PHYS 1155 Astronomy Laboratory

John Simonetti
Lab TAs are listed in the Syllabus
Fall Semester 2014

Astronomy Lab does not start until the **second** week of classes!
You must read the syllabus (see link below) prior to attending the first lab meeting.
You will be building a telescope at your first lab meeting --- a telescope you get to keep! So, don't miss that first lab meeting!

Welcome to the PHYS 1155 Astronomy Laboratory Website

Phys 1155 is a 1-credit Astronomy Laboratory course for introductory astronomy. You will learn how to use telescopes to view bright objects, learn some constellations, and perform a variety of indoor exercises. The knowledgable Teaching Assistants will be your guides. We hope you will find this course fun!

There are no prerequisities. You are not expected to have any previous experience using a telescope, or to have any specific knowledge of the night sky. You will learn any related background in the corequisite lecture course Phys 1055 Introduction to Astronomy.

Syllabus: Detailed discussion of how the course will work, grades, etc.
Scholar: To check your lab scores login to Scholar.

Course Materials

Galileoscope Assembly Instructions: Improved Galileoscope Assembly Instructions. These are the written *improved* instructions supplied by the Galileoscope people. Remember, to use the supplied tissue paper when handling the lenses!; YouTube Galileoscope Assembly VideoM. Remember, to use the supplied tissue paper when handling the lenses!
SIP: Sky Image Processor (SIP) is the Java web-based image analyzer we use for some of the lab exercises.
Prices Fork Observatory Exercise: The handout for the Prices Fork Observatory Exercise. This exercise must be done at one of the Prices Fork Observatory Open Houses. The Prices Fork Observatory Open Houses are scheduled for first and third Friday evenings of each month, but only occur if the sky is not cloudy! Consult the syllabus and the Open House webpage for more details.
Planisphere: Uncle Al's Sky Wheels can be downloaded in three parts: the star wheel cover, the first insert with constellations and bright star names, and the second insert with constellations and celestial coordinate lines. These downloads are for the 2000 version. The 2009 version does not have star names.
Orbits of Jovian Moons (movie): An animated gif showing the orbits of the moons of Jupiter. For use in the Kepler's Laws lab exercise. This is a copy of the image at www.astro.washington.edu/labs/clearinghouse/movies/images/orbits_of_jovian_moons.gif
Jupiter's Moons Javascript Utility: A Javascript Utility at Sky and Telescope's website that will display the configuration of the Galilean Moons of Jupiter on any given date and time.
Transit Times of Jupiter's Great Red Spot: A page at Sky and Telescope's website that will display a list of the transit times of Jupiter's Great Red Spot, for a given date.
Map of the Moon: A map of the moon's major features, from Sky and Telescope.
Double Star Telrad Finder Charts: Telrad finder charts for Mizar and Alcor, epsilon Lyrae, and Alberio.
Excel Spreadsheet for Impact Crater Lab: An Excel spreadsheet that students should download and fill in (with measured data) during the Impact Crater Lab. When done, this sheet should be printed out and attached to each lab partner's writeup.
Discovery Star Charts: Charts for the Discovery lab. Limiting Magnitude, SummerTriangle, and Andromeda.
Extrasolar Doppler Graphs: Graph paper for plotting extrasolar planet Doppler data.
Geologic Features of Mars: NASA lab available from Univresity of Michigan website. Best used in conjuction with Google Mars

Astronomy Minor

Virginia Tech offers an Astronomy Minor open to students of all majors. The Minor is designed for students who want to supplement their major, students who want to enter astronomy professionally, or students who simply have a keen interest in the subject. This course is one of the required courses for the Minor.

Outside Links of Interest

Sky and Telescope's webpage on Pronouncing Constellation Names: Sky and Telescope's webpage on how to pronounce constellation names. Includes mpg files so you can actually hear the pronunciations, and interesting historical information.
VT Astronomy and Astrophysics: The webpage containing links to all VT Astronomy and Astrophysics courses, plus links to many external sources of information on astronomy and astrophysics.

Image of M51 by Adam Drake, Victor Gehman, Seth Hornstein, and Chad King (using the 0.4m Telescope, PHYS 3154, Spring semester 1999).
To Virginia Tech Physics.