My Description: During this course we shall look up at the stars and answer the question, twinkle twinkle little star how I wonder what you are. We will also find out where to look for what in the sky and why some things are more easily seen in certain parts of the sky than others. We shall assemble a celestial sphere. Since almost everything we know about the cosmos comes from observing electromagnetic radiation (light), we shall spend some time talking and observing the properties of light. Many of these properties are outside everyday experience. We shall see how spectroscopes are used to break light apart by wavelengths and how different gases have unique light signatures (spectra) when heated. We shall assemble a spectroscope. We shall assemble a simple telescope of the same quality as Galileo use in 1610 to revolutionize our understanding of the universe. We shall assemble an ancient astronomical calculating machine called an astrolabe. With this we can predict the position in the sky of stars and the sun. We will measure the brightness and color of an open star cluster by running a computer program that is a virtual reality. We will measure the period of the orbits of the four bright moons of Jupiter by running a computer program that is a virtual reality. We will measure the orbital period of the planet Mercury by running a computer program that simulates bouncing a radio pulse sent from a radio telescope from Earth to Mercury and back. We shall see how and with what precision distances to planets, stars, galactic star clusters, globular star clusters, galaxies, metagalaxies, and super galactic clusters are determined. We shall see how color, temperature, mass, brightness, chemical composition, and age all affect stars. We shall have fun while doing this.

Clientele: Anyone who wants to understand the bigger universe outside of this planet.

Prerequisite: Willingness to read, think, and communicate.

Things you need to buy at the bookstore:

On Wednesday, September 10, 2003 your instructor visited the Bowie State University bookstore run by the Fiolett Corporation.   I think, they may eventually get the materials that have been requested by me and two other Bowie State officials for you, but I think if you wait for them to get your text by Michael Seeds Horizons: Exploring the Universe,  the 8th edition is best, and the Learning Technologies "College Astronomy Kit"  you may fall so far behind that you will fail the course.   If I were you, I would seize the moment and not wait for them.  How do you do that?  Montgomery College at Takoma Park's bookstore has 11 copies of the text  by Michael Seeds Horizons: Exploring the Universe  the 8th edition and 11 "College Astronomy Kit" boxes.   They are open Monday through Thursday from 8AM to 7PM and Friday from 8AM to 5PM and Saturday from 9AM to 2PM.  Or you could do like one of the students I spoke to in the course, who attended the orientation session and I saw on Wednesday, September 10 as I visited Bowie State University beautiful campus, who had ordered the text with CD-ROM on e-bay and the "College Astronomy Kit" he ordered directly from Learning Technologies paying $6 shipping and handling.  I told him that I had put links to the Telecourse Student Guide on the syllabus that resides on the astrolabes.org/PHSC111/SyllabusFall2003.html web sight so he could order that, too.  The Telecourse Student Guide  is not sold by Montgomery College's bookstores as my AS101 students at Montgomery College do not watch the videos.  While I was giving the bookstore people the same information that Marsha Word had given them the week before, another professor came up and only a fraction of his Art class had the text and the Photoshop software necessary to do their assignments evidently the bookstore had no more copies of the text with software.  The bookstore had sold out.   At least they had had a few copies of his text.  I used the same "College Astronomy Kit" last spring semester and the 7th edition of Michael Seeds test Horizons: Exploring the Universe when I taught PHSC111 to Bowie State University students in Montgomery County on Friday night classes.    The bookstore seems to still be unaware of Learning Technologies telephone numbers and postal addresses.  Please act in a way to protect yourself.   You will certainly fail if you never get these things regardless of the response of the Fiolett bookstore at Bowie State University.  I will not accept, not getting the text or "College Astronomy Kit" as an excuse for not mastering the astronomical material.   I will mention this to the new acting dean when I see him tomorrow when I visit Bowie State University again.   I will also tell him about my complaint to the dean Discussion Board post that I plan to share with him after the course is over.  I have set it so that this one Discussion Board thread can be posted anonymously.   Good luck in you hunt for the course materials!

The good news is that the Bowie State University bookstore seems to have gotten them selves partially together. Bowie State bookstore they did not have the book on Wednesday when I went there, but Thursday I went to the Bowie State bookstore and they did have the text with CD-ROM and the Study Guide.  They did not yet have the PS-13 "College Astronomy Kit."  But I gave them the ordering information again like Marsha Wood who works at Bowie States Continuing Education Departments did a week ago.  

• Text: Horizons, Exploring the Universe 7th edition or Text: Horizons, Exploring theUniverse 8th edition (one or the other not both) by Michael A. Seeds as primary text.  This text comes with a CD-ROM copy of the computer program TheSky Student Edition for Windows or MacIntosh opperating systems.  We will use the program TheSky Student Edition which is real neat to help you understand a number on concepts.
• Telecourse Student Guide for Universe The Infinite Frontier for Seeds' Horizons: Exploring the Universe, 7th edition, 4th edition  or Telecourse Student Guide for Seeds' Horizons: Exploring the Universe; 8th edition,  5th edition to accompany Horizons: Exploring the Universe, this book has assignments detailing reads in Seeds text to be completed before viewing the videos, overviews of main topics covered in the text and video programs, learning objectives, viewing notes, review activities with matching and completion exercises to reinforce your understanding of important terms and concepts, and self-tests a multiple choice quiz allowing you to test your understanding of the material with answer keys. 
• College Astronomy Kit, PS-13, from Learning Technologies by William Luzaderas the laboratory manual. The college astronomy kit includes besides a laboratory manual, a 16 power telescope (similar to the one Galileo used), a celestial sphere, and a spectrometer. You get to build and keep all of this stuff. It is real neat, especially the spectrometer.
  

Orientation Meeting: Sunday, September 7, 2003 from 2-4pm at the Montgomery College Planetarium on Fenton Street at Takoma Park Maryland.  At this meeting I will give you a CD-ROM which contains CLEA, Contemporary Laboratory Exercises in Astronomy, 7 lab programs, we will do 3,  in this class, part of the 30% lab grade!

My Expectations:
1. That you read the assigned portions of the text before viewing the videos as directed by the Telecourse Student Guide for Universe The Infinite Frontier.
2. That you will ask questions on the assigned portion that you did not understand in the discussion groups on-line for every chapter and the labs we will do on the Bowie State Blackboard Access http://classroom.bowiestate.edu this is PHSC111.286.
3. That you will keep your Astronomy Portfolio current as you process through the text, videos, and lab  activities.
4. That you will take a mid-semester test and the one final exam.
5. That you will appreciate our place in the universe.

Grading Policy:
1. Mid semester test taken on-line October 13-17, 2003---15%.
2. Laboratory Reports---30%.
3. Participate in online discussion on Horizons Chapters and laboratory Reports--5%.
4. One final exam, which will be comprehensive, taken on-line December 8-12, 2003---50%.

CLEA lab stuff:

I have decided to leave a bunch of CLEA CD-ROMs for BSU PHSC111 students to pick up before September 29, 2003 which is the first date that you could use the CLEA lab on your computer.  If I were you after you get your CLEA CD-ROM I would want to start and finish my first "CLEA, Photometry of the Pleiades Star Cluster" before the midterm.   It is likely that there will be a few quesiton on the Midterm which can be answered only by people who have successfully completed this first CLEA lab.  There will be annonucements on the Blackboard sight for where you should pick up the CLEA CD-ROMs. CLEA lab "Radar Rotation of Mercury (manual)." A data form which will help you do the Radar Rotation of Mercury Lab. Download CLEA "Radar Rotation of Mercury  (a zip file you must unzip and install yourself on a PC not a Mac) if you want to do it at home and not in the MSLC."  Download CLEA "The Moons of Jupiter (a zip file you must unzip and install yourself on a pc not a mac)" if you want to do it at home and not in the MSLC.  Start doing the CLEA lab "The Moons of Jupiter (manual)."  Download CLEA "The Moons of Jupiter (a zip file you must unzip and install yourself on a PC not a Mac)" if you want to do it at home and not in the MSLC.
Contemporary Laboratory Experiments in Astronomy (CLEA) lab "Photometry of the Pleiades Star Cluster (manual)"  Download CLEA "Photometry of the Pleiades Star Cluster (a zip file you must unzip and install yourself on a PC not a Mac)" if you want to do it at home and not in the MSLC.

Extra Credit Opportunities
The Washington Metro area is currently the naval of the planet earth (the capital of the only remaining superpower) and is culturally and scientifically one of the richest places. Write at least one page (around 250 words) about what you learned during an astronomy lecture or a clear night viewing through a telescope at an observatory. Please draw a sketch of anything that you saw though a telescope. Send me a copy, but keep one for yourself as it belongs in your journal.

• Lectures
• NCA, National Capital Astronomers, meet first Saturday of the month 3pm, except in October we are meeting on Saturday, October 11 because the Taste of Bethesda festivals.  Your instructor is one of the webmaster and was the president of NCA for two years and the vice-president for two years before that and was a trustee.  The public is invited.  You will need to go to the website to get the directions for finding where the meeting is.  We use to meet in the hospital building at the National Institutes of Health, but the 9-11 paranoia and general cowardliness of the federal government administered by federal bureaucrats has closed this venue to us for now.  Thank heavens Montgomery County government and their community centers are not administered by cowards.  Maybe I am a little extreme in my poltical views of the current administration, but obviously I don't think so.
• Air and Space Museum Lectures on astronomy
• Goddard Scientific Colloquia, Friday afternoons public invited, but you must call at least 24 hours ahead to be cleared and these are scientific colloquia for other scientists not necessarily specialists.  This too being a federal facility is a pain to visit now.   I guess we will just have to wait until administrations change and we get federal chief executives with more backbone.
• Observatories
• USNO, United States Naval Observatory, open every Monday that is not a federal holiday and the federal government is not involved in foreign  adventure..
• UMD, University of Maryland at College Park has an observatory open on the 5th and 20th of every month on Metzerott Road in Prince George's County.
• Shows
• MC planetarium , public astronomy show (at these you actually get to see your professor Dr. Harold Williams).
• Einstein Planetarium at the Air and Space Museum on the mall.
• Rock Creek Nature Center Planetarium on Glover Road in NW DC.
• Maryland Science Center, Inner harbor Baltimore.
• Exhibits
• Natural History Museum on the mall in DC.
• Air and Space Museum on the mall in DC.

Written by Dr. Harold Williams on August 28, 2003,  last modified on September 18, 2003, during Huricane, Isabel.