Astro 4-1 Stars, Galaxies, and the Origin of the Universe

Spring '25 Schedule

Note below the last day of finals - last day to withdraw and receive a "W", and last day to request a P/NP. After this, you receive a grade no matter what: I have no choice.

It is your responsibility to log in to Canvas and note the unlock/relock times for all video exams on Canvas!

This semester, only the video quizzes will be on Canvas. Quiz #1-6 and the final exam will all be in the classroom


Mon Feb 3:
Introduction, syllabus, bits of Ch 1, Chapter 0 - Principles of Clear Thinking and Scientific Method , On Teaching , Ch 3.5,4: Astrology as example of bogus pseudoscience

Wed Feb 5: Finish Chapter 0, On Teaching , Ch 3 - Historical Astronomy (brief),

Mon Feb 10: Ch 3 - Historical Astronomy (brief), Ch 4 - Kepler's Laws, Forces, angular momentum, and deriving the Law of Gravity from Galileo's observations

Sat Feb 10: deadline to drop/add a full term course, and get refund for drops, and deadline to drop w/o getting a "W" on your record

Wed Feb 12:
Ch 4 - Tides, properties of gravity, Ch S1,2 - Einstein and Modern Gravity

Mon Feb 17- President's Day Holiday; no class

Tue Feb 18 - 11:59pm Census deadline

Wed Feb 19: Ch S1,2 - Einstein and modern gravity, Ch 5 - Light and Matter. Quiz #1 - Chap 0, history in Astronomy through Kepler

Mon Feb 24: Ch 5 - Light and Matter

Wed Feb 26: finish up "Light and Matter"

Mon Mar 3: Ch 6 - Telescopes and Detectors.

Wed Mar 5:
Ch 14 - The Sun, Fusion, Structure

Mon Mar 10: Ch 14 - The Sun, Structure, Solar Wind.

Wed Mar 12: Sun's effect on Earth, sunspots, climate. Start Ch 15 - Surveying the Stars.

Mon Mar 17:
Ch 15 - Surveying the Stars, Ch 16 - The Birth of Stars. Zoom recording from a past class

Wed Mar 19: Ch 16 - The Birth of Stars and Stellear Evolution of low mass stars (Zoom recording from a past class)

Mon Mar 24: Ch 17 - Ch 17 - Stellar Evolution of low mass stars and medium mass stars

Wed Mar 26:
Evolution of medium mass stars and red giants

Mon/Wed Mar 31 and Apr 5: Spring Break - no class

Mon Apr 7:
Evolution of binary stars and red giants

Wed Apr 9: Ch 17, 18 - High Mass Stars, Supernovae, Binary Star Evolution

Mon Apr 14: Ch 17,18 - Black Holes and stellar degeneracy

Wed Apr 16:
Ch 19 - Our Milky Way Galaxy,

Mon Apr 21: Ch 20 Galaxies in general

Wed Apr 22: Ch 20,21 - Galaxy types, Galaxy evolution

Wed Apr 23 - last day for faculty to drop a student
Wed Apr 23 - Last day to submit a W withdrawl. After this, student must take a grade

Mon Apr 28:
Quasars and Active Galaxies

Wed Apr 30: Ch 21; Quasars, Ch 22 - Dark Matter; Evidence for Dark Matter

Mon May 5: Dark Matter candidates and possibilities

Wed May 7: Chap 24, Dark Matter,

Mon May 12: Ch 23, Large Scale Structure, cosmological simulations

Wed May 14: Ch 23, Large Scale Structure, Dark Energy

Mon May 19: Ch 23, 24 - Inflation, the Multi-verse, the Anthropic Principle, Life and quantum uncertainty

Wed May 21: Life and implications for the Nature of the Universe.

May 26 - Memorial Day holiday, first week of finals is really a holiday

May 27-31: Finals Week: Final exam Wed May 28 9-11am