Steinn Sigurðsson - Astronomy 475(W) Fall 2009

E-mail me - steinn@astro.psu.edu if you have any difficulty reading or downloading pages

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Syllabus and Basic Information:

• Syllabus
• Ancillary information - rules etc
• A LaTeX primer
• The Astrophysical Data System is a free, searchable on-line database of all the major journals in asttronomy and astrophysics.
• arXiv - preprint database
  These are very useful for tracking down references and copies of papers, though going to the library is also recommended!

  Other useful resource:

• Annual Reviews of Astronomy and Astrophysics (ARAA).
  These are blue books with black markings on the spine.
  A reference set (do NOT remove) is in the 5th floor reading room.
  A good way to get started is to browse through the index of the last few volumes of ARAA and see if there is a review on the subject of your paper. If there is, you have found a very good (if lengthy) starting point!
  

Outline of course -

Class	Date	Topic	Class	Date	Topic	Class	Date	Topic
1	24 Aug	Organization	2	26 Aug	Introduction - M vs m, review	3	28 Aug	Introduction - Stellar Populations
4	31 Aug	IMF	5	02 Sep	Binaries - DROP DAY Homework 1	6	04 Sep	Forming Binaries
7	07 Sep	NO CLASS	8	09 Sep	Star Forming Associations	9	11 Sep	Open and Globular Clusters
10	14 Sep	Potential Homework 1 due	11	16 Sep	Distribution Functions	12	18 Sep	Moments of the df Homework 2
13	21 Sep	Collisionless Boltzmann Equation	14	23 Sep	Solutions to the CBE	15	25 Sep	Fokker-Planck Equation
16	28 Sep	Integrals of Motion Homework 2 due	17	30 Sep	Collisions	18	02 Oct	Milky Way Local Paper I Outline Due
19	05 Oct	Milky Way Overview Homework 3 is here	20	07 Oct	Milky Way Detail	21	09 Oct	Galactic Centre
22	12 Oct	More Galactic Centre Homework 3 due	23	14 Oct	Local Group Homework 4 is here	24	16 Oct	Normal Galaxies Paper I due
25	19 Oct	Star Formation Homework 3 due	26	21 Oct	Disk-Halo Conspiracy	27	23 Oct	Dark Matter
28	26 Oct	More Dark Matter Homework 4 due	29	28 Oct	Disk Stability	30	30 Oct	Q
31	02 Nov	Oral Presentations I Paper II Outline due	32	04 Nov	Oral Presentations II	33	06 Nov	Oral Presentations III Homework 5 is out
34	09 Nov	Oral Presentations IV	35	11 Nov	Oral Presentations V	36	13 Nov	Correlations - LATE DROP
37	16 Nov	Galaxy Interactions Paper II due	38	18 Nov	Black Holes in Galaxies	39	20 Nov	Black Hole Conspiracies Homework 5 due
40	23 Nov	NO CLASS Homework 6 is out	41	25 Nov	NO CLASS	42	27 Nov	NO CLASS
43	30 Nov	Intermediate Mass Black Holes	44	02 Dec	Galaxy Evolution	45	04 Dec	Topics - Between Galaxies Final Paper Outline due
46	07 Dec	Topics - Population III Homework 6 due	47	09 Dec	Topics - Peculiar GC populations	48	11 Dec	LAST CLASS
49	14 Dec	NO CLASS - FINAL PAPER DUE	50	16 Dec	NO CLASS	51	18 Dec	NO CLASS

Some relevant links - THESE ARE DATED BUT WILL BE UPDATED REAL SOON NOW... ;-)

• Office of Space Science - Missions
• ESA science missions
• Penn State Astronomy
• Bad Astronomy
• AstroWeb
• Space Telescope
• Picture of the Day
• Picture of the Day - Index
• Astronomy Cafe
• Ask an Astronomer
• Hubble Space Telescope - Heritage
• Astropix.com

Specific info

• The Sun live - SOHO images
• Virtual Tour of the Sun
• Bahcall's Standard Solar Model
• The sky at different wavelengths
• Deep Sky photos of stars
• Hipparcos
• Princeton Pulsar Page
• Jodrell Bank Pulsars
• Galaxy Pictures
• Bill Keel's Mosaic of Galaxies

This class follows the departmental academic integrity policy as described here in the dept web pages

This class follows the current Penn State policy on dealing with H1N1 influenza cases, as needed.

Last updated 08/09

If you find an error or an unreadable link on this page, then E-Mail me!

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