STARS STARS
STARS 
STARS
STARS STARS STARS
A DAVIDSON JULY EXPERIENCE COURSE
Professor Cain
July 2005
This course is designed to give you some familiarity with topics in stellar astronomy. It is a brief introduction, but one designed to introduce you to what astronomers, as scientists, do and how they do it.
Our text will be Discovering the Universe, 7th edition, by Comins and Kaufmann. We will use only a small part of the text because of the tremendous range of topics in astronomy. I hope you will develop an interest in and familiarity with the field so that you will continue your interest in astronomy after you leave here. Astronomical topics are continually in the news, and astronomy is enjoyed and practiced by innumerable people, professional and amateur, throughout the world.
Homework will consist of daily readings and assignments. I encourage you to work and study together because you all bring different insights and experiences with you. Remember, though, that you will have to do your own work on tests. Your final grade will be determined by your performance on the homework, the two tests, and the final exam. You should bring a notebook, your calculator and the text to class every day at 8:30 a.m.
If time and weather permit, we will observe several times using one of the college’s telescopes. Since your time is well structured, these observations will be done only during the nights when you have available time between 9:00 and 11:00 p.m.
Homework and tests cover the material discussed in class. The text amplifies these ideas in great detail, but you are not responsible for everything in each chapter. I will delineate in class those parts of each chapter for which you are responsible. The chapter assignments below will tell you where in the text to find a discussion of the ideas we have gone over in class. As I do in all my classes, I encourage you to read the material before you come to class. That way you are familiar with the material and the terminology and, even if your understanding is not complete, the lecture should be easier to follow and you will know what questions to ask.
CLASS SCHEDULE/ASSIGNMENTS/THE SKY
DAY |
CLASS |
TEXT |
SKY |
|
June 21 |
|
|
Summer Solstice, 2:46 a.m. |
|
June 23 |
|
|
Moon at perigee (369,672 km) |
|
June 28 |
|
|
Last Quarter Moon, 4:23 a.m. |
|
June 29 |
|
|
Mars 2º S of Moon |
|
|
|||
|
|
|||
|
July 04 |
Introductory Things |
Chapter 1 |
|
|
July 05 |
The Sky |
Chapter 1 |
Earth at aphelion (152,102,400 km) |
|
July 06 |
Sky Cycles |
Chapter 1 |
New Moon, 8:02 a.m. |
|
July 07 |
Light |
Chapter 3-1 to 4, |
|
|
July 08 |
Light |
Chapter 4 |
Moon at apogee
(406,363 km) Venus 3º S of Moon |
|
|
|||
|
|
|||
|
July 11 |
TEST #1 |
|
|
|
July 12 |
The Sun |
Chapter 10 |
|
|
July 13 |
Measuring Distances, |
Chapter 11 |
Jupiter 0.8º N of
Moon |
|
July 14 |
Stellar Properties, |
Chapter 11 |
First Quarter
Moon, 11:20 a.m. |
|
July 15 |
Stellar Evolution |
Chapter 12 |
|
|
|
|||
|
July 18 |
TEST #2 |
|
|
|
July 19 |
Stellar Evolution |
Chapter 12 |
|
|
July 20 |
Stellar Endings |
Chapter 13 |
|
|
July 21 |
Stellar Endings |
Chapter 14 |
Full Moon, 7:00 a.m. Moon at Perigee (357, 158 km) |
|
July 22 |
FINAL EXAM |
|
|
|
|
|||
|
July 23 |
Individual Interviews |
|
|
|
|
|||
|
July 27 |
|
|
Mars 4º S of Moon Last Quarter
Moon, 11:19 p.m. |