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Astronomy 103, Fall, 2006

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Astronomy 103

Syllabus

http://brahms.phy.vanderbilt.edu/a103

MTW, 7:00-10:00PM




Overview and Course Goals

The goals of this course are as follows:

This lab course has two primary components. One, we will be performing observations in the observing facility, both using 8" Schmidt-Cassegrain Telescopes and our naked eyes. When the weather permits, lab will meet at this facility. We will observe the motion of the stars over the course of the night and over the course of a month; the motion of planets across the sky; the details of planets through the telescope; bright stars and bright double stars; the moon and craters on the moon. We will learn how to use the telescopes and how to make quantitative measurements with our naked eyes. We will measure the field of view of the telescope. We will measure the visible size of the moon, craters on the moon, and planets. We will use our observations in order to determine how well we have measured these various quantities.

The second component of this lab will use pre-existing data (either obtained previously in the lab facility, or acquired from online collections of scientific data) to make astronomically relevant measurements and draw conclusions. When the weather does not permit use of the observing facility, we will meet in the Stevenson Center Computer Room and perform a lab based on pre-existing data.

Lab will meet every Monday, Tuesday, and Thursday throughout the duration of the course. Attendance every session is mandatory. Because we can't know in advance if the weather will cooperate, we will announce on the course web page where the lab will be meeting and which lab we will be doing an hour before the lab begins. However, you can figure out which two labs we might be doing in a given week before that; see Labs We'll Do.




Course Staff

Professor Robert Knop
Stevenson Center 6912
Phone: 2-6165
E-mail: rob.knop@vanderbilt.edu

TAs




Meeting Locations

The lab will meet every Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday throughout the duration of the course. It will meet in one of two locations, depending on the weather. After 6:00 PM on the day of your lab, check the Course Web Page to find out where lab is meeting. You can also subscribe your e-mail account or cellphone message account to get the status mailed to you at 6:10 PM by subscribing to the a103status mailing list.

The Observing Facility

The observing facility is located on the top of the 25th Ave. Garage (also known as the Central Parking Garage). Take the elevator to the 11th floor of the garage; the facility is enclosed in a white fence near the center of the top floor.

At the facility we have a number of 8-inch telescopes which we will be using for the lab. We also have equipment which is helpful in performing naked eye labs. (Not every lab performed in the facility will use the telescopes.)

Particularly later in the Fall semester, and earlier in the Spring semester, it can get very cold during lab. Dress more warmly than you think you need to. It is easier to take off an extra jacket than it is to suffer through not being warm enough. Remember, you will be standing still for three hours on the breezy top of an open parking structure. You will get much colder than you would think from just stepping outside, or from walking from one building to another on campus. You will never be excused from lab because you are too cold. Be sure to plan ahead!

Special note: The 25th Avenue Garage observing facility is a classroom, even though it is outside. Therefore, smoking and alchohol and drugs are not permitted. The TAs have been instructed to assign a laboratory grade of ZERO to any student in violation of either policy. In addition, any alchohol or drug violations will be reported to the Student Conduct Council.

The Computer Room

On days when the weather prevents us from meeting at the observing facility, we will perform labs in the Stevenson Center computer room. This is room SC2200, on the second floor of building 2 of the Stevenson Center.

About the Weather

Do not make your own decision about the weather. The course staff will make the final call by 6:00 PM on the day of the lab. Check the course web page after that time to find out where lab will meet on a given night. Lab will never be cancelled due to weather; if the weather does not permit performing a lab at the observing facility, we will meet instead in the computer room.

The weather can make this lab seem more disorganized than other labs you may have taken. We can't tell you right now which labs you will be doing which week, because we don't know when it will be clear. However, we will generally do the next lab on the appropriate list (either "facility" or "computer room" labs), with a few exceptions:

Each week, the TA's will announce the two labs that you might be doing next week. Print out and read both of those labs, so that you will be ready regardless of where the lab meets.




Labs We'll Do

The labs we will do this semester are listed on the Labs page. The types of labs are described there, and above in the section about meeting locations.

Each week, the TAs will tell you which labs you need to prepare for the next week. Which ones we actually do will depend on the weather conditions the next week.




Student Responsibilities

To perform adequately in this lab, you must:




Grading

Your grade in the lab will be based on the following:

On the 8 point scale described below, you can compute your final grade according to the following:

Lab reports

Each week, at the end of the lab period, you will turn in your write-up of the lab you did that week. (The exceptions are the Sunset lab, which you do on your own time, and the Mars Orbit lab, for which you will be making observations in lab over the course of the semester. Both of those write-ups will be due at the end of the semester.) If you are not present in lab a given week, then you will receive a 0 on the lab that week.

Each of the major parts of the lab will be graded on a 0-8 scale:

Your "Lab reports" grade in the class will be the average of all the grades on each lab you performed; however, your lowest score (or a zero, if you missed a lab for any reason) will be dropped.

Telescope practical

At some point after the third week of the semester, the TA's will administer a telescope practical. In this pracitical, you will demonstrate that you know how to set up the telescope, find a specific star in the telescope in a reasonable amount of time, and take down the telescope. You will demonstrate that you know how to do this without doing things that may damage or cause undue wear on the telescopes.

If, even after completing the telescope practical, you damage any telescopes or components, your telescope practical grade may be lowered. Make sure you learn how to use the telescopes properly, and how to treat them with care!

Telescope practicals will be administered individually. If you typically share a telescope with somebody else during lab periods, do not count on the other person to "know the scope."

Telescope practicals will be graded on a 9-point scale. Each of the three sections (set-up, operating the telescope and finding the star, and teardown) are weighted equally. A point will be deducted from your grade (starting at 9) in each section for each of the following:

Constellation Practical

After completing the "constellations and bright stars" lab, you will be asked to identify 8-10 constellations and name 6-8 bright stars. You will point out these constellations and stars to a TA.

You will receive 1/2 of a point point for each constellation or bright star named (although you cannot receive more than 5 points for constellations, or more than 4 points for bright stars). The constellation practical will be graded on the standard 8-point scale.



Last modified: 2006-10-09, by Robert Knop

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