ASTRONOMY 1020
STELLAR AND GALACTIC ASTRONOMY
FALL 2012 at OXFORD
SYLLABUS

Course Information:
Instructor:	Dr. Robin Shelton
Office Hours:	to be determined
Textbook:	Stars, Galaxies, and Cosmology, 6th edition., by Bennett, Donahue, Schneider, and Voit
Other Readings:	Astericks denote where other references are used
Website:	www.physast.uga.edu/~rls/astro1020/index.html

Format:
In order to bridge the gap between typical science courses at UGA and the tutor-led courses you will take here in Oxford, the program organizers have requested that this course use a seminar format. In the seminar format, students read the assigned material before class begins; class time is mostly devoted to student discussions of the material. The following "class schedule" and "other readings" list the reading assignments. To aid our discussions, I will pose several questions pertaining to the material at each of our meetings. You will be given lists of these questions in advance of each class. You may be asked to answer some of these questions during class and will be asked to turn in written answers at each class meeting.

Class Schedule:
Day	Date	Reading	Topic
Saturday	Sept. 8	Ch. 2, 3.1, *	Visit Stonehenge
Tuesday	Sept. 11	Ch 3.2, & 3.3	Naked Eye Astronomy from Stonehenge to Kepler
Thursday	Sept. 13	Ch 4.2, 4.3, 4.4, 5.2, 5.3, 5.4, & 5.5	The Rise of Modern Astronomy
Tuesday	Sept. 18	Ch 14, 15.2, 17.1, 17.2, & 17.3	(problem set due) How Stars Work
Thursday	Sept. 20	Ch 15.3, 16.1, 17.4, 18.1, & 18.2	No Star is an Island unto Itself
Saturday	Sept. 22	*	Visit the Royal Observatory, Greenwich
Tuesday	Sept. 25	*	(short exam) British Astronomers
Thursday	Sept. 27	Ch 19.1, 19.2, 19.3, & 20.1	Galaxies
Tuesday	Oct 2	Ch 18.3, 19.4, 21.2, & 21.3	Galaxies Gone Wild
Thursday	Oct. 4	Ch 20.3, Ch 22	(short exam) The Universe
Friday - Sunday	Oct. 5 - 7		(problem set due)

Other Readings (marked * on schedule):
Additional readings are needed in order to learn more about Stonehenge, the Royal Observatory, Greenwich, and various British astronomers. Because they are free and easily available to all students, we will use Wikipedia pages.
The additional reading for Sept. 8th (the Stonehenge visit) is:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stonehenge.
The readings for Sept. 22 (the Royal Observatory, Greenwich visit) are:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greenwich_Observatory
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Flamsteed
The readings for Sept. 25 (British Astronomers) are:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transit_of_Venus,_1639
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isaac_Newton
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edmund_Halley
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Herschel
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caroline_Herschel
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arthur_Stanley_Eddington
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jocelyn_Bell_Burnell
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radcliffe_Observatory

Problem Sets and Reading Assignments:
Readings are assigned for every class meeting, as well as for the excursions. There will sets of short questions related to each of the readings. The short answers to these short questions will be due at the beginning of each class meeting and will the discussed during the class meeting. In addition, problem sets are due at the beginning of the 2nd week and at the end of the 4th week. Both the short questions and the problem sets will be posted at www.physast.uga.edu/~rls/astro1020/hw/index.html.

Exams:
There will be 2 in-class exams, each requiring about 30 or 40 minutes of work. They will occur at the beginnings of the 3rd and 4th weeks of the course. There will be a break after each exam, before the class moves onto discussing new material.

Calculating Grades:
There are 6 components of the course grade: reading questions, problem set #1, problem set #2, exam #1, exam #2, and class participation. It was originally intended for each to be weighted equally in the calculation of the course grade, but, due to time constraints, half of the material intended for problem set #2 (the material on British astronomers) was skipped. Therefore, problem set #2 will receive half the weighting of problem set #1. Thus, problem set #1, the combined reading questions, exam #1, exam #2, and class participation each receive equal weighting and problem set #2 receives half the weighting of any of the above. (Note, an earlier version of the syllabus listed only 5 components, by counting both problem sets as a single component. This was not the original intent and a class vote was conducted in order to determine if the problems sets should be counted as multiple components or 1. The vote strongly favored counting the problem sets as multiple components.) The resulting numerical score will be converted into a letter grade using the following key: A = 91.00 to 100.00, A- = 89.00 to 90.99, B+ = 87.00 to 88.99, B = 81.0 to 86.99, B- = 79.00 to 80.99, C+ = 77.00 to 78.99, C = 71.0 to 76.99, C- = 69.00 to 70.99, D = 60.00 to 68.99, F = below 60.00

Support and Advice:
The pace of the Oxford course is 3 times faster than the pace of a regular semester. Because you will read nearly a chapter per weekday, I urge you to get a head start by reading the Ch 2 and Ch 3 assignments (listed above) before flying to England. I would be happy to talk with you about course material in class and during office hours. On the first day of class, we will select days/times for office hours.

Policies:
Cell phones are not allowed in class; if you bring a cell phone, please turn it off. If your cell phone rings during class, you will have to compensate the class by bringing snacks to the next class. We will discuss additional forms of classroom etiquette during class. We will follow the university policies on withdrawals, incompletes, and academic honesty. For more information, see The University of Georgia Bulletin and A Culture of Honesty at www.uga.edu/honesty/ahpd/culture_honesty.htm.

Revisions:
The syllabus may be revised in the future.