ASTRONOMY 111A:
DESCRIPTIVE ASTRONOMY I LAB
Dr. Danny Faulkner
Phone: (803) 313-7029, Email: drfaulkn at mailbox.sc.edu  , Fax: (803) 313-7106
Office: Bradley 221
Office hours: 11:00 AM - Noon M,T,W,Th;
                         After 1:00 PM on M,T,W,Th; Other times by appointment

Text: none

Goals and Objectives of the course

Upon successful completion of this course, the student will:

·         Demonstrate proficiency in making measurements and determining astronomical quantities from those measurements

·         Build upon and go beyond the information learned in the lecture class

This is a lab course meant to accompany the Astronomy 111 lecture class.  This lab is a separate course from the lecture class, for which you will receive a separate grade.  It is not necessary to take this course along with the lecture class, but you cannot take this course unless you are currently taking the lecture class or have taken it in the past.  You may take either the night or day section of the lecture class.  You may drop the lab and keep the lecture class, but if you drop the lecture class you must drop the lab as well.

Each class you will be given the materials that you will need.  You should bring a calculator, and you may find your textbook may be helpful.  All answers must be expressed to the appropriate number of significant figures.  You should work in a group of two, three, or four seated at one table.  I do not want more than four people working together.  When you complete each week's activity, you may leave.  The activities will roughly parallel the material in the lecture class, and will be given in this order:

1.  Scale of the Solar System
2.  The Celestial Sphere
3.  Time and the Celestial Sphere
4.  The Graphic Time Table
5.  Kepler's First Law
6.  Kepler's Second Law
7.  The Moon's Orbit
8.  The Earth's Orbital Velocity
9.  Telescopes I
10.  Telescopes II
11.  The Sun's Temperature
12.  Saturn's Rings
13.  Mercury's Rotation
14. Meteor Shower

The grading scale will be as follows:
 

USC Lancaster The University of South Carolina
http://usclancaster.sc.edu/faculty/faulkner/astr111lab.htm  |  Last updated August 21, 2001
Send comments about this webpage to Lori Harris