Astronomy 114 Lab Section 211, Professor Weigel

Outline for Today About Goals for this class Attendance Syllabus Safety Star Project Apparent vs. Absolute brightness Quiz

About Me Magnetosphere

Goals for this Course Hands-on experience with Astronomy Critical Thinking

Attendance You are expected to attend ALL laboratory sessions. A half-credit lab at the end of the semester will be offered to those who have documented extreme circumstances that require missing more than one lab. While I take attendance, feel free to read over syllabus and think of questions to ask.

Syllabus

Syllabus - Group lab work Much of the time in lab you will be working in small groups of two. Be sure that you have contact information for your lab partners and that you come each week prepared to do the complete lab. Lab reports should be neatly organized, completely legible, and have a conclusion of sentences at the end of the report based on a question supplied by your instructor.

Syllabus - Group lab work cont. While many of the lab exercises will be group projects, the quizzes and star project are to be entirely your own work. You may not consult each other during quizzes, and while you may discuss the star project, all documents submitted to the instructor are to be completely your own work with all sources properly referenced.

Syllabus - Lab write-ups Lab answer sheets and write-ups are due at the end of each class period and will usually be returned to you the following week.

Grading Laboratory experiments: Exercises completed in each laboratory period will be graded on a scale of 0-10 points. You will complete a total of 11 lab periods, the best 10 of which will make up 85% of your final grade. Missed lab periods will be given a grade of zero and cannot be made up. You are expected to attend ALL laboratory sessions. A half credit lab at the end of the semester will be offered to those who have documented extreme circumstances that require missing more than one lab.

Syllabus - Star Project Star project: 10 % of your lab grade will be based on a written report you will complete partly in class and partly as homework. You will use what you learn in class to study a particular star assigned to you by your instructor. A written outline of what is required has been given to you along with the name of the particular star you will report on. Assignments are turned in weekly during the first part of the course and will be returned to you before the due date for the project so you can correct your work as needed. Keep the returned materials related to your star together to hand in on the designated date.

Syllabus - Quizzes Quizzes on material in the lab book and your astronomy text that relate to the topic of the day will account for 5% of your grade. A short quiz will be offered during the first 10 minutes of each class period. There will be no extension of the time for latecomers and no make-up quizzes. You should come in and take the quiz before beginning work on the lab. Record your quiz scores in your notebook.

Safety See page 123 of your lab book. There are extra copies at the front of the room. Please sign this page and pass it to the front.

Star Project The goal of the star project is for you to apply what you are learning in lab and lecture to study a particular star and write a short report about it. Your instructor will assign a star from a list of bright stars. As the semester progresses you will learn about some important properties of stars and will figure out the characteristics of your star, usually by researching published information.

Apparent vs. Absolute Visual brightness The brightness of a star is designated by two quantities, apparent brightness and absolute brightness With your lab partner, try to (1) guess what these terms mean, and (2) give an example that explains the difference How much more paint will it take to cover the walls of a room that is 10’x10’x10’ vs 20’x20’x20’?

Apparent vs. Absolute Brightness

Apparent vs. Actual Magnitude If you are number 1 … That means every one else is a1/2, 1/3, 1/4, etc. of you Or, for shorthand, others are 2’s, 3’s, and 4’s.

Quiz Practice using software – not graded

Apparent vs. Actual Magnitude If you are number 1 … That means every one else is a 1/2, 1/3, 1/4, etc. of you Or, for shorthand, others are 2’s, 3’s, and 4’s.

Order of Magnitude enceopticsu/powersof10/