Lecture Notes
Lecture notes (outlines) will be provided here prior to each class day. Updates will be ongoing. I will try to stay approximately 1 week ahead of schedule. As described in the syllabus, these lecture notes are intended as a detailed outline of what I intend to cover. They are not a substitute for attending the lectures.
They are provided as a study guide for quizzes and the final, for reference on the homeworks, and as a tool for following the lectures during class. Many students find it useful to print the lecture notes ahead of time and then take notes in the margins during classtime.
Note that the notes listed below are continuously updated until about 2-4 days before class. I will be making additions and deletions as I work to improve the notes. In addition, the Week numbers are only approximate. I will lengthen the amount of time we spend on each topic as necessary.
No class dates: No Class Monday Sept 2 (Labor Day); No Class Friday Sept 13 (Prof Thompson out of town); No Class Monday Nov 11 (Veteran's Day); No Class Wednesday and Friday Nov 27 and 29 (Thanksgiving).
Quiz Dates: Quiz 1 Friday Sept 20; Quiz 2 Friday Oct 18; Quiz 3 Friday Nov 15
Week 1: Introduction, Physics (Reading from Chapters 2, 3, and 4)
1 : Introduction to 1144: Stars, Galaxies, & The Universe
2 : The Nature of Light
Week 2: Light, Matter, Gravity, and Distances (ch. 17)
3 : The Interaction of Light with Matter
4 : Matter & Gravity
5 : Distances to Stars
Week 3: The Motions of the Stars, Binaries, Temperatures
6 : Stellar Motions (ch. 17.1)
7 : Binaries (ch. 17.7, 17.8)
8 : Stellar Colors, Temperature Sequence (ch. 17.3, 17.4)
Week 4: Stars: The HR Diagram, Structure
9 : The Hertzprung-Russell Diagram (ch. 17.3, .4, .5, .8)
10 : The Internal Structure of Stars (ch. 16.1, 16.2)
No class Friday (Prof. Thompson out of town)
Week 5: The Sun, Fusion, Equilibrium
11 : The Sun (ch. 16.6)
12 : Energy Generation, Thermal Equilibrium (ch. 16.6, 16.7)
Friday, Sept 20 : In-Class Quiz #1 (Study guide here); No lecture
Week 6: Star Formation, Stellar Populations (chs. 17, 20, 21)
13 : Star Formation (ch. 19)
14 : The Main Sequence
15 : The Evolution of Low-Mass Stars (ch. 20)
Week 7: The Evolution of Stars and their Remnants (chs. 17, 20, 21)
16 : The Evolution of High-Mass Stars (ch. 20)
17 : Supernovae (ch. 21)
18 : Neutron Stars & White Dwarfs (ch. 22);
Week 8: Black holes, tests of stellar evolution
19 : Black Holes (ch 22)
20 : Tests of Stellar Evolution (ch 20)
Friday, Oct 18 In-Class Quiz #2 (Study guide here); No Lecture
Week 9: Galaxies (ch 23, 24, 25)
21 : The Distance Problem
22 : The Milky Way (ch 23)
23 : Spiral Galaxies
Week 10: Galaxies (ch 23, 24, 25)
24 : The Milky Way & Andromeda
25 : Spiral Galaxies
26 : The Galaxy Zoo
Week 11: Galaxies (ch 23, 24, 25)
27 : Groups & Clusters of Galaxies;
28 : Interacting Galaxies, starbursts, star formation
Friday, Nov 15 : In-Class Quiz #3 (Study guide here); No lecture
Week 12: Galaxies (ch 24, 25) & Cosmology
29 : Active Galactic Nuclei & Quasars I & II
30 : Special Relativity (ch 22.6)
31 : General Relativity
Week 13: Cosmology (ch 26)
Veteran's Day. No class.
32 : Cosmology & Einstein
33 : Expanding Universe
Week 14: Cosmology (ch 26)
34 : The Cosmic Distance Scale
35 : The Big Bang;
36 : Tests of the Big Bang
Week 14: Cosmology (ch 26, 27)
37 : Cosmic Timeline, The Early Universe
38 : The Fate of the Universe
39 : Dark Matter & Dark Energy
Week 15: Cosmology (ch 26, 27)
40 : Time Travel & Wormholes
Weds Nov 27: No Class
Fri Nov 29: No Class
Week 16: Cosmology (ch 26, 27)
41 : Life in the Universe (ch 28)