AST 208

Planets and Telescopes

Instructor: Horace Smith

517-355-9200 x2415

smith@pa.msu.edu

When: MF 11:30-12:20pm

T 8-9:50pm

Where: Room 1420 BPS

Text: There is no single text that covers everything that we will cover. However, for the planetary part of the course we will use An Introduction to the Solar System edited by McBride and Gilmore. This is available in a paperback edition (but still isn’t cheap).

Prerequisites: AST 207 is recommended. It is also assumed that you have finished at least one semester of physics and calculus through MTH 132. This will not be a purely descriptive course!

In this course we will consider several related topics:

1. Time and celestial coordinates. Until recently, motions in the solar system were the ultimate foundation of time keeping. We will examine the development of different types of time. Some of you will already have had an introduction to celestial coordinates but others will not, so that we will review them as well.

2. Telescopes and the basics of making astronomical observations. I hope that we will get a lot of clear nights, so that we can make lots of observations either at the observatory or on the roof of the BPS Building. Unfortunately, the winter weather is not always helpful. Sometimes we do not get much good weather until after spring break.

3. The solar system. We will pay particular attention to the Earth’s moon, and how observations of the surface, combined with results from spacecraft and the Apollo missions, reveal its history. We will compare the planets of the solar system to newly discovered planets orbiting other stars.

4. Celestial mechanics. We will examine orbital motion in the solar system, including trajectories for sending a spacecraft from one planet to another.

Grading: Homeworks and lab assignments will count for 30% of the course grade. There will be two hour exams, each worth 22.5% of the course grade. The final exam will be worth 25% of the course grade.