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 31: Introduction and Overview
-
Thursday, September 2: Tour of the Universe and Making Math
Work For You
-
Tuesday, September 7: Motions on the Sky (and Models to
Explain Them)
-
Thursday, September 9: Heliocentric Model:
Galileo's Observations and Kepler's Calculations
-
Tuesday, September 21: Galileo, Newton, and the Birth of
Classical Physics
-
Thursday, September 23: Orbits and Gravity:
Kepler and Galileo from a Newtonian Perspective
-
Tuesday, September 28: Coördinates on the Earth and the Sky
-
Thursday, September 30: Calendars, Tides and Eclipses
-
Tuesday, October 5: Overview of the Solar System
-
Thursday, October 7: Temperatures and Ages of Planets
-
Thursday, October 14: A Crash Course in Geology and Intro to Venus
-
Tuesday, October 19: Mars
-
Thursday, October 21: The Mars Exploration Rover Mission
-
Tuesday, October 26: Exploring The Giant Planets
-
Thursday, October 28: Atmospheres and Rings of the Giant Planets
-
Tuesday, November 2: The Galilean Satellites
-
Thursday, November 4: Titan, Triton, and the Pluto-Charon System
-
Tuesday, November 9: Background Info on Stars
-
Thursday, November 11: Determining Stellar Properties
-
Thursday, November 18: The Hertzsprung-Russell Diagram
-
Tuesday, November 23: Stellar Evolution
-
Tuesday, November 30: The End of the Stellar Lifespan
-
Thursday, December 2: The Death of Stars
-
Tuesday, December 7: Supernovae and Pulsars: from
Observation to Explanation
-
Thursday, December 9: The End
Homeworks
-
Chapter One -- Assigned September 7, Due
September
14September 21
-
Chapter Two -- Assigned September 21, Due September 28
-
Chapter Three -- Assigned September 28, Due October 5
-
Chapter Six -- Assigned October 12, Due October 19
-
Chapter Nine -- Assigned October 19, Due October 26
-
Chapter Ten -- Assigned October 26, Due November 2
-
Chapter Eleven -- Assigned November 2, Due November 9
-
Chapter Seventeen -- Assigned November 11, Due November 23
-
Chapter Twenty-One -- Assigned November 23, Due December 2
-
Chapter Twenty-Two -- Assigned December 2, Due December 9