ASTR 202 -- Galactic Astronomy

new Pick up marked Assignment 6 from the box outside Hennings 332.

Final Exam: Tuesday April 27, 3:30 pm, Wood 5


No books or papers allowed; calculators OK. The exam will contain a list of physical constants.
Approximate list of post-midterm material to review for the final exam postscript pdf
Approximate list of material on the midterm exam postscript pdf

Official course webpage

Instructor: Ingrid Stairs
Meetings: MWF 12:00 - 12:50 pm in Hennings 202.
Office hours: Tuesdays 2:00 - 3:00 pm, Hennings 332
My homepage

Teaching Assistants:
Saul Davis
Office Hours: Mondays 3:00 - 4:00 pm, Hennings 310B
Robert Ferdman
Office Hours: Wednesdays 2:00 - 3:00 pm, Hennings 310D

Office hours during exam period:

Required text:
An Introduction to Modern Astrophysics
Bradley W. Carroll and Dale A. Ostlie
1996, Addison-Wesley
ISBN: 0201547309

Additional textbook that may be interesting to those continuing in Astronomy:
Galactic Astronomy
James Binney and Michael Merrifield
1998, Princeton University Press
ISBN: 0691025657

Approximate Course Outline:
Introduction: history of our understanding of the Milky Way, coordinate systems, basics of observational astronomy, review of properties of stars
Stellar populations: star counts, dust, extinction and reddening, stellar populations and evolution, star formation and initial mass function, globular and open clusters
Interstellar medium: multi-wavelength observations, differential rotation, distribution of gas
The Milky Way: kinematics of stars, bulge, disk, halo, Galactic centre, formation and evolution, Local Group of galaxies

Marking Scheme:
30% assignments (roughly every 2 weeks)
20% midterm (to be held Feb. 13)
50% final (or 70% final if final better than midterm)

Assignment policies:
Assignments will be due at the start of class on the due date. Late assignments will be penalized 20% for every day late (rounding up). Students may consult each other on the assignments, but each student must write up the problems in his/her own words.

Some scanned transparencies from class.

Note that these should not be considered to cover all the material completely! Most of the material is covered in more depth in the textbook, and students should also take notes in class.

History module, Jan. 5 and 7, 2004
Coordinate conversions, Jan. 9, 2004
Very brief review of stellar properties, Jan. 19, 2004
Star counts, etc., Jan. 19 and 21, 2004
Dust, Jan. 23 and 26, 2004
Stellar evolution and formation, Jan. 28 and 30 and Feb. 2, 2004
Nucleosynthesis and chemical evolution, Feb. 4, 6 and 9, 2004
Globular and open clusters, Feb. 11, 23, 25 and 27, 2004
Interstellar Medium, Feb. 27 and Mar. 1 and 3, 2004
HI, Galactic rotation (part I) and distribution of material, Mar. 5, 8, 10 and 12, 2004
Galactic morphology, Mar. 15, 17 and 19, 2004
Galactic kinematics, dark matter and spiral structure, Mar. 19, 22, 26, 19 and 31, 2004
Formation of the Galaxy, April 2, 2004
The Centre of the Galaxy, April 5 and 7, 2004