29:50 Modern Astronomy
Fall 1999
Lecture 1 ...August 23, 1999
The Sun and Solar System: Part 1
``This should be the most interesting course you take in college''. Reasons why it is interesting: (1) subject material fundamentally fascinating. (2) Astronomy is a rapidly expanding field. I illustrate the latter point (often) by comparing the textbook used now with that which I used as a college student 30 years ago. It is astounding to see the amount of material which has been added during this time.
Students who took this course from me six years ago did not hear much of the material which will be presented this Fall. If you had taken Modern Astronomy last Spring, you would have missed some exciting new developments over the summer.
An illustration of this is the image of the Sun at ultraviolet wavelengths
shown above. It comes from a spacecraft called SOHO, which is far out in space, observing
the Sun all the time.
Distribution of Syllabus: Read it!
Some points about syllabus:
SC1 charts. See last pages in book for star charts.
First Topic: The Sun
Justification for this approach