Astronomy 1 --- Descriptive Astronomy

Astronomy 1 --- Descriptive Astronomy


  • Instructor: Charles Nelson
  • Email: charles.nelson@drake.edu
  • Phone: (515) 271-3034
  • Office: Harvey Ingham 31D
  • Text: The Essential Cosmic Perspective -- Bennett, et al. 3rd Edition
  • Class Meetings --- MWF 11:00 a.m. HI 102
  • Office Hours: M 2:00 - 3:30 p.m., W2:00 - 3:15 p.m., Th 3:00 - 4:30 p.m.

    • Announcements:

  • Welcome to Astronomy 1

    • Course Materials, Homeworks and Handouts:

  • Course Syllabus in PDF Format Get Acrobat Reader Free
  • Study Guide in PDF Format

    Links:

  • Nelson Webpage
  • General Astronomy Links

    Course Description

    This class is an overview of all of astronomy. Our goal is to study not just what we know about the Universe but also how we know it. How do astronomers use observations and hypotheses to make inferences about things which are vastly remote and outside of our own experience? The goal is to learn what scientists have found about the processes that control the formation of planets, the birth and death of stars, the formation of galaxies, and the origin and ultimate fate of the Universe. The hope is that it will provide a new perspective on the Earth and our civilization that will change the way we think about our place in the Universe.

    Course Outline

  • Celestial Sphere
  • History of Astronomy
  • Electromagnetic Radiation
  • Telescopes and Space Astronomy
  • The Solar System
  • The Sun
  • Starlight
  • Stellar Evolution
  • The Milky Way
  • Galaxies
  • Cosmology

    Galactic Center

    • Background Image Credit: Reta Beebe (New Mexico State University), D. Gilmore, L. Bergeron (STScI), and NASA