ASTRONOMY 1210

 

INTRODUCTION TO

THE SKY AND SOLAR SYSTEM

SUMMER 2015

 

 

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 This class meets Monday through Friday, from June 15 through July 10 from 10:30am - 12:45pm in Clark Hall, Room 107. The Final Exam will be Saturday July 11th, 10:30am - 1:00pm.

 

There will be no class on Friday, July 3rd.

 

 

 

On either the evening of June 16 or 17, the class will visit McCormick Observatory (weather permitting; if neither night is clear, we will have to reschedule). We will discuss this in class on June 15th. In addition, we will visit the observatory on the Public Night, scheduled for Friday, June 19th from 9-11pm.

There will be no class on July 4.

 

 

Contact Information:

Name	Office	Office Hours	Email
Ricky Patterson Instructor	Astronomy 214 & Clark/BSEL I055	TBD or by appointment	ricky@virginia.edu

 

Text:

The Cosmic Perspective,  by Bennett, Donahue, Schneider and Voit  (Pearson Higher Education) 7th edition available (New and Used) in the UVa Bookstore. It will also be used for ASTR 1220 in the July/August summer session.

 

Course Description:

A study of the night sky and solar system, primarily for non-science majors. This course provides an overview of the night sky, and motions of the celestial sphere. We will also cover the history of astronomy through the time of Isaac Newton. The topics include properties of the Sun, Earth, Moon, planets, asteroids, meteors and comets as well as the origin and evolution of the Solar System.

 

The environment of summer session classes differs significantly from that of classes taken during the academic year. Among the obvious differences are 1) the individual class sessions are longer, 2) we meet five days a week, and 3) class is over in a few short weeks. In addition, students are usually only taking at most one other class at the same time, and there tend to be fewer extracurricular activities (although many students have jobs at this time). The overall effect is a class where the material tends to stay fresher in our minds throughout the four weeks of the course, which, along with the smaller class size) helps to enable more productive discussions about the concepts related to the class.

 

I realize the format also presents the challenges of increased reading loads, and less time to process and understand new concepts. But I hope that we can take advantage of the potential benefits of the summer class and learn not only facts about the night sky and our solar system, but also engage in a richer and more lively discussion about science in general (how we know what we know, how we discover new things, how we refine or discard theories, etc.).

Prerequisites:

No courses are required before taking ASTR 1210. However, it is assumed that you have a basic knowledge of physical science, algebra and geometry at the high school level. Calculus is neither required nor expected. Please contact the instructor if you have any questions or concerns.

Web Pages:

• ASTR 1210 Collab page (these pages)
• UVa Department of Astronomy

The ASTR 1210 Collab page is contains all announcements and information on all course policies, assignments, deadlines, homework, quizzes, grading, and grades. If you have questions, this is the first place to look. The Collab Page is a secure site, and you will need your UVa login and NetBadge password to access it.

Grading:

• Homework (Collab Daily Quizzes):  30%
• In Class Midterms:  10% each (20% total)
• Final Exam: 20%
• Daily Responses, Attendance, Participation and Effort: 30%

 

Independent Work:

Any material submitted for grading in this course is assumed to be entirely your own work and will be regarded as IMPLICITLY PLEDGED, whether it is pledged in writing or not. As a reminder, here is the pledge:

"On my honor as a student I have neither given nor received aid on this exam/assignment."

You are encouraged to study together and discuss topics for the course. You may discuss homework problems together. However, you must be sure that all work that you hand in for a grade is yours and yours alone. Do not submit answers from working with someone else that you do not fully understand.

Attendance:

  Attendance is expected at every class session - the summer session is a very compressed environment for learning, and the small class size makes your involvement even more important. Class participation, daily responses, and attendance count towards your final grade. If you have a valid and unavoidable reason for missing class, please let me know as soon as possible (and in any case before the missed class, unless it is a bona fide emergency for which you had no prior notice).

You will receive no grade for daily participation for any way that you inform me before class about an valid absence. No grade means that this day neither counts towards nor deducts from your grade. It has the effect of making all of the remaining days count more, which generally means your grade is unaffected by an excused absence.

However, you will receive a 0 for the daily class participation grade for the day in the event of any non-emergency class absences which you don't inform me about prior to the start of class on that day.

Daily Responses:

A short written daily response is due at the end of each class. It must contain at least two questions that you have about material that you do not understand, and at least two things that you do understand with an explanation demonstrating your understanding. Use a full piece of paper to write this (please do not turn it in on a scrap of paper). It should typically be about 1/2 of a page in length.

Homework and Lecture Notes:

Daily assignments on the Collab site (under Tests & Quizzes), due each day before class at 10am. Homework may be submitted by 10am the following day for half credit. In addition, you are responsible for reading and reviewing the textbook material for each chapter before the lecture. You are encouraged to look over the slides for each lecture in advance, and bring them to class; they are available under "Resources". My hope is that you can use the slides to avoid having to take extensive notes, which will let you concentrate on the material as we discuss it, and only note down particular things that add to the slides, rather than simply writing down all the material in the slides.

Cell phones and other electronic devices:

You must silence all electronic devices before the start of class. Devices can only be used during class for class material. Use of devices for any other purpose during class is rude, and disruptive to other students who are trying to pay attention in class. Texting, reading email, watching You Tube, checking Facebook, etc. etc. etc. is not allowed. Please do not let this become a problem.

Preliminary Schedule (This will be updated as the class progresses).

Please Note: You are expected to read the underlined Chapters (or parts of chapters) before each class. The lecture slides are available under Resources.

Date	Topic
Sun 6/15	Add deadline
Mon 6/15	Introduction, Review Syllabus, Chapter 1: All        (Our Place in the Universe) Appendix C: All     (A Few Mathematical Skills)
Tue 6/16	Chapter 2: Patterns in the Night Sky Chapter S1: Astronomical Time Periods,
Wed 6/17	Chapter S1: Celestial Coordinates and Motions in the Sky
Thu 6/18	Chapter 2: The Reason for the Seasons, The Moon, our Constant Companion
Fri 6/19	Chapter 2: The Moon (continued), The Ancient Mystery of the Planets; Chapter 3: Ancient Roots of Astronomy Public Night at McCormick Observatory (9-11pm)
Mon 6/22	Chapter 3: Ancient Greek Science
Tue 6/23	Chapter 3: The Copernican Revolution, The Nature of Science, Astrology
Wed 6/24	Quiz (Chapters 1, 2, 3, and S1);      Chapter 4: Describing Motion
Thu 6/25	Drop Deadline; Chapter 4: All the rest:  Newton's Laws of Motion, Conservation Laws, Gravity, Orbits/Tides/Acceleration
Fri 6/26	Chapter 7: All; Chapter 8: All   (Overview and Formation of the Solar System)
Mon 6/29	Chapter 9: All        (Terrestrial Planets - Geology)
Tue 6/30	Chapter 10: All      (Terrestrial Planets - Atmospheres)
Wed 7/1	Chapter 10: continued
Thu 7/2	Withdrawal Deadline; Quiz (Chapters 4, 7-10)
Fri 7/3	NO CLASS
Mon 7/6	Chapter 11: All     (Jovian Planet Systems)
Tue 7/7	Chapter 12: All     (Asteroids, Comets, Meteor Showers, and Dwarf Planets)
Wed 7/8	Chapter 12: continued, Chapter 13: All       (Other Planetary Systems)
Thu 7/9	Chapter 13:            (Other Planetary Systems)
Fri 7/10	Chapter 14: All       (Our Star)
Sat 7/11	Final Exam (cumulative; time 10:30am - 1pm)

 

A study of the night sky and solar system, primarily for non-science majors. This course provides an overview of the night sky, and motions of the celestial sphere. We will also cover the history of astronomy through the time of Isaac Newton. The topics include properties of the Sun, Earth, Moon, planets, asteroids, meteors and comets as well as the origin and evolution of the Solar System.