Class Time: MWF 2:30 - 3:20 Class Room: 541 Davey Lab
Professor: Robin Ciardullo Office: 428A Davey Lab
Office Hours: MWF 1:30-2:30 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
Homework
Exams
College and University Related Material