Class meets Friday,  9 - 11:40 a.m.   in PA-215
Help Room Hour: Thursday,  1 - 2 p.m.   in PA-215

Instructor: Liz Coelho
              Office: PA-228
              Office Phone: 619-594-1335
              email: ecoelho@sciences.sdsu.edu

ASTR109 General Website: http://www-rohan.sdsu.edu/~rajan/astr109/

IMPORTANT INFORMATION:

Please Purchase the Astro 109 Lab Manual, a scientific calculator, and a lab notebook (with graph paper) and bring them to every lab session.

NOTE: The Lab Schedule may change!

FUN LINKS:

www.skymaps.com - Free maps of the night sky available every month.

http://stellarium.sourceforge.net/ - Free planetarium software.

http://www.nasm.si.edu/ceps/etp/etp.htm - Exploring the Planets. This site, provided by the National Air and Space Museum, has data on the major planets as well as other objects in our solar system.

http://www.nineplanets.org/ - This site has a lot of information about our solar system and is written for a general audience.

http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ - Astronomy Picture of the Day. Lots of beautiful pictures.

Spring 2008 Syllabus:

Prerequisite: ASTR101 (or currently enrolled)

Text: Astronomy 109 Lab Manual by Department of Astronomy, SDSU

Required Materials: Graph paper notebook, scientific calculator

Lab Exercises:   This class is meant to supplement the Astronomy 101 lecture by providing students with hands-on laboratory experience.
Read through the lab for the week before coming to class. I will provide a brief introduction to each lab at the beginning of class but the
introduction will make more sense if you have read the lab in advance. Students will then form groups of 2 or 3 and begin working on the
lab. Though you are encouraged to work in groups, the write-up for the lab must be in your own words. You will have until the end of
the lab period to complete each lab report. Labs may be passed in one day late but you will lose 10% of the total points. Any lab turned in
more than one day late will not be graded. 

Lab Reports: You are required to write up all lab reports in your lab notebook. It will be passed in at the end of every lab session and
returned to you at the beginning of the next lab. Please read the comments on the previous week's lab before you begin writing up another
lab. This will give you an idea of what I am looking for in a lab report and help you to avoid losing points. As a general guide, here are some
of the things I will look for in your lab report each week:

        Title of the lab
        Introduction - briefly explain the experiment that you will be performing and the objective of the experiment
        Data - follow the lab manual to generate any plots. Also, write your answers to the questions in the lab manual in your lab notebook
        Conclusion - summarize the results of the lab

Please write neatly! You will lose points if I can't read your lab report. Again, the write-up for the lab must be in your own words. If your
lab report is identical to that of another student, or if you copy word for word from the lab manual, you will receive a zero on the lab. If you
have trouble writing up the lab, I will be happy to help you.

Absences/Make-ups: You are expected to attend every lab. There will be no make-up lab sessions. You will receive a grade of zero for
any missed labs. 

Field Trip: There is a required trip for this class. One night during the semester we will meet at Mount Laguna Observatory (MLO) to look at
stars, planets, galaxies, etc. through a 21-inch reflecting telescope. This observing session will take the place of the regular lab meeting for
that week. You will need to provide your own transportation to and from MLO. You will need to sign the “Warning, Waiver and Release of
Liability” form in order to participate. Only students in this class are allowed on the trip.

Grading: Final grades will be based on labs (worth 80% of final grade) and a 2 quizzes (20% of final grade; 10% each). There will be 13 graded
labs. Your lowest lab grade will be dropped or you can use an absence as your lowest grade if you notify me of the absence in advance.
Unexcused absences will result in a grade of zero on the missed lab.

Your final grade will be computed based on the percentage of the total points that you earn, as follows:

Grade        Percent                                 Grade     Percent
__________________________________________________

A         93.00 - 100 %                               C       73.00 – 76.99 %

A-        90.00 – 92.99 %                           C-      70.00– 72.99 %

B+       87.00 – 89.99 %                           D+     67.00 – 69.99 %

B         83.00 – 86.99 %                           D       63.00 – 66.99 %

B-       80.00 – 82.99 %                            D-     60.00 – 62.99 %

C+      77.00 – 79.99 %                            F       less than 60.0 %
__________________________________________________

The scale is fixed. There is no curve.

There are no mid-term or final exams for this course.

Plagiarism: Please do your own work!  If you have specific questions about what might constitute plagiarism feel free to ask me in class,
in office hours, or via email. It is much better to ask me if you are unsure than to risk failing a lab and/or the course. Any cheating, plagiarism,
or improper collaboration will be reported to the Judicial Committee. Any plagiarized, cheated, or improperly collaborated work submitted will
receive a zero (this grade cannot be dropped). Any person involved with such a submission may also automatically fail the course. Simply
put: Do not turn in anything that is not from your own mind without giving due credit. Please read the SDSU General Catalogue pg. 448-449
for a complete description of Plagiarism.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Lab Schedule (Subject to Change)

Week Date Lab Title Page & Notes

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

1 January 25 Introduction Purchase Lab Manual

2 February 1 Seasons p. 1

3 February 8 Celestial Sphere p. 11

4 February 15 Planetary Orbits p. 31

5 February 22 Scale of the Solar System p. 19

6 February 29 Period of Rotation of the Sun p. 15

7 March 7 Revolution of Moons of Jupiter p. 25

8 March 14 Distance to a Star p. 35; Quiz 1 in class

9 March 21 HR Diagram p. 41

10 March 28 Prism Spectrometer p. 53

11 April 11 Size of the Milky Way p. 59

12 April 17/18 ML0 Trip (subject to change) Dress warmly!

13 April 25 Modern Sky Surveys p. 65; Quiz 2 in class

14 May 2 Hubble's Law p. 69

15 May 9 The Universe Handout