Course Information, Syllabus, and Homework Assignments

Astronomy 110 (Section 5)

Survey of Astronomy

University of Hawaii at Manoa

Fall Term 2009

Dr. Ilia I. Roussev

IfA Office Phone: 956-6648

E-mail: iroussev@ifa.hawaii.edu

Watanabe Hall Office: Room 401

IfA Office: Room B-108

Teaching Staff

This section of Astronomy 110 will be given by Prof. Ilia I. Roussev. Prof. Roussev received his Ph.D. in solar physics at Queen's University Belfast (Belfast, Northern Ireland). He spent 4 years on the space physics faculty at the Department of Atmospheric, Oceanic, and Space Sciences at the University of Michigan (Ann Arbor) before joining the faculty of the University of Hawaii's Institute for Astronomy (IfA) in 2006. More information on Prof. Roussev's history and interests may be found in the "Biographical Information and Curriculum Vitae" on his website at: http://www.ifa.hawaii.edu/users/iroussev/.

Prof. Roussev's main office is in Room B-108 of the Institute for Astronomy at 2680 Woodlawn Drive, 100 meters makai of the Manoa Marketplace (a five-minute ride on the Rainbow Shuttle from the main Manoa campus).

Mr. Gabriel Dima is the Teaching Assistant for this course. He has a B.S. degree from the Cambridge University (UK). Mr. Dima's office is in Room 403 in Watanabe Hall. His e-mail address is gdima@ifa.hawaii.edu.

Office Hours

Prof. Ilia Roussev: TTh 10:15-11:15am at Watanabe 401. No appointment is required.
Or, by appointment, at his IfA office (B-108). You are encouraged to come to ask questions about the course, discuss larger intellectual, University, or personal issues, or just to have a general conversation and get to know each other.

Mr. Gabriel Dima: MW 11:30am-12:30pm at Watanabe 403. No appointment is required.

Textbook

Relation of Text to Lectures

Three years ago, some of my colleagues have persuaded the Physics and Astronomy Department to buy a set of "clickers" that we loan to each student for each class. (The alternative, which is done in many places, is to require students to purchase them.) I have developed a set of questions which for each major concept which I will project on the screen for students to answer using the clickers. The clicker technology enables me to see the answers in real time. Most questions will precede my lecture on a topic, so I better understand the preconceptions the class brings to that topic. Other questions will follow my presentation to test understanding of each concept. Students will be invited to think about the correct answers, then discuss their ideas with their neighbors, and finally use the clickers to give their answers. I can then assess the extent to which my lecture was successful. If there is substantial confusion I can then try to correct misunderstanding which has appeared. It should therefore be apparent that attendance at lectures is mandatory. A student will not be able to get the equivalent learning experience only by reading the textbook.

Students are asked to pick up a clicker when they enter the classroom each morning and return it when they leave the classroom. The clickers will be shared by several sections of the Survey of Astronomy course. Students are also welcome to buy their own clickers from the U-H bookstore.

Mathematics

This course is essentially a non-mathematical introduction to astronomy. Astronomy is, however, both a descriptive and a quantitative science. If we say only that some astronomical object is "big" or "far away," we will not have got much beyond astronomy in the pre-Christian Era. In general, I do not see much point in having you plug numbers into a formula and use a calculator correctly to get an answer. My principal use of math will be with functional relationships: for example, that the brightness of a given star decreases as the square of its distance from us.

You will need to be able to understand numbers in powers of ten notation, e.g., 3,000 = 3 x 10³. This is necessary in astronomy to avoid spending all one's time writing and counting zeros. Numerical values will be given in terms of metric units, which are used in science and in everyday life throughout the civilized world. All this will be presented in the first lecture and reviewed in the first homework, and it is also summarized in Appendix C, pages A-4 to A-12 of the textbook.

Examinations

Make-up exams will be offered only for serious emergencies. If you must miss an exam you must see the instructor as soon as you are able. Make-up exams, if permitted, will consist of essay-type questions. Permission to take make-up exams for athletics-related absences must be obtained in advance of the missed exam; otherwise no make-up exam will be offered. No athletics-related absences will be permitted for the final exam. The mid-term exams will each count for 20%, and the final for 40% of the course grade. Each mid-term exam will cover approximately the previous third of the course material. The first half of the final exam will be over the last third of the course material, and the second half of the final exam will be over the entire course.

Homework

Homework assignments from the Media Workbook will be set approximately once a week. The content of the homeworks is part of the examinable material of the course. Late homework papers will not be accepted. Return and discussion of homeworks will take place as quickly as possible after the due date. The average of the homework marks will count for 20% of the final grade, i.e., the homeworks are equal in importance to one of the mid-term exams. Some homeworks will have bonus questions which, if answered correctly, will bring students extra points, i.e., some students may earn more than 100 points per given homework!

Marking (Grading)

Homework Average 20%

First Mid-Term 20%

Second Mid-Term 20%

Final Exam 40%

Studying for this course

Daily reading assignments and homework assignments