Astronomy 101 Laboratory Syllabus
Monday Evenings (Sec. 411,413), Chapman Building Rm. 235
Lab Instructor: Justin Moore
Office Hours: Monday 2-4 or By Appointment
Textbooks:
Office: Phillips 116
E-mail Address: moorejp@physics.unc.edu
Investigations in Observational Astronomy by Christiansen (in UNC bookstore)
Website: http://www.physics.unc.edu/~moorejp/
Meetings: There are 10 different labs for this course: 5 are Night Lab Meetings, and 5 are
Planetarium Meetings. You must complete all 10 labs (or 9 and the make-up lab) and their
corresponding reports to receive full credit for this course.
Night Lab Schedule: There will be 5 Night Labs this semester; the schedule for Night Labs can be
seen below:
Night Lab #
1
2
3
4
5
Section 411 -- Monday 7-830
Section 413 -- Monday 9-1030
September 8th
September 22nd
October 6th
October 27th
November 10th
Planetarium Lab: There will be 5 Planetarium Labs this semester. Planetarium labs do not split
into separate groups. The schedule for the planetarium labs should have been given to you when
you registered for the Astronomy 101 Lab. I am NOT your planetarium TA but I do grade your
planetarium work.
Materials for Night Lab: Students should bring the following materials to each lab meeting: the
lab manual, a pocket flashlight (preferably with a red filter, you can get some red cellophane at the
grocery store as a last resort.), a calculator, a pencil or pen. NOTE: You will be spending a lot of
time outside after dark, in potentially sub-zero weather, so dress accordingly--it is usually much
colder than you expect! Bring a jacket!
Attendance Requirements: Attendance to lab meetings is required. Night Lab meetings WILL
NOT BE CANCELLED DUE TO POOR WEATHER! Please come to class meetings on time. If
you are absent, for whatever reason, you will have the option to take the make-up lab in the
Planetarium to replace the missed lab. Alternatively, you may also take the make-up lab to replace
your lowest lab score if you so desire.
Lab Reports: Each student must write his or her own lab report for each of the 5 night labs that we
do. Each lab report is due in my drop box (or handed to me personally) by 5pm one week after the
lab was performed (i.e., if you have lab Monday, the report for that lab is due the following Monday
by 5pm). Late lab reports WILL NOT BE ACCEPTED--no exceptions. Reports should be typed
and stapled. The report should be double-spaced and in a font that is easy to read (typed reports
cannot be accepted through e-mail or on any type of computer media – they must be printed out on
paper). Printing single or double sided is a preference of the student, I will accept either.
Each lab report should be in the format seen on the ‘Expected Lab Report Format’ page. It should
be detailed enough so that someone with a basic knowledge of astronomy and/or mathematics who
is not in this course could redo the lab without the manual. Please note that my requirements for the
lab report may differ from the manual, so have these instructions with you when you write your lab
report to make sure that you don’t forget something that is required.
Grading: Each Night Lab report will be worth 100 points. The night labs will count for one half of
the 1 credit for Astronomy 101 Lab, and the planetarium labs will count as the other half of this
credit. Subsequently, your average for this lab will simply be the average of your 10 lab reports for
the Night Lab and Planetarium Lab. Scores of 100 on reports are reserved for extraordinarilyexcellent lab reports, which will require exceptional effort on your part. For lab reports, the grading
scheme can be seen below:
Cover Page
Abstract
Introduction
Data and Analysis
Discussion
Data Page
5 pts
10 pts
10 pts
15 pts
45 pts
15 pts
Letter grades will be assigned as shown below:
> 92
90-92
87-89
83-86
80-82
A
AB+
B
B-
77-79
73-76
70-72
60-69
< 60
C+
C
CD
F
Honor Code: You will work in group of 3 or 4 people during each lab, but the lab reports must be
completed individually. You may not share data with or collaborate with any of the other groups
when writing your lab report—to do so is considered an Honor Code violation. Altering your
answer to force it to be the correct answer is also considered a violation. If you feel your data are
wrong, try to think out and explain why it could possibly be incorrect. Remember, some of the
greatest discoveries in science have come about because the scientist did not get the ‘right’ answer!
To acknowledge that you have not violated the honor system, you must include the Honor Pledge
with your signature as part of the cover sheet for each lab report you hand-in; otherwise, I cannot
grade your lab report. It is sufficient to write out the following sentence in full only on the first lab
report: “I pledge that I have neither given nor received any unauthorized aid on this report.” On
succeeding reports, it is sufficient to merely write “Honor Pledge.”
Expected Lab Report Format
Cover Page: This is the title page of your lab report. The following information must appear here:
your full name, your lab section, your lab instructor’s name, the name of the experiment, the date
the experiment was carried out, and the Honor Code statement (which after the first report you may
simply write “Honor Pledge” with your signed initial next to it).
Abstract: In this section, you should briefly describe the purpose and results of the experiment
performed. Do NOT go into detail about the procedure here but write (in no more than a paragraph)
about the principles or topics studied and the results of the experiment. Error analysis is typically
not mentioned in the abstract (unless it is pertinent to the intent of the experiment). In summary, the
abstract tells the reader what you did, why you did it, and what you found out from it. (In the
sciences, this is typically one of the most important sections of a report, for it is usually the only
part of the report that most researching people tend to thoroughly read. Thus, one needs to include
all major information regarding the experiment and its findings in this section).
Introduction: In the intro, one should explain the procedure of the experiment and give a brief
narrative for the layout of the rest of the report. One should not explain the results here, but instead
the process by which you collected data and the intent for which you are performing the experiment.
Pertinent background theory and equations should be covered here that are needed to analyze and
interpret the data. Feel free to write in the 1st person (I, We, etc.) here; however, do not use the 2nd
person—you are not writing an instruction manual for others!
Data and Analysis: One should organize and explain his or her data (the results of the experiment)
in this section. Data should be presented in an organized and coherent fashion. Tables, graphs,
diagrams, and sample calculations may be very useful in this section. No matter how the data is
organized, every part of the data (including units!) must be fully labeled so that someone who is not
familiar with the particulars of the experiment can understand exactly what each part of the data
signifies, what each of the tables consists of, and what the axes of the graphs are – among other
labels that you should include.
Discussion: This is the most important section of the lab report (check the point-value of this
section on the syllabus). This far into the report, the plan of the experiment and the data taken have
been listed. The discussion section should put it all together and explain what the experiment has
revealed, what principles of astronomy have been shown, and what has been learned from the entire
process of performing the lab. One should also discuss the sources of error that entered the
experiment and how someone might reduce or eliminate those errors in succeeding attempts at the
same experiment. Be specific and quantitative where possible. In most cases, though, error
analysis will be no more than one third of the discussion section. Answers to the questions from the
lab manual should also be answered here and should act as a conclusion and synthesis of the
information and science from the lab. This section should be in paragraph form and should be the
‘meatiest’ part of the lab.
Data Page(s): The data page(s) is simply the raw data that you took during the experiment (stapled
to the end of the report). These pages should not be referenced to in the write-up of the lab, but are
simply required to ensure scientific integrity and for your TA to review your data to make sure they
are consistent with the report. Note: modification of data after the data has been taken is an
infraction of the Honor Code and of scientific ethics.