Instructor Dr. Steven J. Gibson Office: TCCW 231 Phone 745-3019 Office Hours: M 13:50-15:50 or by appointment

Books Required: 21st Century Astronomy, 3rd Edition by Jeff Hester, Brad Smith, George Blumenthal, Laura Kay, & Howard Voss (2010, W. W. Norton) Supplemental: The Cosmos: Astronomy in the New Millennium, 3rd Edition by Jay Pasachoff & Alex Filippenko (2007, Cengage) Supplemental: Foundations of Astrophysics by Barbara Ryden & Bradley Peterson (2010, Addison-Wesley) Supplemental: Sky & Telescope Laboratory Exercises

Resources ASTR 214 Course Syllabus [PDF] + Exam Tips [PDF] Norton StudySpace: Online Demos + Self-Tests + Instructor Resource Library WKU Physics & Astronomy Student Help Center + Study Skill Videos Local Clubs: Hilltoppers Astronomy Club + Society of Physics Students Weather Forecast: NWS + Wunderground + NOAA Satellite Images: Visible + Infrared Predicted Observing Conditions: Local + Kentucky + BG Sky Charts + Rise/Set Times Image Software: ImageJ + Makali`i + GIMP + IRAF + Karma + Astrometry.net Magazines + Current Events: Astronomy + Sky & Telescope + Astronomy Now Astronomy Picture of the Day (APOD) + Science Nerd Videos SEDS: Messier Catalog + NGC Objects + Best of HST The World at Night: Gigapixel All-Sky Mosaic + Labeled Interactive Sky Panorama Extrasolar Planet Encyclopedia + GalaxyMap: Milky Way Structure 2MASS Nearby Universe + Log-Scale Map of the Entire Universe

• Announcements & Materials

  • Mon 28 Nov
    • Upcoming Events
      • Antarctic Neutrino Colloquium - Mon 28 Nov, 4:00pm
      • Lab TBD - Tue 29 Nov
      • READING QUIZ on Chapter 21 - Wed 30 Nov
      • CCD Processing Lab - due Wed 30 Nov
      • READING QUIZ on Chapter 22 - Fri 2 Dec
      • Homework #8: 18.26 18.31 18.35 19.7 19.29 19.32 20.8 20.16 20.30 - due Fri 2 Dec
      • EXAM #2 on Chapters 13 - 20: Mon 5 Dec
      • Student Colloquium - Mon 5 Dec, 4pm
      • Lab TBD - Tue 6 Dec
      • READING QUIZ on Chapter 23 - Wed 7 Dec
      • Review Day - Fri 9 Dec
      • FINAL EXAM - Mon 12 Dec, 1:00pm
      • Physics & Astronomy Holiday Lunch - Wed 14 Dec
    • Interactive Sky Panorama (The World at Night)
    • Multiwavelength Milky Way (NASA/Goddard)
    • All-Sky Views:
      • Optical (Mellinger)
      • Infrared (Planck)
      • Gamma-Ray (Fermi)
      • Fermi Bubbles
    • Plan-View Map (APOD) + Other Structure (GalaxyMap.org)
    • Caution! Compare to Early World Maps (Wikipedia)
    • General Milky Way (Wikipedia)

  • Fri 18 Nov
    • READING QUIZ on Chapter 20 - Mon 21 Nov
    • Homework #8: Problems 18.26 18.31 18.35 19.7 19.29 19.32 20.8 20.16 20.30 - due Fri 2 Dec
    • See other announcements below!
    • General Relativity (Wikipedia)
    • Radio tests of GR - PPT
    • Galaxies (Wikipedia)

  • Wed 16 Nov
    • READING QUIZ on Chapter 19 - Fri 18 Nov
    • Feast of Facts: Planetarium Show - 2:00pm Fri 18 Nov, Hardin Planetarium
    • HAC Star Party: Leonid Meteor Shower! - 7:00pm Fri 18 Nov, Chaney's Dairy Barn ($1 nonmembers)
    • WKU Balloon Launch: Capture Meteor Dust - Sat 19 Nov, 10:00am Phys Dept, 11:00am Warren Central H.S.
    • Neutron Stars (Wikipedia) - optical effects, composition
    • Black Holes (Wikipedia) - lensing, accretion, evaporation
    • Fun Relativity Links
      • Images:
        • Mr. Tompkins vs. Length Contraction
        • Wikipedia Relativistic Doppler Effect
        • Wikipedia Aberration of Light
        • Relativistic Jets + Radio Galaxies + Active Galactic Nuclei
        • COBE CMBR Maps
      • Animations + Videos
        • Time Dilation from Laser Between Space Ships (1:23)
        • Moving Cart Special Relativity (2:31)
        • Annenberg/Caltech Mechanical Universe - 42 - Lorentz Transformation (29:07; 3-D spacetime around 19:45-25:40)
        • Carl Sagan - Time Dilation (7:39) (motorcycle ride only: 2:15)
        • Twin Paradox animated spacetime diagrams (Einstein Light)
        • Angular Compression + Light Grazing Back of Object
        • Relativistic Rollercoaster (1:15)
        • Optical Effects of Special Relativity (6:12)
        • Through Einstein's Eyes Website

  • Tue 15 Nov
    • We will finish the CCD image processing lab tonight. Bring whatever computers, data, calculator, etc. you used before.
    • Due to confusion with the filter wheel misalignment, we are skipping parts 8, 16, and 17 of the lab procedure.
    • Useful links: Last Week's CCD data + ImageJ Software

  • Mon 14 Nov
    • READING QUIZ on Chapter 18 - Wed 16 Nov
    • READING QUIZ on Chapter 19 - Fri 18 Nov
    • Homework #7: Problems 16.8 16.20 16.29 17.23 17.24 17.31 - due Fri 18 Nov
    • Colloquium today: Jun Miyamoto, Cadmium Zinc Telluride Neutrino Detectors
    • Colloquium on Nov 28: Kara Hoffman, The Antarctic IceCube Neutrino Observatory
    • Stellar Evolution (Wikipedia)

  • Fri 11 Nov
    • READING QUIZ on Chapter 18 - Wed 16 Nov

  • Tue 8 Nov
    • We will do the CCD image processing lab tonight.
    • Useful links: Last Week's CCD data + ImageJ Software

  • Mon 7 Nov
    • Astro colloquium today! Tonia Venters, Active Galactic Nuclei
    • READING QUIZ on Chapter 17 - Fri 11 Nov
    • Homework #6: Problems 13.29 13.32 13.35 14.19 14.22 14.29 15.29 15.38 - due Mon 14 Nov
    • Spiral Arms in Protoplanetary Disk

  • Fri 4 Nov
    • Special Feast of Facts today at 11:30am in TCCW 129! (Roundtable discussion : Future of Science + Research)
    • The Sun (Wikipedia)

  • Wed 2 Nov
    • READING QUIZ on Chapter 16 - Mon 7 Nov
    • Solar imaging outside today - neutral density + H-alpha filters
    • Global Oscillation Network Group (GONG) Daily Images
    • GONG H-alpha Imaging
    • Transition Region and Coronal Explorer (TRACE) Images
    • GONG Far-Side Imaging - see Calibrated Movie
    • STEREO Imaging

  • Tue 25 Oct
    • Good weather tonight! We will finish the angular scale lab and start the CCD imaging lab.

  • Mon 31 Oct
    • EXAM #1 graded - will return today
    • READING QUIZ on Chapter 15 - Wed 2 Nov
    • Hertzsprung-Russell Explorer
    • Wikipedia:
      • H-R Diagram
      • Star Colors + Spectral Classes
      • General Info on Stars

  • Wed 26 Oct
    • EXAM #1 on Chapters 1-12 - Fri 28 Oct
    • Aurora Monday Night + Current Space Weather

  • Tue 25 Oct
    • Bad weather tonight! We will do an indoor lab with color-magnitude diagrams and Galactic structure.

  • Mon 24 Oct
    • READING QUIZ on Chapter 14 - Wed 26 Oct
    • EXAM #1 on Chapters 1-12 - Fri 28 Oct
    • Comet Garradd + Coathanger
    • Comet McNaught + Two Hemispheres
    • Comet Tempel (quiescent)
    • Comet + Solar Corona Mass Ejection (just a coincidence!)
    • Meteor Streams and Some Parent Comets
    • Perseids from Above
    • Meteor Fireball Video
    • Metorite Men?
    • Radio Detection of Meteors
    • Zodiacal Light + Southern Milky Way
    • All-Sky Zodiacal Light : compare to All-Sky Milky Way

  • Fri 21 Oct
    • Physics & Astronomy Feast of Facts - 2pm TODAY in TCCW 368! (Students on conferences)
    • Asteroid Impact Avoidance
    • Gravitational Tractor
    • Yarkovsky effect - orbit changes from anisotropic radiation
    • Yarkovsky-O'Keefe-Radzievskii-Paddack (YORP) effect - spin changes + binary asteroids
    • Poynting-Robertson effect - orbit changes from relativistic aberration

  • Wed 19 Oct
    • READING QUIZ on Chapter 13 - Fri 21 Oct
    • EXAM #1 on Chapters 1-12 - Fri 28 Oct
    • Fun with Superconductor Levitation: video + explanation
    • Saturn from Behind + Ring System
    • Cassini Saturn Video
    • Vesta + South Pole
    • Sedna talk + animations
    • Arecibo Radar NEA Handout
    • PPT AO Radar Images of Asteroids, Comets
    • Radar-Based 2-Lobed Asteroid Model
    • Animation: Binary Asteroid 3-D Model: edge-on + tilted
    • Animation: Triple Asteroid: small + large
    • Rubble Pile Asteroids + Killer Asteroid game

  • Tue 18 Oct
    • Cloudy tonight - we will do Microwave Lab 2
    • Work in pairs, hand in 1 set of results per team
    • Write these neatly on separate paper from lab procedure
    • Animations: Superposition, Interference, Standing Waves, and Beats
    • PhET Demo: Waves and Interference

  • Mon 17 Oct
    • Astro colloquium today! Patrick Miller, Solar System Debris Fields
    • In the news: Hubble images new exoplanet system
    • Driven Oscillation Videos
    • Titan Weather
    • Hyperion Craters
    • Iapetus + Mimas (That's no moon!
    • Moons of: Jupiter + Saturn (see shepherds!) + Uranus + Neptune + Pluto
    • New Pluto Moon

  • Fri 14 Oct
    • READING QUIZ on Chapter 12 - Mon 21 Oct
    • Homework #5: Problems 9.30 9.33 10.28 10.34 11.27 11.30 12.27 12.31 - due Fri 21 Oct
    • Saturn Storms
    • Neptune Rotation
    • Greenland Aurora
    • Iceland Aurora
    • Norway Aurura (video)
    • Norton Tide Simulator
    • Io Volcanic Plume
    • Enceladus Volcanic Plumes
    • Europa Ice Fissures
    • Shoemaker-Levi 9 + Other Multiple Impactors

  • Wed 12 Oct
    • READING QUIZ on Chapter 11 - Fri 14 Oct

  • Tue 11 Oct
    • Cloudy tonight - we will do Microwave Lab 1
    • Work in pairs, hand in 1 set of results per team
    • Write these neatly on separate paper from lab procedure

  • Mon 10 Oct
    • READING QUIZ on Chapter 10 - Wed 12 Oct

  • Wed 5 Oct
    • READING QUIZ on Chapter 9 - Mon 10 Oct
    • HOMEWORK #4 : Problems 6.21 6.24 6.35 7.10 7.23 8.11 8.14 - due Fri 14 Oct
    • No class Friday - Fall break!
    • Physics fun: Slinky drop video

  • Tue 4 Oct
    • Good weather tonight! We will do the angular scale lab.

  • Mon 3 Oct
    • Plate tectonics animations
    • Hawaii Volcanic Hotspot
    • Volcano Explosivity Index + Supervolcanoes + Yellowstone Bow Shock
    • Carbon Cycle
    • PhET Concept Demos:
      • Radioactive Dating Game - U-235 ensemble decay
      • Decay mode details: Alpha vs. Beta
      • Greenhouse Effect
      • Gas Properties

  • Fri 30 Sep
    • Physics & Astronomy Feast of Facts - 2pm TODAY in PLANETARIUM!!
    • READING QUIZ on Chapter 8 - Mon 3 Oct
    • S&T: Comet Gerradd - try to view before next lab? how? see weather links
    • S&T: Losing Count of Exoplanets
    • Extrasolar Planet Encyclopedia
    • Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter - Whole-Moon Topography Video
    • Courtney Seligman - Lunar Maps
    • Google Moon - Cartesian Projection Photo Mosaics
    • Lake Manicouagan Wikipedia Photos + Google Map
    • Tunguska Event
    • Sudbury Basin + Eroded Impact Structures

  • Tue 27 Sep
    • Tonight: bad weather! Earth motion doppler + interplanetary travel labs - due Tue 4 Oct

  • Mon 26 Sep
    • READING QUIZ on Chapter 7 - Wed 26 Sep
    • HOMEWORK #3 : 3.12 3.33 3.41 4.29 4.35 4.39 5.12 5.28 - due Mon 3 Oct
    • Exoplanet Detection Methods

  • Fri 23 Sep
    • READING QUIZ on Chapter 6 - Mon 24 Sep
    • LABS: lunar orbit + sun shadow labs - due Tue 25 Sep
    • Blackbody Radiation (Wikipedia)
    • COBE CMBR Spectrum
    • COBE CMBR Maps

  • Wed 21 Sep
    • Wikipedia
      • Hydrogen Spectral Series (Lyman, Balmer, Paschen, etc.)
      • H-alpha (Sun, Milky Way)
      • Blackbody Radiation
    • Russell Animations: Doppler Shift
    • PhET Concept Demos:
      • Neon Lights and other Discharge Lamps
      • Blackbody Radiation
      • Photoelectric Effect

  • Tue 20 Sep
    • Moon orbit lab, sun shadow stick lab due next week
    • Tonight: bad weather! Clear up moon orbit lab confusion, do spectra lab
    • Images, Articles, and Tools
      • Emission Spectrum Examples (Hydrogen, Iron)
      • Types of Spectra and Processes
      • U. Colorado Science Trek animation: Bohr atom orbits change
    • PhET Concept Demos
      • Models of the Hydrogen Atom (photon excitation)

  • Mon 19 Sep
    • HOMEWORK #2 : wrong due date! Let's aim for Wed 21 Sep
    • Russell Animations:
      • People Wave
      • Wave Types
      • Wave Position vs. Time Views
    • Wikipedia: Electromagnetic Spectrum

  • Wed 14 Sep
    • Hilltoppers Astronomy Club meets 5pm tonight in TCCW 251; public observing follows at 7pm.
    • Physics & Astronomy Feast of Facts - relaxed gathering of students and faculty, with food! - 2pm Fri 16 Sep in TCCW 368 lounge
    • Departmental Colloquium - 4pm Mon 19 Sep in TCCW 251 (snacks at 3:45pm in SPS room, TCCW 238)
    • READING QUIZ on Chapter 5 - Wed 21 Sep
    • HOMEWORK #2 : Problems 2.7 2.18 2.30 2.43 (extra credit: 2.19) - due Mon 26 Sep

  • Tue 13 Sep
    • Moon orbit lab tonight; view full moon from roof with small telescope.
    • Lunar libration
    • Take home Mars orbit lab.
    • Star wheel + sun motion labs due next week.

  • Fri 9 Sep
    • HOMEWORK #2 : pending
    • READING QUIZ on Chapter 4 - Wed 14 Sep
    • APOD: Walking on the Moon

  • Tue 6 Sep
    • No lab tonight; work on take-home labs as conditions allow.

  • Fri 2 Sep
    • HOMEWORK #1 : Problems 1.7 1.11 1.19 1.24 (i.e., 7 11 19 + 24 at end of Chapter 1) -- due Fri 9 Sep
    • READING QUIZ on Chapter 3 - Fri 9 Sep
    • No class on Monday; Labor Day

  • Wed 31 Aug
    • Next lab: 7pm Tue 6 Sep in TCCW 201. 1st quarter moon. Better weather?
    • READING QUIZ on Hester, Chapter 2 - Fri 2 Sep
    • Substitute Friday; I will be in Louisville

  • Tue 30 Aug
    • Lab 1: Orientation + Sky Motion
    • Planispheres are available at the WKU bookstore for $4! We will make some in lab, but you may want a more durable one.

  • Mon 29 Aug
    • 1st Laboratory Meeting Tue 30 Aug, TCCW 201
    • READING QUIZ on Hester, Chapter 1 - Wed 31 Aug
    • Join the Hilltoppers Astronomy Club! Next meeting 5pm Wed 14 Sep
    • Join the Society of Physics Students! Next meeting 5pm Tue 6 Sep
    • Space is Big
      • Hands-On Cosmic Scale Models
      • Rolling Planets + Stars Video
      • Large Scale Stuff Comparison Video