ASTR 391 -- Spring 2022

Syllabus, schedule, and other docs
PSets and solutions
Lecture notes
Relevant Readings
Exams & Review Paper

Syllabus and schedule

Syllabus (PDF)
Course Textbook (PDF) (by Choudhuri)

PSets and solutions

No.	Topics	Pset	Due	Solutions
Zero	Start-of-course survey	Pset	Jan 21
One	Cover Letter / Personal Statement	Pset	Jan 26
02	Forces, Introductory Concepts, and Estimates	Pset	Feb 02	solutions
03	Parallax, angular scales, stars.	Pset	Feb 11	solutions
04	Binaries, stars, and planets.	Pset	Feb 21	solutions
05	Stellar structure and interiors	Pset	March 21	solutions
06	Nuclear reactions and Stellar Destinies	Pset	April 6	solutions
07	Galaxies	Pset	April 25	solutions
08	AGN and the Universe	Pset	May 2	solutions
**	Extra Credit: Sky Show Form (more info here)	Form	Last week of class.

Course Outline

No.	Date	Topic and/or Reading Selections	Lecture Notes
1 - W1L1	2022/01/19	Introduction to astronomy. Orders of magnitude; magnitudes. Types of objects and observations. Reading: Choudhuri, Ch. 1	Lecture Notes (PDF).
2 - W1L2	2022/01/21	Intro to astrophysics. Common quantities, forces, and particles. Reading: Choudhuri, Ch. 1	Ibid
3 - W2L1	2022/01/24	Common quantities and concepts.	Ibid
4 - W2L2	2022/01/26	Parallax, distance and size scales. Choudhuri, Ch. 1	Lecture Notes (PDF)
5 - W2L3	2022/01/28	Spectroscopy and Photometry.
6 - W3L1	2022/01/31	Basic properties of stars. Mass, temperature, luminosity. Energy. Choudhuri, Sec. 3.5.	Lecture Notes (PDF)
	2022/02/02	SNOW DAY
7 - W3L3	2022/02/04	Classification, spectral types. Gray book, Chp. 1-2 -- see below.	Lecture Notes (PDF)
8 - W4L1	2022/02/07	Problem Solving. Proportions. Estimation.
9 - W4L2	2022/02/09	Binary star systems. Two-body Keplerian problem. Kepler's Laws.	Lecture Notes 1, Lecture Notes 2
10 - W4L3	2022/02/11	Binaries and Exoplanets.
11 - W5L1	2022/02/14	Observational stellar evolution. "Road Map" and the Hertzsprung-Russell diagram.
12 - W5L2	2022/02/16	Observational stellar evolution: the end states of stars.
13 - W5L3	2022/02/18	Radiation: luminosity, flux, flux density.	Lecture Notes (PDF), and Lecture Slides (PDF)
14 - W6L1	2022/02/21	More Radiation: surface brightness.	Lecture Notes (PDF)
15 - W6L2	2022/02/23	Radiation Practice Choudhuri, Secs. 2.1-2.2	Lecture Notes (PDF)
16 - W6L3	2020/02/21	Exam review.
17 - W7L1	2022/02/25	Exam 1.
18 - W7L2	2022/02/14	Professional Development: CVs and Resumes. Reminder: draft Resume/CV due Mar 7.
19 - W7L3	2022/03/04	Stellar structure: mass conservation and hydrostatic equilibrium.	Lecture Notes 1, Lecture Notes 2
20 - W8L1	2022/03/07	Stellar structure: walkthrough, application, and practice.
21 - W8L2	2022/03/09	Introduction to nuclear reactions	Reading: Lecture Notes (PDF) Choudhuri, Sec. 4.1 Wikipedia (through and including "Energy Conservation"). More detail than you want on nuclear physics (from MIT)
22 - W9L1	2022/03/21	Main nuclear reactions in stars	Reading: Lecture Notes (PDF) Choudhuri, Sec. 4.3 Proton-proton chain reaction CNO cycle reaction Old-timey but informative website on fusion concepts
23 - W9L2	2022/03/23	Stellar evolution: overview & final stages	Reading: Lecture Notes (PDF) Lecture Notes (PDF) (a more technical supplement; optional). Choudhuri, Secs. 4.5, 4.6
24 - W9L3	2022/03/25	Stellar evolution: overview & final stages	Reading: Lecture Notes (PDF) Choudhuri, Sec. 4.7 Useful notes on stellar death.
25 - W10L1	2022/03/28	Compact objects: White Dwarfs, Neutron Stars, and Black Holes	Reading: Lecture Notes (PDF) Choudhuri, Chapter 5
26 - W10L2	2022/03/30	The Interstellar Medium	Reading: Lecture Notes (PDF) (Secs. 29.4 and 29.5 are pretty math-heavy; optional!)
27 - W10L3	2022/04/01	Our Galaxy, the Milky Way	Chapter 22 of Freedman et al. Choudhuri, Secs. 6.1, 6.2, 6.4, 6.5, 6.6.4, 6.6.6, Fig. 6.15
28 - W11L1	2022/04/04	Other Galaxies: Classification, distance, and size	Chapter 23 of Freedman et al. Choudhuri, Secs. 9.1, 9.2 A few slides from lecture
29 - W11L2	2022/04/06	Rotation Curves of Galaxies	Chapter 23 of Bennett et al. Chapter 22 of Freedman et al. Choudhuri, Sec. 9.2
30 - W12L2	2022/04/13	Strategies for a Successful Job Search	Online presentation (YouTube)
31 - W12L3	2022/04/15	Galactic Center, Sagittarius A*, Supermassive Black Holes	Chapter 19 of Bennett et al., on our Galactic Center Chapter 21 of Bennett et al., on supermassive black holes Choudhuri, Sec. 9.4 Lecture slides
32 - W13L1	2022/04/18	Active Galactic Nuclei (AGN)	Chapter 24 of Freedman et al., on AGN Choudhuri, Sec. 9.4 Lecture slides
33 - W13L2	2022/04/20	Galaxy Clusters	Chapter 1 of Sparkes and Gallagher Choudhuri, Secs. 9.5 Lecture slides
34 - W13L3	2022/04/22	Large-Scale Structure	Chapter 1 of Sparkes and Gallagher Choudhuri, Secs. 9.6 Lecture slides
35 - W14L1	2022/04/25	The Expanding Universe and the Big Bang	Chapter 22 of Bennett et al. Choudhuri, Sec. 9.3, Sec. 11.1 Lecture slides
36 - W14L2	2022/04/27	Cosmology	Chapter 25 of Freedman et al. Choudhuri, Sec. 10.1, 10.5, 10.6 Lecture slides
37 - W14L3	2022/04/29	Cosmology, Continued	Chapter 23 of Bennett et al. (concluded) Choudhuri, Chapter 11 (but skip the mathy bits)
38 - W15L1	2022/05/02	Cosmology, Concluded	same readings as above, plus: Lecture slides
39 - W15L2	2022/05/04	Worked-problem practice	Lecture slides

External Readings

Order-of-magnitude approximations (courtesy of Ned Wright).
Astronomy Picture of the Day(APOD) -- a venerable and always-fascinating daily astronomy vignette.
Freedman et al., Intro to Astronomy, Chapter 1.
Freedman et al., Intro to astronomical magnitudes, Chapter 17.
Bennett et al., Intro to Astronomy, Chapter 1.
"History of Stellar Spectral Classification," Gray & Corbally, Chapter 1.
"An Overview of Normal Stars," Gray & Corbally, Chapter 2.
Goldstein et al., on the Two-Body Problem
UCLA Galactic Center Group: Orbital Animations
Binary systems:
- Caroll & Ostlie on Binary Systems
- Holberg et al. 2007, The Discovery of the Companion of Sirius
- Shahbaz et al. 1994, The mass of the black hole in V404 Cygni
Overview of Recent Exoplanet Progress
Rybicki et al., on Intro to Radiation, first half of chapter 1.

Exams & Review Paper

Midterms:

There will be two in-class exams during the semester, provisionally scheduled for Monday, Feb 28 and on Monday, ~~April 4~~ April 11.

Final:

A comprehensive final exam will be taken on Friday, May 13 from 1030-1300.

Review Paper

Work on the review paper will comprise 15% of the total course grade. Just as when writing any professional document, there will be a series of checkpoints to ensure that the author (you!) stays on track. The grade weight of these checkpoints follows a geometric progression, as detailed below. All submissions should be typed, printed, and double-spaced.

Paper checkpoints:

Topic. Submit three topics that most interest you that are relevant to the course. Submit them to the instructor no later than start-of-class Monday, February 14. (1% of grade.)
Outline. Submit a one-page outline for your paper by start-of-class on Friday, March 25. (2% of grade).
Draft. Submit a substantially complete draft by ~~April 13~~ April 15. (4% of grade).
Final paper. Submit the completed and revised paper on the last day of class, May 4. (8% of grade).

The rubric used for grading the final paper is online here.