1. ASTRONOMY 110 a survey of astronomy Office Hours: Paul Coleman: MWF (9:30-10:30;11:30-12:30) Watanabe 402 pcoleman@ifa.hawaii.edu Grad st. Course details and notes: http://www.ifa.hawaii.edu/users/gruff/default/astro110.html

2. ASTRONOMY 110 a survey of astronomy Required: Any edition of: The Essential Cosmic Perspective by Jeffrey Bennett, Megan Donahue, Nicholas Schneider, Mark Voit, Addison Wesley

3. Possible Grading Schemes: • 2 – 3 midterm exams + final + etc. • Weekly quizzes + optional final + etc. • No work at all Wheel of misfortune !! • Homework • Extra curricular extra credit Imaginarium visit Faulkes telescope observing Evening lecture(s) Stargazing A research paper bad grade good grade

4. Every Week: Monday: Return quiz from previous week – Update on your progress Wednesday: Collect homework and give solutions Friday: Quiz, Solution, and Homework and Reading assignment ASTRONOMY 110 a survey of astronomy

5. 90 – 100 A 80 – 89.9 B 70 – 79.9 C 60 – 69.9 D < 59.9 F plus or minus grades also

6. First Homework problem: • Send an E-mail to Dr. Coleman before Friday January 18… Tell him the magic word

7. Our Place in the Universe

8. Star A large, glowing ball of gas that generates heat and light through nuclear fusion

9. Planet A moderately large object which orbits a star; it shines by reflected light. Planets may be rocky, icy, or gaseous in composition.

10. Moon An object which orbits a planet.

11. Asteroid A relatively small and rocky object which orbits a star.

12. Comet A relatively small and icy object which orbits a star.

13. Solar (Star) System A star and all the material which orbits it, including its planets and moons

14. Nebula An interstellar cloud of gas and/or dust

15. Galaxy A great island of stars in space, all held together by gravity and orbiting a common center

16. Universe The sum total of all matter and energy; that is, everything within and between all galaxies

17. Atom Microscopic “building blocks” of all chemical elements

18. Where do we come from? • The first (and simplest) atoms were created during the Big Bang. • More complex atoms were created in stars. • When the star dies, they are expelled into space…. to form new stars and planets! Most of the atoms in our bodies were created in the core of a star!

19. What do we see when we look up? • Patterns in the Sky • Motions in the Sky • The Circling Sky • the rotation of the Earth about its axis • The Reason for Seasons • the Earth’s orbit around the Sun • Precession of the Earth’s Axis • the wobbling of Earth’s axis • The Moon, Our Constant Companion • the Moon’s orbit around the Earth • The Ancient Mystery of the Planets • the various planets’ orbits around the Sun day year month week

20. A Constellation is… … a region of the sky, within official borders set in 1928 by the IAU. • Often recognizable by a pattern or grouping of stars. • Some patterns, like the Winter Triangle, span several constellations.

21. Thought Question The brightest stars in a constellation… • all belong to the same star cluster. • all lie at about the same distance from Earth. • may actually be quite far away from each other.

22. Thought Question The brightest stars in a constellation… • all belong to the same star cluster. • all lie at about the same distance from Earth. • may actually be quite far away from each other.

24. Constellations • Most official constellation names come from antiquity. Some southern hemisphere constellations were named by European explorers in the 17th & 18th centuries. • The patterns of stars have no physical significance! Stars that appear close together may lie at very different distances. • Most modern astronomers don’t know many!!

25. Looking back in time • Light, although fast, travels at a finite speed. • It takes: • 8 minutes to reach us from the Sun • 8 years to reach us from Sirius (8 light-years away) • 1,500 years to reach us from the Orion Nebula • The farther out we look into the Universe, the farther back in time we see!