Berkeley City College
Fall 2009
ASTR 10: Descriptive Astronomy
Section B1, Class Number 43288

Instructor:	Matt Fillingim email: matt@ssl.berkeley.edu
Days & Times:	Thursdays 6:30 to 9:20 9:00 PM August 20 to December 17
Location:	Berkeley City College, Room 216

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Download the Class Syllabus as a .doc file (30 kB) or as a .pdf file (12 kB)

Textbook:

• Explorations: An Introduction to Astronomy, 5th ed, T. T. Arny and S. E. Schneider, McGraw-Hill, 2008.

Assignments:

• Assignment #0: standing assignment
  Read the next chapter in the textbook.
• Assignment #1: due Thursday, August 27th
  In a few sentences, answer the following questions:
  • Why are you taking this class?
  • What do you hope to learn?
• Assignment #2: due Thursday, December 17th (last day of class)
  Bring in (or email me) an astronomy-related news story to discuss at the beginning of class. Everyone should bring in (at least) one story by the last day of class. Some news and science news websites are listed at the bottom of this page.
• Assignment #3: due Thursday, September 10th
  Lunar parallax, distance to the Moon, and mass of Earth
  If you didn't get a copy in class, you can download Assignment #3 here.
• Assignment #4: due Thursday, September 24th (day of Test #1)
  Test #1 vocabulary and study sheet
  If you didn't get a copy in class, you can download Assignment #4 here.
• Assignment #5: due Thursday, October 8th
  Solar System objects in the sky and in space
  If you didn't get a copy in class, you can download Assignment #5 here.
• Assignment #6: due Thursday, October 29th (day of Test #2)
  Test #2 vocabulary and study sheet
  If you didn't get a copy in class, you can download Assignment #6 here.
• Assignment #7: due Thursday, November 19th
  Properties of stars
  If you didn't get a copy in class, you can download Assignment #7 here.
• Assignment #8: TBA

Tests:

• Test #1: Thursday, September 24th
  covers the Preview Chapter through Chapter 5: The Earth
  Short answer questions for Test #1
• Test #2: Thursday, October 29th
  covers Chapter 6: The Moon through Chapter 10: Meteors, Asteroids, and Comets
  Short answer questions for Test #2
• Test #3 - Final Exam: Thursday, December 17th (last day of class)
  covers Chapter 11: The Sun, Our Star through Chapter 16: Galaxies
  

Do-It-Yourself Quizzes: (recommended study guides; many of the test questions will be taken from these sources!)

• By the author
• By the publisher

Other Online Resources:

• http://www.mhhe.com/physsci/astronomy/arny/indexnew.mhtml
  ("Student Resources" on the lower right side of the page)
• http://highered.mcgraw-hill.com/classware/selfstudy.do?isbn=0072943602
  (Click a Chapter on the left side of the page for animations, quizzes, and links)

More Links of Interest:

• The Two-Inch Universe (as seen at the first class): black and white version(page 2) or color version (page 2)

• Public telescope viewing (near Berkeley):
  • Lawrence Hall of Science (1st and 3rd Saturdays)
  • Chabot Space and Science Center (Fridays and Saturdays)

• Astronomy Picture of the Day
• This Week's Sky at a Glance from Sky and Telescope
• Your Sky (make sky maps for any location on Earth)
• Stellarium: "a free open source planetarium for your computer" (download it from their website -- in function, not unlike the Starry Night Pro software)
• Google Sky
• WorldWide Telescope (similar to Google Sky but with more functions/options -- there is both a web-based version and a downloadable version)
• The History Channel's The Universe (it's been called the Cosmos for a new generation)

• Origins: a four-hour NOVA miniseries
• David Darling's Internet Encyclopedia of Science (a lot of astronomy and astrophysics terms are defined and explained here)
• Wikipedia (always useful)

News and Science News websites

• BBC News Science/Nature page
• CNN Technology page
• Science@NASA
• SpaceWeather.com
• Science News
• New Scientist
• PhysOrg.com
• Nature (from Nature Publishing Group)
• Science (from the American Association for the Advancement of Science)

• The Peralta Colleges
• Berkeley City College