OSWAGO AST 350 - Observational Astronomy Syllabus

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Astronomy 350 - Observational Astronomy• CRN: 92534, Observational Astronomy, Credits: 3.00• Instructor: Dr. Shashi Kanbur, Rm 124A, Snygg Hall, SUNY Oswego.• Email: [email protected], Tel: 412 2679.• Office Hours: Monday 9.30 -10.30am, Tuesdays: 10-11 am, Thursdays: 2-3pm or make an appointment by phone or email.• Lectures: MW, 7-10.00am, in Piez 327.• Books: ”Introductory Astronomy Exercises”, by Dale C. Ferguson, secondedition.• Books: ”Astronomy Methods”, by H. Bradt.• Brief Introduction to the Course: A laboratory course which introudces thetechniques and principles used in making astronomical observations. A100is a prerequisite fo r this course. The aim is to enable you to make astro-nomical observations on your own as an amateur with sufficient knowledgethat you could probably take things further to the professional level. Wewill cover such topics as– Positional Astronomy: constellations etc.– Light– Telescopes– Atmospheric effects?– Light detectors and CCD’s– Astronomical data r eduction– Astronomical SpectroscopyBasic astronomical knowledge you should know can be found either in thetextb ook or www.oswego.edu/ kanbur/a100. Layout of the Course:– Some lectures, some class discussion, some computer demonstrations,laboratory exercises, observing sessions.– Some labs, either here a t SUNY Oswego or sometimes at SouthernCayuga High School observatory.– Reading Assignments, homeworks, in class exams and a comprehensivefinal.1– Classroom Attendance: Roll call will be taken. Attending lecturesis highly recommended. Participating in class room activities willincrease your understanding of the material.– Other requirements include warm clothing: we will be going out on theroof of Piez sometimes, consider wind chill etc. Some lab notebooksand a clipboard. One of the lab notebooks will be what you hand inafter completing your lab writeups.– Some labs may require a protractor, compass and millimeter ruler.– There will be a sign up sheet to come in earlier and set up telescopes.– Sometimes we may go to SOuthern Cayuga School (about 30-40 miles)from here to do some observing. This will be at the weekends. If so,we wont have one of the MW sessions.• Web sites to know– www.oswego.edu/ kanbur/ast350– www.skymaps.com– Doing Lab Projects∗ Some observing lab projects will be done in small teams due tothe limited number of telescopes. Observations and measurementswill also be done in these teams. However, the analysis of theobservations and written answers to questions should be done in-dividually.∗ Make sure you read and understand what a lab project is beforeyou start one.∗ In a lab activity, all observations and measurements must be writ-ten down in the worksheets provided by the Ferguson book orother handouts.∗ Grading: Midterm 15%, Final 15%, 8 labs, each of 8% and at-tendance is 6%. During the class time we will frequently discussproblems similar to what will be on the exams. These exams willbe a mixture of multiple choice and other types of questions butmake up exams for the two in class exams will be essays. We willfollow SUNY Oswego guidelines regarding makeup for the final ex-ams. No textbooks will be allowed in these exams. All equationsthat you may need will be given.∗ The exams will not test your memory of equations but your un-derstanding of them.∗ The first in class exam will be around the end of September, de-pending on what progress we make. I will give you plenty of2warning and also schedule a review session before such in classexams.∗ There will be four-six homework assignments. You are stronglyadvised to make concerted efforts to try these and understand thesolutions. They will be similar to the type of questions you willget in the exams. You may discuss these with friends but thefinal submitted solution must be your own work. Some of thesehomewor ks will be ”computer lab simulation” exercises.∗ There will be reading assigmnets: these are so that you becomesomewhat familiar with the concepts and ideas you will encounterthat day in class. You are not expected to understand the materialafter a reading assigmnent.∗ There will be a project which could be a literature review of cur-rent research in observational astronomy, analysing real CCD dataor analyzing some archival data. We may also work on writing anobserving proposal.Please discuss your choice of project with me. There will be a 5-10 pagereport plus a classroom presentation at the end of the semester. Youshould decide the topic/title of your project by the end of September.– Thus the exams will count to 50% of your grade, homeworks, 25%,project 25%.– How do I succeed in this class?∗ Come to class, get the book, particpate in class.∗ Do NOT be a fraid to ask questions.∗ Do the homeoworks, reading assignments and understand the so-lutions.∗ Do the reading assignments.∗ Stay current, hand homeowrks in on time.∗ Think about the material, remain open to be moved, inspired bythe


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OSWAGO AST 350 - Observational Astronomy Syllabus

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