1. Goal: The official course description is: Structure and History of the Milky Way. Stellar Populations. Interstellar Medium. This is pretty much what we'll do. This includes the stellar content of the Milky Way, its formation history, and its dynamics. The Milky Way is important for addressing these questions more generally because we typically can study physical processes in more detail in our own Galaxy compared to other galaxies. 2. Background needed: The level of the course is aimed at undergraduate majors. Little background in astronomy is assumed (although it may help), but physics and math at the level of PHY 183, 184, 215 sequence and MTH 235 (or MTH 310) may be used.

3. Time: MWF 3:00 - 3:50; Location: 1420 BPS

4. Texts: The following are recommended but not required (see earlier e-mail for more detail).
``Modern Astrophysics'' by Carroll and Ostlie a very thick book covering all of astronomy and ``Galaxies in the Universe'' by Sparke and Gallagher and thinner book whose title accurately describes the subjects covered. Additional material from reviews and other books will also be used. Any material on the test and the exam will come from the lectures. That means the test and exam will only cover material directly covered in class.

5. Instructor: Prof. Steve Zepf

6. Office hours: Tuesday 2:00-3:00, Friday 4:00-5:00, and by appt.

7. Grades:
Final Exam: 35%
Paper on a research topic: 25% (due around early November)
``Midterm'' Test: 22% (around early October)
Homework: 18%

The current plan for homework is to assign it on a Friday or the following Monday and have it be due the next Friday. These will be posted on the homework site.