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Catalog Entry:
A general-interest course that covers observations, models and theories of the solar system, the stars and the galaxies. Students also will become acquainted with the history of astronomy. Prerequisite: Mathematical ability at the level of high school algebra, geometry and trigonometry.
Note to Students:
This course is aimed at providing you with a general, and up-to-date
overview of our Universe.
The emphasis is on general ideas and concepts so as to give you a
"Cosmic Perspective", rather than on learning lots of facts, figures & jargon.
The goal is for you to gain some insight into the (really!) 'big picture':
from the 'start of time' (the 'Big Bang'), to various wild & wacky places
in our Universe today (Planets, Stars, Galaxies, Black Holes etc),
how our Universe has-changed/is-changing (stellar & galaxy evolution), to
its ultimate fate (including the role of the totally not-understood 'Dark Matter'
& 'Dark Energy').
The chances of life elsewhere in our Universe will also be discussed briefly.
An underlying goal of the course
is to introduce you to the 'scientific method' and observational
techniques so you have an idea of the answers to questions such as
"how do we know that?",
"how well do we know that?", and
"so what?".
Finally you will not be expected to know lots of Physics & Math prior to
taking this class! You will find several parts of the course easier if you
have you have a good grounding in Science/Physics & Math at High School level.
However, the main Physics/Maths concepts necessary to succeed in PHYS105 will be
reviewed in the first few weeks of the course. Thus you should have some feel as
to your comfort level in these subjects in order to drop before your transcript
records a "w".
[See also Full Syllabus,
Review Summary, and
How to succeed in this class]
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Important Dates: 2009
| Sep-02 |
First Class |
| TBD |
MidTerm-1 |
TBD
(TBC)
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MidTerm-2 |
| Nov-27 |
No Class [Thanksgiving Break] |
| Dec-14 |
Last Class |
| Dec 18 |
Final Exam
[1:00-3:00pm]
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What's Up?:
Night of 2009
Sep 13 - Sep 14:
| What |
Where |
Best Seen |
| Jupiter |
Ecliptic |
19:30-04:06 |
| Mars |
Ecliptic |
01:06-06:24 |
| Venus |
Ecliptic |
04:24-06:48 |
[Previous Posts]
Other News
2009
Sep 13 - Sep 14:
[Previous Posts]
Getting Started:
- with myUMBC
used for
- just about everything at UMBC
(New students: get familiar asap!!!)
- with Blackboard
used for
- course announcements
- links to course documents
- viewing your current & final grades
- with MasteringAstronomy.Com
used for
- interactive Homework Assignments & automatic grading
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