Online Version of Course Syllabus (html).
Here's a good web page about the solar system. It has some great explanations and multimedia support.
Here is a new practice exam (doc file) from Spring 2004 that covers questions from chapters 16-19. Answers are here. Note that the final exam covers chapters 14-19, and you can find some questions covering chapters 14 and 15 on the previous practice exam below.
Stellar Evolution on the HR Diagram on your PC. Check it out!
Here is a new practice exam (doc file) from Spring 2004 that includes questions from chapters 12 and 13 (these are 1-14, 28, 30, 35-39). The previous practice exam includes questions from chapters 9-11. The answer key is here.
Here are some review materials in advance of exam 2 on Friday. First, here is an old exam in doc format, and solution sheet. Note that there are a number of problems that cover chapters we do not cover on the exam. Problems 1-25, and just a few others, cover chapters 5-8. Note that the answer to #28, about the black hole radius, should be 9 km, not 3 km.
I completely forgot about the solar eclipse today (10/3)! Check it out. Eclipse Pictures!
Here is the answer key for exam 1. Please use this to check your answers. Please check your score against the one recorded on WebCT.
I've posted scans (and the answer key) from an old exam in this directory. Note that the exam includes a few questions from chapter 5, which will not be tested on Friday -- only chapters 1-4.
A previous student pointed out this webpage that helps further illustrate the phases of the moon. Check it out if you're still working to figure this out. Note that if you click on the demos link on top, there are other demos concerning Kepler's Laws, retrograde motion (chapter 4), and other topics in upcoming chapters.
Your classmate Morgan pointed out this website for the program Celestia http://www.shatters.net/celestia/. The program is sort of planetarium software, but more capable than a planetarium. Check it out.
As discussed briefly in class, there was a large solar event that was likely to lead to auroras, and did: recent aurora pictures from September.
Watch the Sky at the start of September. Planetary Alignment goodness!.
Here is an interesting website to check out. Phil Plait's Bad Astronomy page features good and bad astronomy in movies and TV.
Astronomy Picture of the Day is a great webpage to visit every day.
This is good how to study physics guide. While this is a non-majors astronomy class, the part of the class that many struggle with is the part solving astrophysics-type problems. We won't have a lot of this, but we will have some (none as complex or difficult as the calculus-based examples in the guide, so don't get hung up on them!). Also, students who have not taken college-level science classes sometimes complain that they don't know how to study for this class. This guide has some good suggestions for how to approach such a class. I hope you find it useful.
