Course Description
Instructor: |
Dr. Juan Cabanela | |
Office: |
Hagen Hall 307B (218-447-2453) | |
Research Lab: |
Hagen Hall 302 (218-477-2458) | |
Email: |
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IM: |
AstroJuanCab (AIM) (MSN) Cabanela (Yahoo! IM) |
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Office Hours: |
TBA (Note: These are only the scheduled office hours. You can usually find me in my office or my lab room (HA 302) during the day. See my office door or my website for my schedule.) |
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Homepage: |
http://astrophys410.cabanela.com/ | |
Lecture Period: |
Tuesday and Thursday, 9:00 am - 10:15 am | |
Materials Required or Suggested:
- Access to the Internet, since all course materials that would traditionally be “handouts” will be posted online (see us if this is an issue).
- Zeilik and Gregory, Introductory Astronomy and Astrophysics (4th Edition). This is available at the MSUM Bookstore for $171.75 New or $128.80 Used. The ISBN is 9780030062285 and I have seen it for sale online on Amazon.com for considerably less than $128.80.
- [Optional, but useful] Maple 11: A Symbolic Mathematics computer package for Mac/Windows/Linux. It is available at steep discount (around $10) from the Campus Bookstore (I NEED TO CONFIRM THIS).
Course Objectives
By the end of this course you should be able to:
- Understand some of the terminology unique to astronomy.
- Apply Newton's Theory of Gravity and Kepler's Laws to interactions between astronomical objects.
- Use an understanding of light and its interactions with matter in order to analyze astronomical data including optical and non-optical imaging and basic spectroscopy.
- Explain the basic physical properties of stars and how we have determined them.
- Explain our theoretical understanding of stellar interiors, specifically hydrostatic equilibrium, as well as applying that understanding to other astronomical situations, such as planetary atmospheres.
- Be comfortable reading journal articles and trying to extract information from them.