PY 126: COMPUTATIONAL ASTRONOMY LAB

The term "Computational Astronomy" may bring visions of intricate formulae and long nights spent in programming. This is certainly true for some projects, but computational astronomy also means using computers and desktop planetarium programs to recreate the sky in the comfort of our office or lab. Relatively inexpensive desktop computers now allow us to watch motions in the sky in a few seconds that would have required hours of complex calculations by hand just a few years ago.

Don't get the impression that using a computer to look at the sky is "cheating" in some way. Many astronomers, both professional and amateur, use programs similar to the one we'll use in this course for many things, from planning a night's observing in the observatory, to checking alignments of planets in the future, or looking for the exact circumstances of eclipses that happened 1000 years ago.

This course will use an example of a "Desktop Planetarium" program that allows us to set the conditions of the night sky to whatever we would like. This means that we don't have to wait for a particular alignment of the stars, planets, and sun; we can use the program to see what it would look like right from our computers. The program also allows us to do things that would be impossible in real life, such as look at how the stars and planets were arranged as seen from Stonehenge in 2000 BC, or watch a solar eclipse that will happen on the other side of the world.

The goals of teaching this class are to have you understand the spatial and temporal relationships of astronomical objects, both in the solar system and beyond. We will pay particular attention to the movements of the common objects visible in the sky with minimal optical aid.

Students must be taking or have taken PY124: Solar System Astronomy, or have the permission of the instructor. No math beyond addition, subtraction, and simple multiplication and division is needed. Basic familiarity with geometry at the level required for admission to the university is assumed. This course is NOT a mathematically based course. (That's what we have the computers for.)

General familiarity with the use of a Windows-based computer would be very helpful.

After the lab introduction, the lab will meet approximately every other week according to the schedule below. The lab will meet 7 times during the semester. There will be 6 graded lab assignments during the semester and a take-home final exam.

Students are expected to read the lab exercise before the lab period. In order to provide incentive for reading the lab ahead of time, each lab will begin with a very short quiz on the lab procedures discussed in the lab manual.

Each lab report will be due at the completion of that lab.

Each lab report will be graded on a 100 point scale. Your final course grade will be determined by the average of your lab scores, pre-lab quizzes, and final exam, according to the following:

B+ = 88.0 to 89.9%
B = 82.0 to 87.9%
B- = 80.0 to 81.9%

C+ = 78.0 to 79.9%
C = 72.0 to 77.9%
C- = 70.0 to 71.9%

D+ = 68.0 to 69.9%
D = 60.0 to 67.9%

F = 59.9% or lower

In accordance with university policy, students who elect the S/U grading system will receive an 'S' only if their course grade would be 'C-' or better on the letter grade system.

Important: Repeated disruptions of the class (for example: answering your cellphone during class, etc) may result in the lowering of a student's grade by up to one full letter grade. Please be considerate of your fellow students.

Attendance is required at each lab meeting. You may not use the data from another student to write a lab report.

There are no make-up labs. If you miss a lab for a valid reason such as an official University excused absence or unforeseen and serious circumstances (death in family, personal illness, etc...) it may be possible to write a term paper to make up the missed lab. See me as soon as possible is you need to write a paper to make up for an excused absence.

You may only use the term paper option to make up one missed lab.

Students who miss more than one lab for unexcused absences will receive a score of zero (0) on the missed labs, which will be included in the calculation of their final course grade.

In accordance with the University policy on Incomplete (IN) grades, a grade of IN will only be given when a student has been unable to complete all required work due to circumstances beyond his/her control. Under no circumstances will an IN grade be given to avoid a poor grade on a student's record or to allow students to repeat work of poor quality in a later semester.