Instructor: Doug Whittet
Teaching Assistant: Perry Gerakines

Lectures are held on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays from 9:00 to 9:50am in room CC235.

There is no required text. Various books and articles may be recommended as background reading during the semester. As a general text, students may find Astrophysical Techniques, by C.R. Kitchen, (Adam Hilger, 2nd edition) useful.

Photocopies of lecture notes, overhead, and other reference material will be available for purchase at a nominal charge from the Physics Department office (first floor, Science Center).

Homework: A total of four homework assignments will be set at intervals of approximately two weeks. Each assignment will be due two weeks after the date it is set. Students may consult each other on the homework problems, on the understanding that the final solutions handed in by each student are his/her own work. Homework may be handed in 24 hours late with a 10% penalty. Homework more than 24 hours late will not be accepted unless there are genuine mitigating circumstances.

Laboratory sessions are held in the Observatory (on the roof of the Science Center; see this link for more detail on the labs). The class will be divided into sections, each of which will meet from 7:00 to 10:00pm one evening per week, beginning in early October/late September. The telescope will be used during clear weather, and indoor laboratory exercises will be performed on cloudy nights (the definition of cloudy will be left to the discretion of the lab instructor). Written lab reports will be required for both observing and indoor experiments. See this link for information about the preparation of lab reports.

Project: The project allows you to study a topic of your choice in greater depth. Examples include:

1. data analysis or software development relating to one
of the existing observational or indoor laboratory experiments;

2. the development of new laboratory experiments; and

3. an in-depth study of a topic discussed in class.

Depending on the number of students, projects may be done in groups. Projects will be assessed by seminar presentation to the class and/or a written report.

Examinations: There will be two 1-hour written exams, to be held during normal class hours. The first will be in mid-October, the second at the end of the course in December. See the course schedule for details.

Grading: The final grade will be based approximately on the following scheme:

Homework	25%
Laboratory	35%
Project	20%
Examinations	20%

• Homework#1 (due 10/01/97)
• Homework#2 (due 10/20/97)
• Homework#3 (due 11/12/97)
• Homework#4 (due 12/08/97) [unformatted version]

• Lab Schedules
• Writing up Obs Astro Labs
• Laboratory Manual (PostScript, 748kb) [MS Word 7.0, 334kb]
  (updated 11/3/97)

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Examples of CCD Images Taken in Class
(click on an image to see a full-sized version)

Double cluster, NGCs 869 & 884 (fall 96 class)	Binary system 61 Cygni (fall 96 class)
Comet Hale-Bopp by Dwight Jurena (Nov '96)

• Astronomy (79-2050)
• Origins of Life: A Cosmic Perspective (79-4961)