distances), Chapter 4 (photometry and magnitudes), Chapter 9 (stellar spectra), Chapter 6 (Celestial Mechanics), and Chapter 10 (Binary Stars and Stellar Masses

  • Stellar distances, relative/absolute parallax, stellar luminosities

  • Stellar temperatures, photometric systems and photometry, spectral classes, HR diagram

  • Stellar radii and masses, stellar interferometry, binary stars

• IV. Stars -- Structure and Evolution
  Karttunen Reading: Chapter 11 (Stellar Structure), Chapter 12 (Stellar Evolution), Chapter 14 (Variable Stars), Chapter 15 (Compact Stars)

  • Main Sequence, stellar timescales, equations of stellar structure

  • Post-main sequence evolution stellar endpoints

  • Pre-Main Sequence Evolution

  • Binary Star Evolution

  • Accretion Disks

• V. Galactic Structure
  Karttunen Reading: Chapter 16 (ISM), Chapter 17 (Star Clusters) and Chapter 18 (Milky Way); Schneider Reading: Chapter 2 (Milky Way as a Galaxy)

  • ISM Phases, Reddening laws and extinction wavelength dependence (MW, SMC, LMC), and dust maps

  • Emission line physics (Part I)

  • Emission line physics (Part II)

  • Galactic rotation, Oort Constants, stellar motions, scale lengths, spiral density waves, stellar halo

  • Relaxation time, star clusters, isothermal spheres

• VI. Extragalactic Astronomy
  Karttunen Reading: Chapter 19 (Galaxies); Schneider Reading: Chapter 3 (World of Galaxies), Chapter 6 (Groups and Clusters), and Chapter 5 (Active Galactic Nuclei)

  • Stellar Populations, Hubble types, T-types, Basic Properties of Galaxies

  • Galaxy Interactions and Collisions; Induced Starbursts

  • The Distance Ladder

  • Galaxy Clusters, Classifications, Mass Estimators

  • AGN types, properties

• VII. Cosmology
  Karttunen Reading: Chapter 20 (Cosmology); Schneider Reading: Chapter 4

  • Equations of Cosmology

  • The Cosmic Microwave Background, and Baryonic Acoustic Oscillations

  • Early Universe/ Big Bang Nucleosynthesis

  • Large Scale Structure

Other Notes and References 

• I. Positional Astronomy 

  • Astronomical Almanac Online: Updates to the printed version of the Almanac. The Almanac itself, which contains all the numbers you will ever need and then some, is in 530 Davey (top of right bookshelf). Please do not remove this book from the room!

  • Official USNO Data for Time, Celestial Positions, Eclipses, etc.

  • Richard Wade's spherical astronomy notes

  • Richard Wade's notes on Map Projections, Catalogs, and Coordinates

  • The Eastman et al. (2010) article on astronomical time

  • Terry Girard's Notes on Astrometry

  • Fillipenko et al. (1982) article on atmospheric refraction

  • The AAVSO's Julian Day Calculator

  • Jason Eastman's Barycentric Velocity Calculator

• II. Telescopes and Detectors 

  • Data Reduction and Error Analysis for the Physical Sciences by Bevington

  • Astronomical Spectrographs by Bernstein & Schectman in Planets, Stars, and Stellar Systems, Volume 1. Available via a PSU IP address.

• III. Stars 

  • Derivation of the Saha Equation

  • Bob O'Connell's notes on filter systems

  • J.B. Tatum's book on Orbits and Celestial Mechanics

• V. Galactic Structure 

  • Notes on galaxy dynamics: Boltzmann's equation, Jeans equations, and relaxation time

  • Slightly more comprehensive notes on emission-line physics

• VI. Galaxies 

  • NASA/IPAC Extragalactic Database (NED)

• VII. Cosmology 

  • Distance Measures in Cosmology by David Hogg

  • Ned Wright's Cosmology Calculator

Homework

• Answers to Problem Set 1

• Answers to Problem Set 2

• Answers to Problem Set 3

• Answers to Problem Set 4

• Answers to Problem Set 5

  • • Associated data file atomic_data.txt

    • Associated data file nebula.txt

• Answers to Problem Set 6

• Answers to Problem Set 7

Exams

• Answers to Midterm

• Answers to Final

University Related Material

• Penn State Policy on Masks

• University Mandated Statement on Academic Integrity

• University Mandated Statement on Disability Accomodation

• University Mandated Statement on Counseling and Psychological Services

• University Mandated Statement on Educational Equity and Reporting Bias