Astrophysics: Physics 204

This is a stellar astrophysics lecture course with computer programming and telescope observation components.  The students will learn vector mechanics and write computer programs to create dynamical simulations of gravitationally interacting bodies.  Lab work in optics will introduce radiation laws and spectra.  The telescope at LSMSA will be used to do stellar photometry. Weather permitting we will observe variable stars, mostly short-period interacting binaries, and extract light-curves. The students will analyze the data and the write a short paper on their observations.  I reserve the right to adjust the contents of the course as we go along.

1. Celestial Mechanics
       A.  Kepler's Laws
       B. Newton's Laws
       C. vector mechanics: r, v, and a in Cartesian and polar coordinates.
       D. angular momentum
       E. energy conservation and gravitational potential
       F. The two body problems and orbits
       G. computer simulation of orbits (computer project)
       H. 3-body and N-body problems
       I. Dynamics of the Earth
            a. Coriolis effect
            b. Differential gravitational forces, tides and Roche limit
            c. Precession and nutation
2. Electromagnetic radiation
      A. Electromagnetic Spectrum
      B. Intensity and Flux
      C. Blackbody radiation laws
      D. Stellar magnitude scales
      E. Color-Index
      D. Atomic Processes and spectra (lab work)
      E. Saha equation and stellar atmospheres
      F. radiative transfer
3. Observational Astronomy
      A. Telescopes
      B. Detectors
      C. CCDs (telescope project)
      D.CCD data reduction (telescope and computer work)
      E. extinction coefficients
4. Stellar Astrophysics
       A. Distances and magnitudes
       B. Luminosity
       C. Distance Modulus
       D. Binary star systems
             a) masses of stars
             b) eclipsing binaries
             c) interacting binaries
             d) computer analysis of light curve(computer work with archived data)
       E. Stellar evolution and the HR-diagram
            a) star clusters
            b) color-magnitude diagrams (computer work with archived data)
        F.  Stellar evolution and variable stars
        G. Observations of variable stars (telescope and computer project)
        H. End stages of stellar evolution: white dwarves, neutron stars, and black holes
5. Galactic astronomy
        A. Mass distribution of our galaxy
        B. Interstellar matter
        C. stellar populations
        D. galactic morphology
        E. dark matter

Texts:

Primary texts:
    Zeilik and Gregory, Introductory Astronomy and Astrophysics
     Berry and Burnell, The Handbook of Astronomical Image Processing
 

Supplemental:
    Ostlie and Carroll, An Introduction to Stellar Astrophysics
    Prialnik, An Introduction to the Theory of Stellar Structure and Evolution
    Inglis, Observer's Guide to Stellar Evolution
    Hellier, Cataclysmic Variable Stars: How and why they vary.
    Hall and Genet, Photoelectric Photometry of Variable Stars
    

| Back to the Index |