82-104/114: Stars, Galaxies & the Universe

Lectures and course responsibility:
Dr. Michael Briley
Office: HS 348, phone: 424-7104
E-mail: mike@maxwell.phys.uwosh.edu
Office hours: M/W/F 2:00-3:00, or by appointment (check my calendar)

Lab instructors:
Dr. Ramanathan Jambunathan, HS 349, phone 424-4430
Dr. Nadia Kaltcheva, HS 354, phone 7107
Dr. Dennis Rioux, HS 347, phone 424-4429

All Handouts from the course are available electronically:

The Syllabus (also in Adobe PDF format: here)
The Schedule of Tests and Lecture (also Online/Interactive and in PDF format)

Having Trouble with Math?

OK, it's not much, but I've written a Math Review which you can either browse or download as a PDF file.

Test #2: Friday, March 12
The exam will cover the material from Chapters 6, 7, 8, and 9 (probably sections 1 and 2 only). There will be a review session Wednesday night (3/11) from 5-6PM. Come to HS 348 to find out where (somewhere up on the 3rd floor of Halsey - I just don't know yet).
(The material for test #1 is located here)

Lecture materials on-line (these will be made available as time permits).
Note: The slides have been converted into Powerpoint and PDF formats (the original Keynote source can be supplied if you're using a Mac and have the software). For Powerpoint, the movies/animations must be downloaded separately for Windows (as a self-extracting archive) and MacOS (as a .sit file). These animations will require Apple's free Quicktime package to play. Download them at your own risk - they can be large! The PDF versions do not include the animations.

Important Concepts and Questions by students from the chapters:
These links contain brief outlines of some of the important ideas and concepts from each chapter. Also included are questions which people have asked about the material in the past. If you'd like to contribute a question, just sent it to mike@maxwell.phys.uwosh.edu.

Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9

Practice questions:
Here are a few practice questions for each chapter. They are actually questions from old tests. Note that they are not meant to be a study guide or in any way comprehensive!

Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9

From the Textbook Web Site:
As always, don't forget the web site for the text too. There you'll find vocabulary exercises, chapter objectives, other practice tests/quizzes, links to additional information, and much much more! Note that from this point on, the chapter numbers in the text's web site are 8 larger than ours, e.g. our Ch 8 = their Ch. 16. This is because we've skipped the 8 chapters on planets (which are covered in 82-103).

Chapter 6 Chapter 7 Chapter 8 Chapter 9
Chapter Objectives Chapter Objectives Chapter Objectives Chapter Objectives
Chapter Outline Chapter Outline Chapter Outline Chapter Outline
Crossword Puzzle Crossword Puzzle Crossword Puzzle Crossword Puzzle
Flashcards Flashcards Flashcards Flashcards
Glossary Glossary Glossary Glossary
Image Analysis Quiz Image Analysis Quiz Image Analysis Quiz Image Analysis Quiz
Internet Exercises Internet Exercises Internet Exercises Internet Exercises
Tutorial Quiz Tutorial Quiz Tutorial Quiz Tutorial Quiz
Web Links Web Links Web Links Web Links

Links for Chapter 6 Pictures:
I'm always asked where I get the movies of the Sun seen in the lectures for Chapter 6. The answer is "from a lot of places." If you're interested in the Sun and want to see more of movies like that, here are some of my favorites:

Spaceweather.com: As the name suggests - a site about the solar wind and solar activity. Also features sections on aurorae (and predictions of when good ones will happen) and other astronomical events.

The Big Bear Solar Observatory: Recent pictures of the Sun from the ground.

The SOHO (Solar & Heliospheric Observatory) Site: A spacecraft which monitors the Sun's chromosphere and corona for activity (using ultraviolet light). Many cool pictures (plus the occasional comet) and links to images for each day from other sites.

The TRACE (Transition Region and Coronal Explorer) Site: A spacecraft which monitors the transition region and corona (duh).

The GEOS-12 X-ray Imager: NOAA placed an X-ray camera on GEOS-12 (a weather satellite) and this is the place where its images are posted. With the failure of Yohkoh in 1991 (a Japanese orbiting X-ray observatory), this is the only current instrument for observing the Sun and its corona in X-rays.

Check your grades:

The grades are here for the second test (and through the 3rd quiz). On Test #2, there were 3 problems the class had trouble with, and these have been turned into extra credit. We will try and talk about them after everyone has taken the exam (maybe by Wednesday). The class average was 72.0, with one person getting a 102 (with the extra credit) and several 100's.

Note: if you look at your grade and find it to be lower than what you expected, come see me during my office hours or make an appointment. We can dig out your test and see what went wrong and talk about possible solutions. Now is the time to do this! Don't wait until the end when you've got three or four bad tests behind you making it hard to raise your grade.

If your grade is missing, please let me know!

Enter Your Student ID:

Note: This database contains no identifying information other than your ID number. But let me know if you'd rather not participate (we can work something else out).

Grades will not be posted or available by any other means.
Updated Monday, March 22, 2004 12:17 PM
mike@maxwell.phys.uwosh.edu