Aug 27:
Project 1: Scale Model (homework, due Wednesday)
pre-test: http://www.physics.csbsju.edu/assess/ADT2.html
Read Chapter 1
expect a quiz Wednesday (and every day for a couple of weeks)
decide on a lab group (sign up Wednesday)

Aug 29:
handouts: Horizon & Equator Coordinate Systems ("Sky Vocabulary"), sky maps
same as: Spherical astronomy terms http://www.physics.csbsju.edu/astro/terms.html

Project 2: Sky Maps (in class)

homework: 
read: tutorial: sky vocabulary starts at http://www.physics.csbsju.edu/astro/CS/CSintro.html
tutorial & quiz: sky map: starts at http://www.physics.csbsju.edu/astro/sky/sky.01.html

the textbooks coverage of these topic is spotty, but for another viewpoint:
text: p 31-40, 103-136
mostly we'll be following the sequence online

Aug 31:
handouts: star finder + manual
Project 3: Star and Planet Locator (in class)
homework:
tutorial & quiz: star finder: starts at http://www.physics.csbsju.edu/astro/SF/SF.01.html

Sign up for a Night Lab Group ? (labs depend on class size)

Sep 3
Lab signup (labs start next week)
handouts: SC001 + SC002
Project 4: Right Ascension & Declination (in class)
homework:
tutorial & quiz: SC001 star map: starts at http://www.physics.csbsju.edu/astro/SC1/SC1.01.html
tutorial & quiz: SC002 star map: starts at http://www.physics.csbsju.edu/astro/SC2/SC2.01.html
Under the "videos" link on the class web page watch: Moon_Home_Lab
If you're using a obsolete browser (like IE or Edge) click on the mp4 file if you're using
a modern browser (like chrome or firefox or safari) use the webm file.
Note: this deals with the Moon Motions home lab and you may feel you lack background
to fully understand what's discussed.  Be assured we'll be doing an in class project
on this material, but you will have homework on it due Friday.

Remark: we're in the process of covering the material that in the textbook makes up chapters 2-4.
My take on this material is a bit different from our textbook's.  You should in the end read
all those textbook chapters.  Let me suggest you start with pp. 31-41, 104-124 soon.

Sep 5
handouts: Home Lab Manual
Project 5: Moon Motions Project Practice (start in class, finish at home)
Under the "videos" link on the class web page watch: Polar_Home_Lab 
If you're using a obsolete browser (like IE or Edge) click on the mp4 file if you're using
a modern browser (like chrome or firefox or safari) use the webm file.
online read text (no quizzes!):
compare: SC and Sky Map
tutorial: latitude & your sky
Simon Newcomb on the Revolution of the Earth round the Sun

Sep 7
in class matching sky vocabulary quiz similar to online: Quiz on sky terms
handouts: Polar Project Practice (Project 6) (start in class, finish at home)
homework:
Under the "videos" link on the class web page watch: seasons
						   : culminate1B 
If you're using a obsolete browser (like IE or Edge) click on the mp4 file if you're using
a modern browser (like chrome or firefox or safari) use the webm file.

Lab starts next week; Exam 1 in three weeks (Wed Sep 26)

Sep 10
in class culmination quizzes start
Lab 1 at the Observatory tonight
homework:
online (2 quizzes): 
"Name These Moons Quiz"
under: Piagetian-based diagnostic quizzes...3. Martian Moons

Under the "videos" link on the class web page watch: moon_unlD2
If you're using a obsolete browser (like IE or Edge) click on the mp4 file if you're using
a modern browser (like chrome or firefox or safari) use the webm file.

Note: there are additional culmination quiz videos here also:
culminate1B  & culminate2B

Sep 12
in class culmination quizzes continue

homework: online "Moon Quiz"

Under the "videos" link on the class web page watch: moon_phase_SH+NH2 	 
If you're using a obsolete browser (like IE or Edge) click on the mp4 file if you're using
a modern browser (like chrome or firefox or safari) use the webm file.

Note: we will not be returning to the class web site for quizzes & videos for a couple of weeks!

Read all of textbook: chapter 2
we'll be particularly working on the material in pp 42-60
note that the seasons material we've done in class is textbook pp 103-114
the moon material is sections 4.5 & 4.7

Sep 14
in class culmination quizzes continue

Previous: How objects in the sky seem to move: *phenomenology*
Topics: How the "Greeks" *explained* sky motions:
Ptolemy, geocentric, epicycle, deferent, equant, retrograde motion, conjunction (2x), opposition,
inferior/superior planet

No online quizzes or additional reading
Next up: textbook chapter 3

Sep 17
in class culmination quizzes continue

Note: In discussing astro history, we've returned to the text book
 p.54 Copernicus
 p.57 Galileo
 p.70 Tycho
 p.71 Kepler
 p.76 Newton
In particular p.87 has the data for 8 of the 9 planets you are to plot 
for the Kepler's 3rd Law Project
Table F4 (p.1154) has Pluto (F3 repeats the 8 planets)

Read textbook chapter 4 (the only new material should be on tides)

Sep 19
in class culmination quizzes continue
exam 1: in one week

Galileo: different mass, same motion with force of gravity; x & y directions separate
galilean invariance; acceleration; experiments!

newton's four laws
tides
3 great conservation laws: energy, linear momentum, angular momentum
energy: thermal, kinetic, potential (gravitational, electric+magnetic, nuclear, chemical, ...)

linear momentum: mv (conserve if no external force)
angular momentum (mr^2)x(#rpm) (conserve if no external torque) ice skater effect

Sep 21
NO culmination quiz (did happen)
help for exam 1?

more on Galileo & Newton
tides
precession
angular momentum
angular momentum (mr^2)x(#rpm) (conserve if no external torque) ice skater effect

entropy: 2nd law of thermodynamics
high temperatures break apart composites

We will be starting chapter 5 "soon" (so read it!), but we'll start a bit unconventionally

---Exam 1 Sep 26---

Oct 1
somehow I managed to schedule Night Lab 2 for Monday  8 Oct (which is a Free Day)
It will instead occur the following week: Monday 15 Oct
Wednesday 10 Oct (immediately following the Free Days) is still a GO

In class: see and draw the spectra project
homework online: "Spectra Quiz II (Spectrometer)"
Note: I'll assign "Spectra Quiz I (Blackbody)" next time.
I'm doing them in reverse order as students found I harder than II

Oct 3
The in-class lab schedule now correctly says we have labs in one week on 10 Oct and
in 12 days on 15 Oct.

homework online: "Spectra Quiz I (Blackbody)"  

You have a Big Quiz coming up on spectra/atoms/telescopes
It will probably be Friday 12 Oct.
We will also start quizzes on "Constellations to Know" (see under "Exam 2..." on the class web site)
after that Big Quiz.
Finally we are approaching the previously extended last possible day to start the
Polar Motion Home Lab.


Oct 5
starting ch. 6 on telescopes

Oct 10
in class project on lenses
Exam 2 in two weeks
Night Lab 2 at observatory tonight
Today is the listed last possible day to start the Moon Motion Home Lab.
I can extend this only about a week, as it takes a month of observations
and is due before Thanksgiving.  Polar Motion Home lab start is, I think,
over as it is supposed to be cloudy the rest of the week.


Oct 12
Big Quiz on spectra/atoms/telescopes 
start chapter 15: the Sun


Oct 15
start chapter 16: the Sun (nuclear)
start constellation quizzes (these will continue daily until Exam 2)
http://www.physics.csbsju.edu/astro/constellations/
Night Lab 2 at observatory tonight

Oct 17
start chapter 17: star light
continue constellation quizzes (these will continue daily until Exam 2)
Exam 2 in one weeks...help?
note: video solutions to Big Quiz and both online spectra quizzes I & II

Oct 19
start chapter 18: HR diagram (last chapter on exam2)
continue constellation quizzes (these will continue daily until Exam 2)
Exam 2 help: Tuesday 8:15

Remark: we're a couple of days ahead of where we were in 2017...
take a look at the following questions from exam3:
6, 17, 22, 29

Oct 22
continue chapter 18: HR diagram (last chapter on exam2)
continue constellation quizzes (these will continue daily until Exam 2)
Exam 2 help: Tuesday 8:15

Remark: we're a couple of days ahead of where we were in 2017...
take a look at the following questions from exam3:
6, 17, 22, 29

Oct 24
Exam 2: chapters: 5,6, 15 thru p 668 (i.e., chapter 18+parallax)

Oct 26
chapter 20: gas & dust between the stars

Oct 29
chapter 21: stars are formed from giant molecular clouds

Note: under Exam 3... find "Stars to know"
The project for exam3 is to memorize the Spectral Type and corresponding
location in the sky of these 17 stars.
All but 3 stars (Sun, Polaris, Algol) are part of a "connection"
Future in-class quizzes will present "dots + lines" for these three connections
(e.g., http://www.physics.csbsju.edu/astro/stars/negatives/hexL_l.gif )
and you will be asked to label the appropriate dot with the star's name
and spectral type, and name the constellation that includes the star.
The three "unconnected" stars will be the initial quiz on these stars.

We are now well past the listed last possible start date for the Moon Motions
home lab.  However if you act immediately you still could complete the
lab before its due date.  Note that observation sketches or photos
must be contemporaneously emailed to me if they are to be included in
the graded work.

Oct 31
chapter 22: stars in old age

Nov 2
Plan on starting "stars to know" quizzes Wed Nov 7.
The first quiz will involved the "unconnected" stars: Sun, Polaris, Algol.
For the last two: given the constellation label the star and give its spectral type.
Note carefully the location of Algol..in the past it has often been mis-labelled

chapter 23: star death

Next: I will skip chpater 24, and move on to chapter 25: Milky Way galaxy.
We will spend at least one class on the history of "discovering" our galaxy.
Exam3 will cover from stellar evolution thru galaxies.

Nov 5
Plan on starting "stars to know" quizzes Wed Nov 7.

chapter 25: Milky Way

Nov 7
first "stars to know" quiz...will continue each day for a week
Milky Way history

Nov 9
"stars to know" quiz...summer triangle
Milky Way history

Nov 12
"stars to know" quiz...big arc
Milky Way history, start chapter 26: galaxies
Labs this week...tonight 8:30
exam 3: one week!
questions from online exam3 that were covered in your exam2:
6, 17, 22, 29
Note: questions on spectral type & HR (like 6 & 22) would still be fair game for
your exam3, but you saw #29 on your exam2 and there will be no equivalent
question on your exam3
The online exam3 did not cover types of galaxies (chapter 26) but your
exam3 will cover that material.

Nov 14
"stars to know" quiz...winter hex
chapter 26: galaxies
Labs this week...tonight 8:15 & 9:30

Nov 16
Exam 3 Monday...Help: Sunday 5pm
chapter 24: relativity

Nov 19
exam3
textbook: p 669-chapter 26 (except chapter 24)

you should be doing your last Polar Home Lab observations at the same *CST* as one
of your earlier observations.
Check out the practice Home Labs you completed in week 2, and the associated videos
Start completing the calculations for your Home Labs

Nov 26
chapter 27
active galaxies: quasars, Seferts...unified as black hole AGN
unusual: shapes (lobes, jets), colors (of all sort: X-ray, UV, IR, radio...light not from stars)
emission lines (broad & narrow)...again not from stars
time variation (implying small size)

Nov 28
AGN

Nov 30
chapter 28
large scale structure/distribution of galaxies
a homogeneous universe (no edge) but with superclusters, voids, walls, filaments at large scale
dark matter again, 
galaxy formation stressing mergers
expansion acceleration: data from type Ia supernovas, the expansion is accelerating not decelerating
dark energy (cosmological constant: a repulsive form of gravity noticeable over large scales)

Dec 3
chapter 29: big bang
starting from 1 second
neutrino decoupling (neutrinos fly free: an unmined artifact from the early universe)
end of antimatter (why were matter/antimatter nearly co-equal?)
first composite nuclei: 3 minutes
deuterium bottleneck; 3 alpha bottleneck; composition of resulting products #2 source of info about early universe
matter dominates
universe become transparent (light flies free which we now see as microwave background; wavelengths stretched by 1000)

Dec 5
the microwave background (particularly evidence of sound in that plasma) 
is the #1 source of info about the early (400,000 year old) universe
There are exacting measurements of the temperature of this light and the
very slight (1 part in 100,000) inhomogenities that represent sound in the early universe.
Simulations show that these inhomgeneities are the seeds of large scale structure we see today
dark ages (transparent universe, but before stars form)
first stars (< 1 billion years after BB)

going backward from 1 second
first composites form (protons & neutrons: 3 quarks ~ 1/1000000 second)
3 forces (EM, weak, strong) have analogous mathematical structure
at sufficiently high temperatures they should be indistinguishable: one force from 3
While gravity shows hints of a similar math nature (gauge symmetry), it still seems quite different
no sign of a workable quantum theory of gravity, nevertheless majority seems to believe that
gravity will become co-equal with the other forces at sufficiently high temperature
Inflation: the hypothetical bigger bang in the very early universe responsible for what
wee see as unusual connectedness of divergent parts of universe (horizon problem) and apparent flatness of universe

Dec 7
review BB
start chapter 30
Drake equation

Dec 10
origin of life; darwin v pasteur, "warm pond"
monomers -> polymers sounds like a 2nd law of thermo violation
requires energy input (ATP)
biological molecules: lipids (fats), carbohydrates (sugars), amino acids (protein)
base-pair triplets of DNA/RNA determine amino acid order in proteins, hence structure
RNA world?
difficulty of cooperation as seen in "recent" eukaryote development
mitochondria as "parasites"

Alternative final time: Friday 1pm
Help Sunday 5pm