Topics to Review

OBSERVING THE SKY

Constellations; daily apparent motion of the celestial sphere; monthly motion and phases of the moon (more) (animation); eclipses; annual apparent motion of the sun; seasons; calendars.

EXPLAINING THE MOTIONS OF THE WANDERERS

The problem of the wanderers; retrograde motion; Ptolemy's model.

The Copernican revolution: contributions of Nicholas Copernicus, Tycho Brahe, Johannes Kepler, Galileo Galilei, and Isaac Newton; Kepler's "laws"; Newton's laws of motion and of gravity and how they are used. Precession.

USING LIGHT AND TELESCOPES

Light as a wave: frequency, wavelength, velocity; approximate wavelength of visible light; the electromagnetic spectrum: radio, infrared, visible, ultraviolet, x-ray, gamma ray; we see different things at different wavelengths.

Particle aspects of light: black body radiation and what we can learn from it; the formation of spectral lines; emission and absorption.

The purpose of a telescope; refractors and reflectors; today's telescopes on the ground and in space.

EXPLORING THE SOLAR SYSTEM

Terrestrial and Jovian planets; their main properties, similarities, and differences. How do we know what we know about them?

Approximate distances, masses, compositions.

The smaller bodies of the solar system.

INVESTIGATING THE SUN AND OTHER STARS

How stellar properties are determined: distance, brightness, luminosity, mass, surface temperature, size, composition.

The sun as a star: what do we know about it, and how do we know? The solar atmosphere: photosphere, chromosphere, and corona.

Relations between stellar properties: the H-R diagram and mass-luminosity relation

LEARNING HOW STARS LIVE AND DIE

What the mass-luminosity relation tells us about stellar lifetimes. The source of the sun's energy. Atoms, nuclei, electrons, protons, and neutrons. Nuclear energy compared to chemical energy.

Red giant stars. Production of elements in stellar interiors and their transmission to succeeding generations of stars.

White dwarfs; supernovae; neutron stars and pulsars; black holes; which stars become which.

DISCOVERING THAT WE LIVE IN A GALAXY

Cepheid variables as distance indicators. The work of Shapley and Hubble. The size, shape and structure of the Galaxy. The relation of the Galaxy to the Local Group and other clusters. Types of galaxies.

PROBING THE UNIVERSE

The Hubble law; cosmological models; The importance of the general theory of relativity and its use in building cosmological models. Evidence for the Big Bang. The importance of the cosmic background radiation. The significance of quasars.