ASTR110: General Astronomy Lab

Spring 2016 Syllabus

Overview | Requirements | Grading | Disclaimer

General Information

Instructor(s):: Dr. Kathy Cooksey; • Section: 001 & 003; • Office: STB219; • Office Hours: MT 1−2 PM, W 3−4 PM, and by appointment; • Email: kcooksey@hawaii.edu; Dr. Nadine Manset; • Section: 002; • Office: STB212; • Office Hours: TBD; • Email: manset@hawaii.edu
Location: STB 205
Sections: 5:00−8:00 PM: 001: Tuesdays (Cooksey); 002: Wednesdays (Manset); 003: Thursdays (Cooksey)
Lab Assistant(s):: TBD

Overview

Course Description: • ASTR110L is an astronomy laboratory course that covers basic principles of experimentation and physical measurements of astronomical interest. The goal is for students to understand how astronomers know what they know about the universe, more than for students to learn what astronomers know. In other words, the process of the lab is more important than the results.; • Students should be either registered concurrently in ASTR110, ASTR150, or ASTR 180 or have already passed either class.
Content: • Sun's daily motion; • Building and using a celestial sphere; • Reason for seasons and solar motion; • Sizes and distances by measuring angles; • Brightness; • Properties of pinholes and lenses; • Basic astronomical refracting telescope; • Modern reflecting telescope assembly and use
Optional field trip for night-sky observing at Maunakea Visitor Information Station
Format: Course will meet once a week for 3 hours in the Astronomy Laboratory (STB205). Instructors will briefly explain the overall experiment and use of the equipment. Students need to prepare for the lab by reading the lab activity available on the course Laulima site and by answering questions indicated by the instructors. It is very important that students show up on time. Students will then be allowed to run the experiment.

Requirements

Materials:

• ASTR110L lab manuals will be provided in class.

• Students must bring paper and a writing utensil for the graded lab report, unless instructed to complete the lab manual provided.

Participation:

• Attendance and participation are required. There are a limited number of opportunities to make up labs. Students may only make up labs for which they were excused and must confirm the plan to make up the lab two business days in advance.

• Students more than 15 minutes late to class will not be permitted to participate in that day's lab. Students with understandable issues with this (e.g., another class very far away, mobility problems, etc.) must discuss the situation with the instructor.

Assignments:

Students will prepare for the lab by reading the manual before the lab.
Often, there will be pre-lab questions to be answered with the lab partner(s) at the beginning of lab. The aim is for the student to think about how they think the universe works before the lab. There are no right or wrong answers, just honest answers.
Each lab requires a lab report to be submitted at the end of class or in a week, whether there is a lab meeting or not.
Some labs require out-of-class observations, either with lab partner(s) or individually. These are due at the next lab meeting.
These include "field work" assignments, which should be completed whether or not the student attended the lab. The student may have to borrow equipment.
Each student must submit the lab report and any required field work individually. Each will contribute to the final course grade equally.
The lowest report/field work grade will be dropped.

Grading

Lab reports:: • Submitted work is graded on a scale of 4 (C) through 10 (A), where e.g., 8 is a B+, etc. this includes any assigned field work.; • A grade of zero (0) indicates the student did not participate in the lab. There are a few opportunities to make up labs (see Participation in Requirements above). The instructor may excuse a student from a lab grade (e.g., Lab 6 - Planetarium cannot be easily made up because it is a private event at `Imiloa).
Final grade:: • The average of all grades (lab reports and field work)—with the lowest grade dropped—is the final grade. For example, an average that rounds to 8 is a B+, etc.; • Thus, any student that completes all labs and submits their work is guaranteed to pass the lab with a C or better.

Disclaimer

The schedule and syllabus are subject to change. Last modified: 2 Jan 2015 by KLC.