SYLLABUS

Instructor: David G. Turner
Office: AT319B
Telephone: (902) 420-5635
Email: turner@ap.smu.ca
Class Schedule: Monday and Wednesday, 5:30-6:45 pm, Burke Theatre A
Assistant: TBA
Course Textbook: 21st Century Astronomy, by Hester, Smith, Blumenthal, Kay, and Voss

Burke-Gaffney Observatory: The BGO is open Wednesday and Thursday evenings for the use of students in ASTR 1001 and ASTR 1100. Information about the Observatory can be accessed on Facebook through Saint Mary’s University Telescope, or by telephone: 420-5896. While logged into Facebook, search for “Saint Marys University Telescope” and the BGO should be the first item to appear. Students can join by clicking the “Like This” tab, which will allow them to get up-to-date information on when the telescope will be open. The telescope operator is Steve Burke.

Since astronomy is outside of the concentration areas for most students, it is usually taken as an elective for those wishing an introduction to the subject. Most people find astronomy to be an interesting subject, so there is usually no need to encourage students to read as much about it as they can. Learning more about the nature of the universe around us through astronomy should always be fun.

COURSE OUTLINE

1. Why Learn Astronomy?: astronomy in everyday life, our place in the universe, distance = time, science as a process, with testable concepts, star-finding.

2. Patterns in the Sky: the celestial sphere and its connection to Earth as a sphere, how astronomers keep track of the co-ordinates of celestial objects, our view of the night sky as a function of location on Earth, precession, the ecliptic.

3. Gravity and Orbits: how Kepler used Tycho's observations of planets to reveal his three laws of planetary motion, the nature of orbits for one object about another, Newton and gravitation, inertia, monmentum.

4. Light: the wave and particle properties of light, the electromagnetic spectrum, properties of spectra, Kirchhoff’s Laws, how black bodies radiate relative to their temperature, spectral lines from chemical elements, Doppler effects.

5. The Tools of the Astronomer: telescopes as light collectors, refractors and reflectors, radio telescopes and telescopes in space, imaging the sky, measuring spectra.

13. Taking the Measure of Stars: how to measure distances, brightnesses, temperatures, compositions, masses, etc. of stars, the Hertzsprung-Russell (H-R) diagram, classes of stars.

14. Our Sun: properties of the nearest star, what powers it, nuclear fusion, structure of the Sun, its characteristics, sunspots and the solar cycle, how the Sun affects Earth.

15. Star Formation and the Interstellar Medium: evidence for the existence of hot and cold gas in space, as well as dust, those beatuiful bright and dark nebulae seen in the Milky Way and other galaxies, the creation of stars from clouds of gas, the creation of star clusters.

16. Low Mass Stellar Evolution: how stars “age” with time, the consequences of nuclear fuel exhaustion, evolution of stars like the Sun, main-sequence, red giant, planetary nebula, white dwarf, the nova phenomenon, Type Ia supernovae from close binaries.

17. High Mass Stellar Evolution: the different aging process for massive stars, the results of nuclear fuiel exhaustion, red supergiants, Cepheids, Wolf-Rayet stars, Type II supernovae, neutron stars, pulsars, X-ray binaries, black holes.

18. Our Expanding Universe: the discovery of other galaxies beyond the Milky Way, the expanding universe, Hubble’s Law, concept of the Big Bang, observable properties of the universe at large scale, cosmic microwave background.

19. Galaxies: the different types of galaxies: spirals, ellipticals, barred spirals, irregulars, evidence for encounters between galaxies, ring galaxies, etc., active galactic uclei, supermassive black holes.

20. The Milky Way: the observable characteristics of our Galaxy, variable stars as standard candles, changing chemical composition of its stars with time, mapping the spiral arms of the Galaxy, the curious centre of the Milky Way.

21. Modern Cosmology: the history and possible destiny of the universe, the various concepts suggested to explain the nature of the universe.

22. Structure in the Universe: clusters of galaxies, gravitational lensing, the origin of stars and galaxies, the observable universe and the universe at large distances.

23. Life: the origin of life forms in the complex chemistry of the universe.