Course Syllabus
29:50 Modern Astronomy
Fall Semester 2003

Steven R. Spangler
705 Van Allen Hall
335-1948
steven-spangler@uiowa.edu
http://phobos.physics.uiowa.edu/$\sim$srs/

Modern Astronomy is an introductory survey of the science of astronomy, intended for students who are not majoring in the natural sciences. This is an exciting time to study astronomy. Major discoveries have been made in recent times which affect our view of the universe. Many of these discoveries result from the large number of spacecraft which continue to return pictures and data from space. These data are shared with people everywhere via the Internet, and are a tremendous teaching resource. Lectures will be regularly supplemented with these findings. I also plan to emphasize those phenomena which can be seen with the unaided eye in the night sky.

General Course Information

1. Lectures are from 1:30 to 2:20 PM Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, in Lecture Room 1 of Van Allen Hall.
2. There is a laboratory associated with this course. Students registered for the laboratory receive 4 semester hours of credit and satisfy the General Education requirement of a natural science laboratory. Students registered for 3 semester hours do not attend the laboratory. Students registered for 4 semester hours must attend the laboratory section. The lab section meets for two hours per week in room 665 or 666 of Van Allen Hall. Laboratory classes do not meet the first week, but commence the week of September 1. Projects in the laboratory consist of taking and analysing astronomical observations with the Iowa Robotic Observatory of the University, and use of the graphics capabilities of personal computers to carry out various exercises. Please Note: Those students registered for 4 semester hours must receive a passing grade in the laboratory portion of the course as well as the lecture portion in order to receive a passing grade for the course.
3. The required textbook for the course is Astronomy Volume II: Stars and Galaxies by John D. Fix. Students registered for the laboratory will also need the lab manual Imaging the Universe by Robert Mutel and Michael Wilson.
4. Office hours for Professor Spangler are 2:30 - 3:30 Tuesday afternoon, or by appointment if this time is inconvenient.
5. One hour exams will be held in the regular class period on September 29, October 29, and December 12.
6. The final exam will be held on Tuesday, December 16 at 4:30PM in Lecture Room 1. Make-up exams will be allowed only for the most compelling circumstances, such as incapacitating illness or death in the immediate family. Documentation of the circumstances will be required.
7. The grade in the course will be determined as follows.
   For students registered for three semester hours (without lab), each of the four examinations will count for 25 percent of the course grade. For students registered for four semester hours (with lab), the sum total of the exam scores will count for 75 percent of the course grade, and the laboratory grade will count for the remaining 25 percent. It is to be emphasized that a student registered for 4 semester hours will not receive a passing grade for the course as a whole unless he or she receives a passing grade for the laboratory portion. Final letter grades will be assigned on the basis of a student's standing relative to his or her peers. The following formula will be used: A: 85th percentile or greater; B: 60th percentile or better; C: 20th percentile or better; D or F: 19th percentile and lower. To receive a passing grade, a student must earn 50 percent of the possible points on exams and lab reports.
8. Students are encouraged to visit the observatory on the roof of Van Allen Hall to see the objects discussed in this class. A laboratory instructor will be on duty on clear nights, Monday through Thursday, at 9:00 PM. The roof of Van Allen Hall may be reached from a stairway at the east end of the 7th floor. The roof is kept dark during observing sessions, so be careful where you step and be alert for changes in elevation. I will also organize several ``field trips'' to an observatory at a dark sky site outside of Iowa City.
9. There is a World Wide Web homepage associated with the course,
   http://phobos.physics.uiowa.edu/$\sim$srs/. Go to the link to 29:50, Modern Astronomy. The website contains lecture notes, homework assignments, and sample exams. It also serves as a gateway to other astronomical links such as the Mars Exploration Rover and Hubble Space Telescope homepages.
10. I would like to hear from anyone who has a disability which may require some modification of seating, testing, or other class requirements so that appropriate arrangements may be made. Please see me after class or during office hours.

Schedule of Topics

Date	Topic	Reading
Aug. 25	Initial pleasantries; what's in the night sky?	-
Aug. 27	Overview of the solar system	Chap.2
Aug. 29	Mars I	-
Sept. 3	Mars II	-
Sept. 5,8	Appearance of the night sky	1,2
Sept. 10	Telescopes	6
Sept. 12,15	The Sun as we see it	17
Sept. 17	The nearest stars and how we know their distances.	16
Sept. 19	Bright stars and faint stars: the magnitude system	16
Sept. 22,24	Starlight	6
Sept. 26	The Hertzsprung-Russell diagram	16
Sept. 29	First Hour Exam	-
Oct. 1,3	What makes stars shine? Gravity & nuclear fusion	17
Oct. 6,8	Where do stars come from?	18
Oct. 10	Dark Clouds: chemistry sets in the sky	18
Oct. 13	The future of the Sun	19
Oct. 15,17	The future of stellar heavyweights	19,20
Oct. 20	neutron stars	20
Oct. 22	Black Holes: what they are	20
Oct. 24	Black Holes: are they out there?	20
Oct. 27,31	Stars like the Sun	-
Oct. 29	Second Hour Exam	-
Nov. 3,5	The structure of the Milky Way	22
Nov. 7	Our galaxy and other galaxies	23
Nov. 10	Galaxies and the universe	23
Nov. 12	Deep extragalactic space	23
Nov. 14,17	Quasars and Blazars	24
Nov. 19	Dark Matter	25
Nov. 21-Dec.5	Cosmology: the fate of the universe	25
Dec. 8	Life in the universe	27
Dec. 10	Summary and overview	-
December 12	Third Hour Exam	--
December 16	4:30 PM: Final Exam- LR1, VAN	--