Welcome to the Web Site for Dr. Sohl's ASTR/PHYS1040
Elementary Astronomy
Current Syllabus (pdf) Revised 8-26-12
The Textbook: Understanding Our Universe by Palen, Kay, Smith, and Blumenthal; ©2012, Publisher: W. W. Norton
The version in the WSU Bookstore comes with the online learning system bundled with it for free. That system is called SmartWork and you can purchase it separately if you wish (for example if you are sharing a textbook or got a killer deal on the book elsewhere).
Physical Science General Education Learning Outcomes and Assessment: This is a physical science general education course. Some topics might make you feel uncomfortable as we address issues that relate to science ranging from politics to religion. You are always welcome to argue your point to me either during or outside of class. You might discover that emotional thinking will have less sway with me than facts and logical thinking, so come prepared and bring it on! We will discuss every topic on the Natural Science gen ed list during the semester. You can find those details at: http://www.weber.edu/AcademicAffairs/natural_sciences.html
Assignments are mostly done through SmartWork and are tracked on the WSU Canvas online system.
-
Observing project.
Notice: You are encouraged to work in pairs and turn in a
single report. Let me restate a line in the Observing Project pages -
Except for art work, hand in your work as simple 8.5" X 11"
paper stapled in the corner. Fancy covers cost you money and serve only
to annoy the grader. (Which is likely not your goal.) A
prediction for when we will have clear sky can be found by using the
Clear Sky Clock which
is a very cool link that can help you plan your observing
sessions. Note: Two (2) rainy day projects must be done to equal one
regular project. The whole point here is to get you outside looking at the
sky! Here is the link for the
Heavens
Above satellite prediction page.
-
Required constellations:
Autumn Semester = Capricornus, Summer Triangle, Pegasus, Andromeda, Cygnus (Northern Cross), Pleiades, Taurus, Cassiopeia, Ursa Major (Big Dipper), Ursa Minor (Little Dipper).
Spring Semester = Orion, Canis Major (greater dog), Canis Minor (lesser dog), Winter Triangle, Taurus, Pleiades, Leo, Cassiopeia, Ursa Major (Big Dipper), Ursa Minor (Little Dipper).
6. The Mass of Jupiter Lab: Here is the newest version of the software (50 MB) you can install this on the campus computers or at home. You can find all the Project CLEA software at the Project CLEA website. They also have additional manuals and other materials on their web site.
· Spare, clean, copy of just the Mass of Jupiter Work Sheet: pdf, 2010 Word, or WordPerfect
7. Hubble Lab: Same comments as for the Jupiter Lab, do it on campus or at home. The (full color) lab handout (839 kB) and the software (4.3MB) are both available to you online here. You can find all the Project CLEA software at the Project CLEA website. They also have additional manuals and other materials on their web site.
· Spare, clean, copy of just the Hubble Lab Work Sheet: pdf, 2010 Word, or WordPerfect
Hubble Lab Solution Key
Thursday Labs (mostly on Thursdays anyway)
NOTE, I am rewriting a lot of these so just use them for reference now and don't print them out for class as I'll provide that for you.
|
Week
# |
Lab
or Activity |
|
1 |
Finding
Things in the Sky: |
|
2 |
|
|
3 |
|
|
4 |
Astrology
(no link, all in class) |
|
5 |
Measuring the Mass of the Earth Discussion
of the Mass of Jupiter Lab, Math Review |
|
9 |
Movie:
“An Inconvenient Truth” last part
Lab:
Population Limits,
Earth & the Concept of Finite Resources |
|
11 |
Nuclear Weapons and E=mc2,
MS Word version: Nuclear Weapons
and Mass |
|
15 |
Drake Equation
(Drake equation "key") |
News:
-
Astronomy
picture of the day.
This is a great way to get introduced to astronomy.
-
Daily weather in space: Learn about the impact on Earth
from our local space environment. Space
Weather is a web site with news, current views of the Sun,
etc. Detailed information can be found at the
Space Environment Center.
Cool and Useful Links:
The Ott Planetarium at Weber State University, this is the room your astronomy class is held in. We do public star shows on Monday and Wednesday nights. You can learn all about those shows by going to this link. (You can get extra credit this way too! See your syllabus for details.) You can also get extra credit by attending an Ogden Astronomical Society event.
The Sky Calculator - determine almost anything for your exact location. (This link is for Ogden, UT and is set for the "learner" level of complexity.) Number of meteors, location of asteroids, rise and set of the Moon, the next eclipse, you name it and it is here! You can also go straight to the web site without any preset settings.
The Clear Sky Clock. This is a great way to help you predict if the sky will be clear tonight for doing your astronomy project.
A wonderful quote by astronomer Carl Sagan that should be read by everyone on Earth. The picture associated with the quote is a picture of Earth taken by the cameras of Voyager 1 on Feb. 14, 1990 when the spacecraft was 6 billion km from Earth. The swath of light that bathes Earth is sunlight scattered by interplanetary dust along the plane of the planets.
The Powers of Ten animation. Similar universe zoom done in house by Dr. Schroeder - Zoomer. The Hayden Planetarium made a cool animation showing our place in the universe that is a bit different from most.
You can access lots of fantastic images and information about space exploration and about the solar system at the SEDS internet site. Try especially the tour of the nine planets.
Cool animations and online textbook.
A very pretty (and I think accurate) orrery showing planets, moons and asteroids. (Thanks to Jennier Ghan for the link.)
Here is an interesting set of meteor links, including information about meteors that have hit people, cars, houses, dogs, etc.
-
Dr. Guy Worthy of Washington State University lists a
number of meteorite events, including the Mrs. Hodges incident:
http://astro.wsu.edu/worthey/astro/html/im-meteor/strikes.html
-
A table in which he lists such injurious impacts may be
found in a Maxwell AF Base report at:
http://www.maxwell.af.mil/au/2025/volume3/chap16/v3c16-2.htm (Sorry,
this is a known dead link at the moment.)
-
Also of interest is an extensive list of websites
relating to impact airbursts, tsunamis, collision possibilities, impact
modeling and the like at:
http://www.pibburns.com/catastro/impacts.htm
Here is a program that will demonstrate the Doppler effect. This is the program that I used in class.
Other textbooks also have an extensive web sites that are useful. Here are two of many: 21st Century Astronomy and StarLinks.
For a three dimensional flight through the nearest and/or brightest nearby stars try the Other Worlds, Distant Suns VRML site. Be advised that you do not want to do this without a VERY HIGH SPEED connection to the web. This is a great site, but is slow via modem.
The multiwavelength maps of the Milky Way Galaxy that use in class.
A good and very detailed introduction to the Milky Way Galaxy.
Here is a 3-D map (of sorts) of the Universe and were we are in it: Atlas of the Universe.
Detailed explanations of halos, rainbows and other atmospheric sights and observations.
Send Dr. Sohl a message at jsohl "at" weber.edu (The email address is written this way to help reduce the amount of spam I get, sorry for the inconvenience.)
