AY 20:  Basic Astronomy and the Galaxy          2007 Fall term	

Meets in 023 Robinson   Monday	  2:00-3:00PM (except Oct 15 in 106 Rob)
			Wednesday 2:00-3:00PM (except Oct 10 12-1pm)
                        Friday	  2:00-3:00PM

Prof:  Sterl Phinney
        125 Bridge
        x4308
        esp [at] tapir.caltech.edu

TA:	Varun Bhalerao	
        16 Robinson
        varun [at] astro.caltech.edu
	x6857
	Office hours: 4pm-6pm Thursdays

COURSE WEBSITE:
WWW: http://www.its.caltech.edu/~esp/ay20/

TEXTBOOK:
1. An Introduction to Modern Astrophysics (2nd Edition, 2007) 
by Bradley Carroll and Dale Ostlie ISBN 978-0805304022
(Pearson/Addison Wesley/Benjamin Cummings)

Textbook's website (errata, computer programs, data, links):
http://wps.aw.com/aw_carroll_ostlie_astro_2e/

SYLLABUS:

Introduction and overview; celestial sphere, time systems, units
Telescopes, observatories, surveys, astronomical data, web resources
Celestial mechanics, Kepler's laws, binary stars and their uses
Electromagnetic radiation and its interaction with matter
Stellar atmospheres, classification of stellar spectra
Stellar interiors, energy generation, main sequence
The Sun, neutrino astronomy
Post-MS evolution, stellar pulsation
White dwarfs, neutron stars, black holes, gravitational wave astronomy,
Close binaries, stellar interactions, novae, supernovae,
Interstellar matter, star formation, stellar luminosity and mass functions
Extrasolar planets
Star clusters and elementary stellar dynamics
Our Galaxy: structure, content, rotation, kinematics, stellar populations
Galactic morphology and spiral structure, dark matter, galaxy evolution

OBSERVING PROJECT and FIELD TRIP: On Oct 15, you must submit a
two-page observing proposal to use the Palomar 1.5m telescope (P60)
[and optionally, the 1m Table Mountain (T40) telescope] for an
observing program of your choice (using not more than a total of 4
hours of telescope time).  Page 1 should explain your project, why it
is interesting, and what you expect to learn/show. Page 2 should list
the object[s] to be observed, and the (approximate) dates, exposure
times and filters.  The P60 time will be queue scheduled from mid October
to mid November, while the T40 time may be executed as a remote
observing session.

Information on the P60 is at
http://www.astro.caltech.edu/~derekfox/P60/  and
http://www.astro.caltech.edu/~derekfox/P60/status.html
Information on the T40 is at
http://www.astronomy.pomona.edu/tmo/index.html
The best/most feasible observing programs will be 
selected by a "Time allocation commitee", and executed during mid-Oct to
mid-Nov. The entire class will then participate in reducing and 
interpreting the data during the final 3 weeks of class.

During the new-moon period after midterms, Nov 7-11, there will be
a field trip to the Palomar observatory (joint with a Pomona class).

GRADING:
There will be approximately weekly homework sets due in class on
Fridays, an open textbook midterm, and a closed-book final exam.
Your grade will be a mostly monotonic function of
lab writeups, homework, midterm and final.
g = [0.4(sum of homework scores) + 0.15(observing/lab writeups)
+ 0.2(score on midterm exam) +0.25(score on final exam)].

LATE HOMEWORK POLICY: Homework extensions of up to 24 hours can be
granted by Sterl or the TA.  Longer extensions can only be
approved by Sterl.  No late homework will be accepted unless one of
these prior arrangements has been made.  Unapproved late homework will
not be graded.

COLLABORATION POLICY: Collaboration on the homework is NOT ALLOWED.
You have to do the homework all by yourself.  You
may consult books and published papers, but not old assignments or
those of other students.  First try every homework problem BY YOURSELF
without discussing it with anyone.  

If you get stuck, you can TALK about the homework with the TA or your
fellow students, but all exchanges of information must be aural and
general in nature (i.e. "Did you remember to include Comptonisation"
is ok.  "The right answer is V k squared over pi squared" is NOT
ok). Visual exchanges of information are strictly forbidden -you may
not show each other equations, graphs, or computer programs in any
form.

In real research, no one else knows the answer to the problems you
work on (otherwise why would you be doing them?), so the most
important thing you can learn from homework is how to think and solve
for yourself, and be confident in your answers.