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Contents
Contents
ASTRONOMY 108
Outline and supplementary notes
Contents
Basic "naked eye" Observations
The sun and its apparent motion.
at one place on earth
as you move around on the earth
The year
The moon and its motion and shape.
The stars and their apparent motion.
The planets.
The Comets
The meteors or shooting stars
Ancient Greek Astronomy
Beginning of Modern Astronomy
Time and Calendars
The day
The year
The calendar
Electromagnetic Radiation
Types, or names
Wavelength and frequency
Velocity
The names of the various types of waves and their wavelengths
Detectors of radiation
Measuring the wavelength
Spectral sources
Graphs of spectral sources
Characteristic wavelengths
Atomic model for emission and absorption of radiation
The continuous spectrum
The Doppler effect
Telescopes
Types of telescopes
Sizes
Desirable characteristics of telescopes
Telescope mountings
The Solar System
Members
Properties of the planets and how they are measured
Summary of results
Distinctive facts about each planet
Mercury
Venus
Mars
Jupiter
Saturn
Uranus
Neptune
Pluto
Origins of the solar system
The Sun
size, mass
Surface temperature
Wien's Law
Stefan's Law
Structure
Easily observed surface features
Total energy radiated by the sun
Energy Generation by the Sun and Other Stars
Some typical terrestrial energies
If the sun were a normal fire
The sun is not a normal fire
Gravitational contraction
Nuclear energy
Distance to and Motions of the Stars
Spectra and Brightnesses of the Stars
Spectra
Brightnesses
Stars as Objects
Properties
Correlations
First application of the H-R diagram: 'Spectroscopic parallax'
Star Clusters and Stellar Evolution
Clusters of stars
The HR Diagram for a single cluster
Application #1 . Distances
Application #2 . Ages
Evolution of Stars: The role of alternate energy sources; Nucleosynthesis
End States of Stars: Dwarfs, supernovae, pulsars, black holes, Nucleosynthesis in supernovae
The Milky Way
External Galaxies
Appearances
Sizes
Distances
Spectra of Galaxies
Spectra and Distances
Cosmology
The universe is expanding
Why
is the universe expanding?
the exploding, or big bang universe
the steady state universe
Continuous Creation
The evidence
The ``identification problem'' of radio astronomy
The discovery and identification of ``quasars''
the "3-degree background radiation"
Quasars for their own sake
The Age of the Universe; The Size of the Universe
General Relativity
The gravitational deflection of starlight
The gravitational redshift
The precession of the perihelion of Mercury
2001-09-04
