Our Place in the Universe

Notices

Thursday 6/6
There will be no observing tonight due to continued lousy weather.
Tuesday 6/4
Tonight's observing session is cancelled due to cloudy weather.
Friday 5/31
You can now turn in Skylabs as late as Friday, June 7 without penalty.
Tuesday 5/28
Tonight's observing session is cancelled due to cloudy weather. We will try one last time next Tuesday evening (6/4).
Tuesday 5/28
The Messier catalog mentioned in homework problem 4 was inadvertently omitted from the syllabus. You can find a copy here. Note that the globular clusters have the type code "2". For example, the first globular cluster on the list is M2, at right ascension 21h 33.5min and declination -0deg 49min. Be sure to understand what is meant by "hours", "minutes" and "degrees" in these listings!
Wednesday 5/22
The weather looks promising so we will try to have an observing session this evening. We will probably get going about 9pm.
Tuesday 5/21
Typo Alert: The Star Wars discussion, which the syllabus indicates will happen on 5/28, will instead take place Wednesday 5/29. The readings for this discussion are the three articles in the course packet by Burns, Lewis et al., and Kirkpatrick.
Monday 5/13
Grades have been updated to include Exam 2, as well as all discussions to date and all extra credit received. Homework 2 will be added in the next day or two. The curve for Exam 2 will be about the same as that for Exam 1; see the online grades for complete details.
Tuesday 5/7
Tonight's observing session is cancelled due to cloudy weather. The next scheduled session is in the afternoon of Wednesday, May 15. (See the observatory web page for details.) In the mean time we will try to organize another evening session when the weather clears. Announcements will be made in class and on this page as details become available.
Wednesday 5/1
The observing session scheduled for tonight is cancelled due to poor weather. We will try again next Tuesday, May 7.
Monday 4/22
The constellations found on the April star chart are:
- Auriga
- Bootes
- Cancer
- Canis Major
- Canis Minor
- Cassiopeia
- Cepheus
- Corona Borealis
- Corvus
- Draco
- Gemini
- Hercules
- Hydra
- Leo
- Libra
- Orion
- Perseus
- Serpens
- Taurus
- Ursa Major
- Ursa Minor
- Virgo
You must match 15 of these to the actual star patterns for full credit on the Constellation Quiz (Monday 4/29)
Friday 4/19
The last scheduled observing session has been moved from Wed 5/29 to Tuesday 5/28. See the observatory web page for further details.
Thursday 4/18
Course grades are now available on line. Updates will generally follow the in-class exams.
Friday 4/12
Star charts for the Spring were handed out today. The Constellation Quiz on 4/29 will be based on the chart for April, which shows 22 different constellations. I will give you this chart with the names on the side, and ask you to match names to constellations. Correctly identifying any 15 of the 22 will result in full credit.

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