Class Hours: 2:00 - 3:15 Tuesday and Thursday, Hutchinson 140

Professor:     Eric Blackman, Bausch &Lomb 417A, 5-0537,  blackman@pas.rochester.edu
Office Hours: Tues and Thurs 3:30-5:00pm (after class)

Teaching Asst.: Shuai Wu, B&L 304, 5-8543,  shuaiwu@pas.rochester.edu
Office Hours:    Mon and Wed 3:30-5pm

Teaching Intern (none yet):
Office Hours:     

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Some Course Objectives: To show how astronomers and astrophysicists think. To show some of what has been learned about our solar system and its place in the universe.

Text: Seeds, Foundations of Astronomy 2001 edition. We will cover chapters 1-8 and 20-27.

Reserve Texts: D. Morrison and T. Owen, The Planetary System, J.K. Beatty et al.: The New Solar System. A more technical treatment, with a large number of color pictures and interesting graphs. These texts will be held on reserve in the Physics-Optics-Astronomy (POA) library on the third floor of B&L.

Other Resources: The World Wide Web is an excellent resource for information on astronomical subjects. HOWEVER PLEASE NOTE THAT THERE IS A LOT OF INCORRECT INFO OUT THERE TOO! A COUPLE OF GOOD SITES ARE LINKED BELOW The course web page (at which you are looking) is

NASA sites are particularly thorough. Check out the "Astronomy picture of the day archive" . You can look at the textbook publisher's home page . Astronomy and Sky and Telescope magazines are both excellent sources for current information about the Solar System and astronomy in general. Find them in the POA library and the WWW.

Links to Observing the Night Sky:

Here is a link which describes what can be seen with binoculars binocular observing

This link has a weekly summary of what to look for in the night sky "This week's sky at a glance." (It tells you when you need a telescope). At the bottom of that page, you can actually subscribe to have the information there emailed to you weekly if you are so inclined. In general for things brighter than about 5.5 magnitude (thus lower number than this on the magnitude scale) you can see them with naked eye.

These two links have a bit info on naked eye and binocular observing: naked eye and binocs . The following link is a to the video archieve of the "Jack Horkheimer Star Gazer" show for naked eye astronomy with links of 2 minute video descriptions of of what to look for. star gazer show .

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Coursework: 1. Study text & notes. 2. Approximately seven problem sets given at one or two week intervals. Assignments will be posted on the web (see below). All assignments are to be turned into the locker labeled AST104 near B&L 166, by 5pm on the due date. You may turn in your homework to the box to any problem set as early as you wish. No credit will be given for homework turned in after this due date/time. Solutions will be put on electronic reserve in the POA library (scanned onto the web). Your total homework score will count for 30% of the final grade.

Midterm Exams: There will be two closed book multiple choice midterm exams 1 Mar. and 19 Apr. The second exam will emphasize material introduced since the first exam. The lower of your two scores will be dropped and the higher one will count for 30% of your grade. There will therefore be no makeup exams. If you miss an exam you will receive a zero for that exam. This strict rule is alleviated by the fact that the lower score is dropped as just described.

Final Exam: A comprehensive closed book multiple choice final exam will be given. (May 11, 4pm in Hubbell Auditorium) The exam will cover topics from the entire course. The final will count for 40% of your grade.

Course Grading: The grading scale for the overall course will be 89-100=A range; 79-88=B range; 69-78=C range; 55-68=D range; Below 55=Fail range.

Any adjustments to this scale, if the need arises, will be in your favor. Note that you are not competiting with with your classmates in this system: if everyone gets in the 90s, then everyone gets an A.

All graded work will be placed in a box outside of B&L 417A.

Lecture Notes

Homework Problem Assignments

Homework Answers

Link to Library Electronic Reserve for this Course (with Practice Tests) Click on "LOCAL CATALOG", then on "Course Reserve," and then open selection under instructor "Blackman, E." Click on the AST104 entry.

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Course Schedule:

Listed below are the Date; the Topic; Chapter Number in Seeds. Lecture notes are linked above.

18 Jan; Introduction to Astronomy, Time and Spatial scales, scientific notation, survey of planets; 1

23 Jan; Magnitudes, Night sky, Celestial Sphere, Seasons; 2

No class on 25 Jan

30 Jan; Motions in the sky, cycles of the moon; 3

1 Feb.; Motions in the sky (continued); 3 (HOMEWORK 1 DUE)

3 Feb.; History of Astronomy; 4

8 Feb.; History of Astronomy (continued); 4

13 Feb.; Gravity and orbits; 5

15 Feb.; Gravity and orbits (continued); 5

20 Feb.; Light and telescopes; 6 (HOMEWORK 2 DUE)

22 Feb.; Information from distant objects; 7

27 Feb.; The Sun; 8 (HOMEWORK 3 DUE)

1 Mar.; Exam #1; on chapters 1-6

13 Mar.; The Sun; 8 (continued)

No class on Mar 15

20 & 22 Mar.; Origins of the Solar System; 20

27 Mar. ; the Earth, Moon and Mercury; 21 & 22 (HOMEWORK 4 DUE)

29 Mar. ; the Earth, Moon and Mercury (continued); 21 & 22

3 Apr.; Venus and Mars; 23 (HOMEWORK 5 DUE)

5 Apr.; Venus and Mars (continued); 23

10 Apr.; Jupiter and Saturn; 24

12 Apr.; Jupiter and Saturn (continued); (HOMEWORK 6 DUE) 24

17 Apr.; Uranus, Neptune and Pluto; 25 (NOTE: "A SEARCH FOR ALIEN WORLDS" WILL BE SHOWN IN CLASS)

19 Apr.; Exam #2; on chapters 7,8, 20-23

24 Apr; Meteorites, Asteroids and Comets; 26 (NOTE: "MENACE FROM THE SKY" WILL BE SHOWN IN CLASS)

26 Apr; Origins of life in the Universe 27 (HOMEWORK 7 DUE)

1 May; Astronomy Beyond the Solar System, Conclusions

11 May; Final Exam