FIZ 463e Astrophysics I (2007)

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Textbook

There is no single preferred textbook. Lecture notes will be used and
internet links to related materials will be provided.

Topics to be covered in Astrophysics I

    1. Ancient Astronomy and the scientific revolution (some more history)

    2. Cosmic Distance Ladder,

    3. Photometry (Flux, magnitude -kadir-, luminosity)

    4. Celestial Mechanics (note1, note2, note3)

    5.The Solar System and the Extrasolar Planets

    6. Light and it's interaction with matter

    7. Big Bang Nucleosynthesis, Stellar Populations, Hertzsprung-Russell diagram 

    8. Classification of Stellar Spectra

    9. Polytropic Stars

    10. Stellar Structure

    11. Interstellar Medium and Star Formation

    12. Stellar Evolution

    13. The Earth as a Celestial Object

Exams

There will be two midterms and a Final Exam.
There will be occasional quizes.
Your attendence to the lectures by questions, comments and suggestions will also be evaluated.

Rules of Phys463e

  1. You are assumed to follow this website regularly. All announcements and documents will be available from this website.

  2. You are expected to attend at least 70% of the lectures. I will not check your attendance and I leave it to your responsibility. Although I will not check the attendence, naturally, I will be more willing to help those who attend the lectures regularly in any of the problems they encounter about the lesson. 
  3. You are free to enter the class (join the lesson) during the lecture, BUT please be polite enough to make your entrance least distracting by using the back door and choosing a seat that is close to the door. Disturbing the others by trying to sit near to a friend is a rude attitude.

Announcements

   1. The first quiz is to be held on  9 Oct. 2007
    2. The First Midterm will be taken 1 November 2007

Reading Material

History of Astronomy

    1. The reading material for the first week: Read from Dr. Strobels astronomy notes Chapters 3 and 4 (Essential).
    2. Supplementary material: "Ankara Universitesi'nde Astronomi Tarihi Ders Notları", and some nice reading with many external links by Gene Smith.
    3. Kepler's laws of planetary motion and their connection to Newton's Laws.
    3. Some extra reading on special subjects (recommended):
         a) Aristarchus
         b) Astronomical Names for the Days of the Week
         c) From Wikipedia: on the origin of the Days of the Week.
         d) Osmanlı Astronomisi
         e) Takiyuddin by Yavuz Unat.
         f) Takiyuddin by Metin And.
         g) The legacy of Uluğ Bey by Kevin Kriscuinas
         h) Biographies from Wikipedia: Ptolemy, Nasir_al-Din_Tusi, Aristarchus of Samos, Galileo Galilei, Uluğ Bey, Copernicus, Kepler, Tycho Brahe
     4. Further reading only for those especially interested in the history of science:
         a) Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems by Galilei
         b) The Observatory in Islam. and Its Place in the General History of the Observatory, Aydın Sayılı
         c) Uluğ Bey ve Semerkand'daki İlim Faaliyetleri Hakkında Gıyaseddün-i Kaşi'nin Mektubu, Aydın Sayılı
         d) İstanbul Rasathanesi, Süheyl Ünver
         e) Electronic representation of Galilei's notes on motion
         f) The Galileo Project is a source of information on the life and work of Galileo Galilei
         g) The warfare of science with theology, Andrew White
         h) On the Heavens, Aristoteles


Order of magnitude physics and the Art of Estimation

    1. Train yourself to be fluent in "back of the envelope" calculations using "order of magnitude physics." You can study some of the links below.
        a. Some lecture notes by Sanjoy Mahayan or look here.
        b. Bending of starlight
        c. Estimating gas mileage: An example of order-of-magnitude physics, Sanjoy Mahajan
        d. Problems
        e. Some notes By Nir Shaviv
        f. Ay250 Order Of Magnitude Physics, by Eugene Chiang, transcribed by Aaron Parsons
     2. From Dr. Strobels astronomy notes section 2 of Chapter 1  (Essential) b) Powers of ten c) Atlas of the Universe

Photometry
     1.  Understanding stellar properties:
        a.  Dr. Strobel's notes, Chapter 11: Parallax, Magnitude system,  Color and Temperature  (essential)
        b. Study this link by and the java applett.
        b. Look up some concepts from the Wikipedia: Astronomical Unit, Parsec, Parallax, (Astronomic Units of Length), Absolute magnitude, Apparent magnitude, Luminosity, Lambert's cosine law,
Cosmic Distance Ladder, Interstellar Reddening, Interstellar Extinction, Astronomical Seeing, Angular Diameter, Standard Candle, Standard Ruler, Globular Cluster, Color index, Photometric System,
UBV Photometric System
     2. The Standard Candles in Astrophysics are
         a) Cepheid variable
         b) RR Lyrae variable
         c) X-ray burster
         d) Type 1a supernovae
       Some links on standard candles:
        link one, link two, link three
    5. Biography: Henrietta Leavitt, Annie Jump Cannon
    6. Recommended reading-1: "First Computers were human!":
        'Miss Leavitt's Stars': The Female Computer
       Woman Astronomers at Harvard at the turn of the century
        Harvard Computers
    7. Recommended reading-2: "Curtis-Shapley Debate":
        first link, second link, third link, fourth link (Sorry I could not choose a best one, just read any of them)
             

Stellar Astrophysics

      1. Look up some concepts from the Wikipedia: Abundance of Chemical Elements, Metallicity,
          Stellar Population, Hertzsprung-Russell diagram, Stellar Classification
      2.Look up further concepts from Wikipedia: Nucleosynthesis
        Big Bang Nucleosynthesis (=BBN=Primordial Nucleosynthesis)
        Stellar Nucleosynthesis
        Supernova nucleosynthesis
        baryogenesis
        reionization
      3. Biography: Eddington,
      4. time-line of stellar astronomy

Fluid Dynamics

    These lectures are about Astrophysical Gas Dynamics. I recommend these lecture notes
by James R. Graham. Of course we will not study all of it in this term. You will have to look at the relevant sections.
Also some chapters from these lecture notes by Kip Thorne also is helpful.

Interesting links: Nice pictures of fluid motion. Gallery of fluid mechanics!

Stellar Structure

These lectures are about stellar structure. I recommend the lecture notes by Chris Flynn.
In order to view postscript (.ps) format files in this site, ghostview and
ghostscript should be installed on your computer. This is a very useful
file format that you eventually will need  someday.

Stellar Evolution

These lectures are about stellar evolution. Here are some notes and slides with nice pictures:

Stellar Structure and Evolution Simulator

link 1

link 2

link 3

link 4

link 5

link 6

link 7

link 8

These are some few links that I could find by searching from google. If you do not like them, start from what wikipedia has to say on stellar evolution.

Light and its ineraction with matter

This last lecture was about interaction of light with matter. It also included
a discussion of spectra and interpretation of it. I used the folowing
sections from Prof. Rowan's Astronomy notes:

1- Light &Radiation 1
2- Light & Radiation 2
3- Atomic Spectra
4- Stellar Spectra

Links to External Lecture Notes


Kirk T. Korista in Western Michigan University
Nick Strobel in Bakersfield College
James Schombert in in Oregon
Sample lecture notes from Jodrell Bank
Fundamentals of Stellar Astrophysics, by Collins, II
A review of the Universe
Actually Korista gives comprehensive links to many good astrophysics websites and lecture notes.