FALL 2012
AST 3018 – ASTRONOMY/ASTROPHYSICS I
Section 5858
Tuesday 4th Period (10:40AM – 11:30 AM)
Thursday 4th and 5th Period (10:40 AM – 12:35 PM)
CSE – E119
Instructor:
Office:
Email:
Website:
Telephone:
Office Hours:
George R. Lebo
BRT 11-A
lebo@astro.ufl.edu
http://www.astro.ufl.edu/~lebo/AST3018/
392-2052 Extension 4-1887
2:00 PM – 4:00 PM, Tuesday and Thursday and by appointment
Teaching Assistant:
Office:
Email:
Telephone:
Office Hours:
Xiao Hu
BRT 319
ustcxhu@astro.ufl.edu
284-6667
TBA
Text:
Foundations of Astrophysics, by Ryden and Peterson, Addison Wesley,
ISBN: 978-0-321-59558-4
This course offers a broad overview of modern astrophysics. This course is the first of a two semester sequence
consisting of AST 3018 and AST 3019. This sequence is intended for majors in a physical science or
engineering who have completed the first semester (i.e. mechanics and optics) of a calculus-based introductory
physics course and are taking the second semester of a calculus-based physics course (i.e. electricity &
magnetism and thermodynamics).
Students with special needs MUST register with the Dean of Students Office if special accommodations are
expected.
ALL CELL PHONES AND PAGERS MUST BE MUTED DURING CLASS!
EXAMS
I will give four exams. Each will consist of 24 multiple choice questions. There will be no final exam.
HOMEWORK ASSIGNMENTS
I will post homework assignments on my website on Tuesdays. They will be due the following week as posted
in the syllabus or as announced in class. NOTE: I may change the homework assignments to conform to the
material that I cover in class. You are responsible for being there to get these changes. I will make no changes
later than Wednesday of a given week. Credit for late homework will be deducted 20% each day it is late.
GRADING
Your final grade will be determined using the results of the four exam grades and the homework. I will
drop the lowest of your exam grades. Your three highest exam grades will make up 70% of your final grade,
the other 30% coming from the homework. You must take the last exam. If you do not take it I will average
in a 0 score and drop your next lowest exam. I will drop the score of the last exam, if it is your lowest
score, only after you have taken it.
MAKE-UP EXAMS: I do not give make up exams after the exam date. If you can’t make an exam for
any reason it becomes the one you will drop. If you anticipate missing an exam (with a legitimate excuse) it
must be taken before the scheduled exam. “I have made reservations to go home early for break”, “I have to go
to a wedding” (unless it’s your own) and other similar excuses do not constitute a “legitimate” excuse.
TENATIVE LECTURE SCHEDULE
Note: The Lectures will come from material in the listed chapters. However, I will not cover all of the material
in a given chapter and I will certainly add material that is not in the text.
DATE
TOPICS COVERED
TEXT
Thu, 8/23 (2)
Introduction, Syllabus, Scale of Universe, naming stars
Coordinates, Earth and Celestial Sphere, Motions of the
planets and stars as a function of lat. and dec.
Ch. 1
Tue, 8/28 (1)
Seasons, zodiac, time (apparent Solar, mean Solar, Sidereal,
Zone, DST), Equation of Time, Day (Sidereal, Solar),
motion of VE
Motion and phases of the Moon, Calendar, Ancient
Astronomers: Pythagoras, Philolaus, Aristotle, Aristarchus,
Eratosthenes, Hipparchus, Ptolemy (Ptolemy’s laws)
Ch. 1, Ch. 4
Tue, 9/4 (1)
Thu, 9/6 (2)
Copernicus
Tycho, Kepler, Proofs of Earth’s motion, Review
Ch. 2
Ch. 2
Homework #2 due
Tue, 9/11
Thu, 9/13 (2)
Exam #1
Galileo, Newton
Ch. 2, Ch. 3
Tue, 9/18 (1)
Thu, 9/20 (2)
Newton, Orbital motions
Satellite orbits, Transfer orbits, Lagrangian points, Asphericity
of planets
Ch. 3
Ch. 3
Homework #3 due
Tue, 9/25 (1)
Thu, 9/27 (2)
Tidal forces, Moon, Eclipses
Eclipses, Occultations, Transits, Eclipsing binaries
Ch. 4
Ch. 4, Ch. 13
Tue, 10/2 (1)
Energy from space, Spectra, Black body radiation, Wien’s law
Thu, 10/4 (2)
Stefan-Boltzmann law, Planck’s law, Review
Ch. 5, Ch. 19
Homework #4 due
Ch. 5
Tue, 10/9
Thu, 10/11 (2)
Exam #2
Kirchhoff’s laws, Doppler effect, Discrete spectra (the Bohr
model of the atom, Heisenberg uncertainty principle
Thu, 8/30 (2)
Ch.2, Ch. 4
Homework #1 due
Ch. 5
Tue, 10/13 (1)
Free-Free absorption and emission, Brehmstrahlung,
Molecular Spectra, Metastable states, Lasers, Cosmic Rays
Optics, Telescopes, The eye as a camera, Catadioptric
systems, detectors
Ch. 5
Homework #5 due
Ch. 6
Ch. 6
Thu, 10/25 (2)
Optical instruments, Famous optical observatories,
Site selection,
Radio telescopes, Resolution, Interferometers, VLBI,
IR astronomy, X-ray astronomy, Gamma ray astronomy,
The Great observatories,
Tue, 10/30 (1)
Parallax, Proper motion
Ch. 2, 13
Homework #6 due
Thu, 11/1 (2)
Apparent magnitude, Absolute magnitude, Color index,
Bolometric magnitude, Stellar spectra, HR diagram,
Ch.13
Tue, 11/6
Thu, 11/8 (2)
Exam #3
Sun, Fusion
Ch. 7, Ch. 15
Tue, 11/13 (1)
Thu, 11/15 (2)
Binary Stars
Interstellar matter
Ch. 13
Ch. 16
Homework #7 due
Tue, 11/20 (1)
Thu, 11/22
Stellar evolution, The HR Diagram revisited
Thanksgiving, no class
Ch. 14,17
Tue, 11/27 (1)
Thu, 11/29 (2)
Star clusters
Death of low mass stars, review
Ch. 13
Ch. 18
Tue, 12/4
Exam #4
Thu, 10/18 (2)
Tue, 10/23 (1)
Ch. 6
FACTS, WARNINGS, SUGGESTIONS, ETC.
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
Tests will come from the lectures. I do not post many of my notes on the Internet. Those which I do
post can be seen at http://www.astro.ufl.edu/~lebo/. Even though no attendance will be taken,
failure to attend class may cause you to fail.
Find another student with whom to study – then do it.
Rewrite your class notes in your own words the same day as the lecture. If you cannot express them
in lucid terms, you don’t understand them. Come see me.
Know appropriate definitions, concepts, and terms well. The exams will be constructed so that “a
little knowledge” may be worse than “no knowledge”.
Grades and a provisional curve will be posted on the Friday following each exam.
Do not skip an exam early in the term because you haven’t prepared sufficiently lest you perform
poorly on a subsequent exam and wish to drop it.
BACKGROUND READING
365 Starry Nights, Chet Raymo
Wikipedia