2010 Winter Astro 100 Syllabus for South Seattle Community College

Course Calendar:

Notes on Grades:
Most of our assignments are graded out of 50, so here are the letter-grade breakdowns for normal assignments:
A = 45
B = 40
C = 37.5 (this level C keeps you at an average of 2.0/4.0)
C = 35 (minimum C)
D = 30

~ A l i c e !

2010_01_04 LP01 How Far is Far
Powers of Ten: http://vimeo.com/1066547
FAR: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dF2HG1PVZok
A Glorious Dawn: http://www.symphonyofscience.com/

2010_01_07 LP03 What’s the Scope
Homework: 2010_01_07 HW01 Telescopes (Due 1/11/2010 despite what the file says)
Please read for Monday and highlight the words/sentences you don’t understand: The Kepler Five.

We covered basic directions in the sky: Right Ascension and Declination.
We also began seasons and the cycles of the sky: days, months, and years.

Interactive Online Planetarium computer lab. Handout. Website choice 1. Website choice 2.
We covered lunar phases and reviewed for next week’s quiz.
Homework: Astronomers.

Quiz #1 covering everything up to this point except cycles.
We reviewed cycles and talked about eclipses
UPDATE to the Homework: Astronomers, it should be written as a press release, as if this astronomer is coming to town to give a talk. Make it exciting and interesting.
Class next week may start a few minutes late, the classrooms should be open on time.
End of day note: let me know if you’re more of a writer or more of an artist. Let me know if there’s anyone in the class you think you absolutely can’t work with.

2010_01_25 LP05 Starlight Starbright
We covered spectra, light and how astronomers know what they know. Read chapters 6 & 7 to catch up.
Astronomers Homework was due today. No homework was assigned.

HR Diagram Homework was assigned – due Monday 2/1
PowerPoint We discussed the star life cycle.

2009_02_02 LP07 Death and Black Holes

We covered deaths of stars, neutron Stars, black holes, what happens when you fall into a black hole etc. We got to page 16 in this powerpoint. We’ll pick up on Wednesday.

HR Diagram homework was due today.

Important:

• Prepare for Test #1 on Monday.
• The field trip to Pacific Science Center is 2/17/2010 during class time. DO NOT BE LATE.
• Be sure you can draw and label a picture of our galaxy from the side.

We finished the powerpoint from last time.

We talked about our galaxy, and finished quiz #3. The handout was about the Distance ladder – it is one of the pages in the powerpoint. 2010_02_04 LP08 Our Galactic Home

Links to videos:

• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Suugn-p5C1M&feature=player_embedded
• http://www.amasci.com/amateur/traffic/traffic1.html
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=duh2srW8j3U
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c5Us-jonCLA&feature=player_embedded

We took Test 1.

We discussed hoaxes, hoaxes, and more hoaxes.

• 2/10 – Meet in the Computer Lab OLY 203
• 2/15 – No Class
• 2/17 – Meet at Pacific Science Center

1. Go to: zooniverse.org and join. (Create a login)
2. Go to galaxyzoo.org and click “How To Take Part.” Do the tutorial.
3. Go back to galaxyzoo.org and click “Classify.” Go!

We discussed Kepler’s Laws.

I forgot to hand out the homework.

Powerpoint – 2009_02_11 LP09 Galaxies

Don’t forget: No class 2/15, and class meets at Pacific Science Center 2/17!

Homework: Galaxies – 2009_02_11 HW05 Galaxies

Handout – 2009_02_11 HO Galaxies & Clusters

We cleared up some last details about Cepheid variables, and covered the beginning and end of the universe: the Big Bang, Dark Energy, and the Big Rip.

2010_02_23 LP10 Beginning and End of the Universe – PowerPoint

Handout: 2009_02_25 HO Planets

Homework – Plotting the Moon: 2009_02_23 HW06 Charting the Moon

Homework/Project – Planet Children’s Book (working in groups):
Due: Wednesday, 3/10/2010
Pick a body in our solar system:
• Any planet but Earth
• A moon
• A dwarf planet
• An asteroid (you’d be making your life difficult choosing this)
Do a bit of research about the planet or moon. If there were life on it, what might it be like? Have fun; but show me that you understand the planet or moon that you are describing.

Please write an illustrated children’s story about your planet. Be as accurate as possible, but have fun and tell an interesting story. The story can be made up, but the planetary details should be real. Be sure to show me that you understand the planet or moon that you are describing. This is what most of the grade will be based on.

Tell me your sources of information. This must be in your own words: no plagiarism.

The assignment is worth 50 points. It is due ON TIME. If it is late, I may not accept it or if I do accept it, I will probably take off points for it being late.

We discussed the scale of the solar system.

We discussed cratering on the Moon and Mercury. 2009_02_25 LP15 Moon Mercury Structure of the Solar System

We took Quiz 4.

Evolution of the Solar System: Go here for the activity we did in class. Understand the basics.

Review what the book has on the terrestrial planets: Mercury, Venus, Earth and Mars.

Keywords to research:

• Comparative planetology
• Resonance (in terms of orbits)
• Tidal Lock
• How Craters form, and what they look like
• Albedo
• Shield vs composite volcanoes

2009_02_25 LP15 Moon Mercury Structure of the Solar System

2009_03_02 LP16 Venus Earth Mars

We did a comparative planetology activity in class comparing the Earth and Mars.

We talked Human Spaceflight and I gave you a list of missions and people you should have heard of in no particular order:

• Apollo 11. Humans first walked on the Moon. 2 American men: Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin. Michael Collins piloted.
• Sputnik. First man-made object in orbit – a beeping satellite from the USSR.
• The Vostok Program: Yuri Gagarin – first human in space, first human to orbit the Earth. USSR.
• Mercury (specifically “Freedom 7″): Alan Shephard – first American in space.
• STS “Space Transport System” – the official name of the Space Shuttle program. Many important occurrences.
• Pioneers 10 & 11, Voyagers 1 & 2 – Our first “close” views of the other planets.
• Hubble – Hubble’s photos changed the average person’s view of astronomy, and advanced the science immensely.
• Skylab, MIR, and ISS – these are our space stations, we had them serially not simultaneously. ISS is the only one now.
• SpaceShip One: Burt Rutan flew the 1st commercial (non-government/non-military) flight into space on a reusable craft.
• Last but not least, keep these in your heart: X-15, Soyuz 1, Soyuz 11, Apollo 1, Challenger, Columbia.
• Just a couple inspiring names: Sally Ride, Valentina Tereshkova, John Glenn, Shenzhou
• Want more?
• Disaster Details

We determined that all rocky solar system objects are mostly grey, with the exception of the outside edge of Mars rocks.

• differentiation is a good term for you to look up.

2010_03_09 LP18 & 19 Jupiter Saturn Uranus Neptune SS Review

We discussed Jupiter and Saturn

• differential rotation
• rings

and Uranus & Neptune

• ice giant planets: see/hear this post
• “ices”

Space Sounds

We read these articles, and discussed the likelihood of life on the moons mentioned:

1. Emily Lakdawalla on Titan
2. Emily Lakdawalla on Enceladus
3. Ted Stryk on Europa

I handed out the homework: 2009_03_11 HW08 Space Mission (Due 3/17/2010)

You turned in your Planetary Children’s Books

We discussed the dwarf planets – so you should know the basics of them.

We also discussed “Moons of Note” – go to http://www.nineplanets.org/ or your book to check them out.

Moons of Note

• The Moon
• Phobos
• Deimos
• Io
• Europa
• Ganymede
• Callisto
• Pan
• Mimas
• Enceladus
• Titan
• Iapetus
• Miranda
• Triton (do not confuse with Titan!)
• Charon

Life

We discussed ALH84001:

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a8/ALH84001_structures.jpg

http://nmp.nasa.gov/ds2/images/alh84001.gif

http://www.alicesastroinfo.com/2009/12/magnetotactic-bacteria-from-mars/

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WR7j67TABzE

Beware the Ides of March!

We took a quiz on Jovian planets.

We talked about life in the Universe.

If you want, here’s a link to Neil DeGrasse Tyson’s NOVA Special “The Pluto Files“

Happy Saint Patrick’s Day!

We discussed how planets are detected. Gravitational detection (as for Pluto), astrometry – redshift/blueshift of a star as its planets pull on it, and transit detection. We talked about the Kepler mission. We watched 20 minutes of Armageddon and made fun of it, and we watched NASA’s Deep Impact mission crash into a real comet as well as some videos of astronauts falling down on the Moon.

Data for you!

MadeUpAstroData