Introduction to Astronomy, ASTR 122

Welcome to Astronomy, ASTR122! By the end of this course, I hope to show you how knowing about our planet and others, stars, galaxies, and the larger Universe will help us here on our small planet, Earth. In addition, we'll get to learn about what is in our night sky and how to use a telescope. Our society now relies upon many of the satellites that are now in orbit around the Earth. This means that we are, now more than ever, influenced strongly by the events and processes that happen outside of our atmosphere. Astronomy is no longer just an abstract science, it has become of keen interest to many industries!.

Here is the syllabus and schedule for the course, if you need another copy.

• ASTR 122 Syllabus
• ASTR 122 Schedule

This course uses WebCT for quizzes, grade reporting, and communication. Login using your Pipeline username and PIN at http://webct.jccc.edu.

On-Line Reviews

The University of Arizona has produced a wonderful review of the struncture and features of the nine major planets. In addition to just the raw data, you will also be treated to a wide variety of spectacular images sent back by our interplanetary spaceprobes. This won't have all of the information that you will need, but it's a great start!

• The Nine Planets

JPL has a good pictoral tour of the nine planets, but its a little light on the physical descriptions. This is a great follow up to the material in the 'The Nine Planets'.

• Welcome To The Planets

The University of Amsterdam has a great review of the Sun and how it works. Its setup much like a powerpoint presentation and is very media-rich. There are many animations and movies to show how some of the solar structures that we see are formed and evolve through time.

• The Virtual Sun

Prof. Nick Strobel of Bakersfield College in Bakersfield, CA has assembled an excellent web site which covers all of the topics discussed in an introductory astronomy course such as this one. This is one of the better sites that I've seen for astronomy tutorials.

• Nick Strobel's AstronomyNotes.com

Lecture Notes and Reviews

Here is a list of presentations that will review some of the topics that we cover in class. These are in PDF format, so you'll need the Adobe Acrobat Reader to view them.

Unit One Presentations

• Unit One Study Guide
• The Celestial Sphere
• Phases of the Moon and Eclipses
• Models of the Solar System
• Light as a Wave
• Light as a Particle
• Telescopes

Unit Two Presentations

• Unit Two Study Guide
• The Earth
• The Moon
• Introduction to the Solar System
• The Solar Nebula Theory

Unit Three Presentations

• Unit Three Study Guide
• Space Weather
• The Interstellar Medium
• Stellar Evolution
• Binary Stars
• Binary Stars Worksheet [Worksheet][Solutions]

Unit Four Materials

• Unit Four Study Guide
• The Milky Way
• Normal Galaxies
• Active Galaxies
• Cosmology

Here is a neat piece of shareware for PCs! Its a great program for representing the night sky on your computer. You can use it to see what objects are going to be up and visible any time of day, anywhere in the world. Its also a great tool for learning the constellations. Use it before you come to observe and get a jump of things! Amaze your friends!

• SkyGlobe Desktop Planetarium

Its not as full-featured as many modern planetarium programs, but its a lot less expensive and still does a fantastic job! This program is zipped so you will need an unzipping program such as WinZip or WinRAR.

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