Astro 120 Lecture notes - Fall 2003
Some of the current lecture notes projected in class will be made avalable on
this page. When they are posted, the "PDF" symbol will appear next to the
Lecture number and date.
The notes are in Adobe Acrobat PDF format:
Adobe PDF files can be viewed with the free Adobe
Acrobat Reader program.
Go here to download a copy
for your own computer.
Note that the original material in these notes is copyright S. Kawaler,
and is intended for use by Astro 120 students. They are not
to be reproduced or distributed for sale.
- Lecture 1 (8/26)
Introduction to Astro 120:
- Lecture 2 (8/28)
Finding your way around the sky
- Lecture 3 (9/2)
The motions of the stars and Sun in the sky
- Ecliptic demo for Voyager program:
use your browser to download this file - if it appears as random characters
in your broswer window, just save the page to disk. Use the Voyager
SkyGazer software that came with your text to open the file.
- Lecture 4 (9/4)
The Seasons - and the motion of the Moon
- Lecture 5 (9/9)
The phases of the Moon
- Lecture 6 (9/11)
The motion of the moon, and eclipses
- Lecture 7 (9/16)
Planetary Motion - prehistory to Kepler
- Lecture 8 (9/18)
From Kepler's Laws to Newton
- Lecture 9 (9/23)
Newton's Laws of Motion and Gravity
- Lecture 10 (9/25)
Rocket Science
EXAM 1 - review sheet
- Lecture 11 (9/30)
Overview of the Solar System and Planetary Guts:
- Lecture 12 (10/7)
Planetary Interiors and Surfaces.
- Lecture 13 (10/9)
Planetary Surfaces: processes and ages.
- Lecture 14 (10/14)
The Moon, Mercury (and Venus)
Things Shown, and extras:
-
a Top Ten list of lessons learned from manned lunar exploration
- Fix Figure 9.29: The "Giant Impact" theory of the formation of
the Moon.
- Spacecraft images of Mercury
- Lecture 15 (10/16)
Venus and Mars
Images Shown:
- Venus
flyover movie
- Source
for Mars animations
- Spacecraft images of Mars shown in
lecture and other links
- Lecture 16 (10/21)
Planetary Atmospheres, the Greenhouse effect
- Lecture 17 (10/23)
The Outer Planets: Jupiter, and Saturn
Images Shown:
- Links on Global Warming and Ozone
Depletion
- Movie
of Jupiter's cloud motions
- Links to images of the outer planets
from spacecraft, many shown in lecture
- Lecture 18 (10/28)
Uranus, Neptune, and The Icy Moons of the Outer Planets
Images Shown:
- Rotating Neptune - an HST Movie
- Tethys - one of Saturn's moons
- Enceladus - another of Saturn's moons
- Mimas - Saturn's 'Death Star' Moon
- Links with more pictures of these odd
worlds.
- Lecture 19 (10/30)
Tides and Planetary Rings
Images Shown (and some I should have shown):
- Fix Figure 14.41: Trition with geysers
- Fix Figure 12.31: Translucency of the rings
- Fix Figure 13.11: Occultation record of Uranian rings
-
Satellite and ring image links for the outer planets
- Lecture 20 (11/4)
Meteors, Meteorites, and Asteroids
Images shown:
- Links to spacecraft images of
asteroids
- Movie of flyby of Asteroid 2002 NY40, from ISU's observatory
- Flyby of Earth-Crossing
Asteroid in September 2003 (SkyGazer settings file)
- Lecture 21 (11/6)
Collisions - past, present and future
- Lecture 22 (11/11)
Astrology and pseudoscience
EXAM 2 - review sheet
Part 3 - review sheet
Astro 120 Home Page
