If you'd like information on the course or teaching materials
beyond what's listed below, feel free to email me at john.whelan@astro.rit.edu.
Lecture Topics
- Tuesday, August 26: Introduction and Overview
- Thursday, August 28: Tour of the Universe and Making Math
Work For You
- Tuesday, September 2: Motions on the Sky
- Thursday, September 4: Geocentric and Heliocentric Solar
System Models
- Tuesday, September 9: Kepler's Laws of Planetary Motion
- Thursday, September 11: Newton, Galileo, and the Birth of
Classical Physics
- Tuesday, September 16: Orbits and Gravity: Kepler and
Galileo from a Newtonian Perspective
- Thursday, September 18: Coördinates on the Earth and
the Celestial Sphere
- Tuesday, September 23: Calendars, Tides, and Eclipses
- Thursday, September 25: Overview of the Solar System
- Tuesday, September 30: Compositions of the Planets and
Thermal Issues
- Thursday, October 2: A Crash Course in Geology
- Thursday, October 9: Venus
- Thursday, October 16: Mars
- Tuesday, October 21: The Galilean Satellites
- Thursday, October 23: Titan, Triton, and the Pluto-Charon
System
- Tuesday, October 28: Background Info on Stars
- Thursday, October 30: Determining Stellar Properties
- Tuesday, November 4: Features of the Hertzsprung-Russell
Diagram
- Thursday, November 6: Planetary Science Review
- Thursday, November 13: Black Holes (guest lecture from
Prof. Carl Brans)
- Tuesday, November 18: Stellar Evolution
- Thursday, November 20: The End of the Stellar Lifespan
- Tuesday, November 25: The Death of Stars
- Tuesday, December 2: Supernovae and Pulsars: from
Observation to Explanation
- Thursday, December 4: Honors Presentations
-
Mary Pilman: Space Infrared Telescope Facility (SIRTF)
-
Jessica Davis: Cassini-Huygens Mission to Saturn
Homeworks
- Chapter One -- Assigned September
2, Due September 9
- Chapter Two -- Assigned September
16, Due September 23
- Chapter Three -- Assigned September
23, Due September 30
- Chapter Six -- Assigned October
9, Due October 16
- Chapter Nine -- Assigned October
16, Due October 23
- Chapter Eleven -- Assigned October
23, Due October 30
- Chapter Seventeen -- Assigned November
6, Due November 18
- Chapter Twenty-One -- Assigned November
18, Due November 25
- Chapter Twenty-Two -- Assigned November
25, Due December 4