Lab 2 deadline moved to Wednesday

In response to feedback from students (which is very helpful!), the lab 2 deadline has been moved to next Wednesday, 10/19.

Reminder: Palomar trip this weekend

Don't forget the Palomar trip is this Sunday, 10/16! We will meet at noon at Cahill (eat lunch beforehand), drive the three hours out to Palomar, and stay there through evening to do a bit of observing/stargazing. You should pack a "night lunch" (dinner) since we will get back late.

Lab 2

Lab 2 has been posted on the course web site: http://www.astro.caltech.edu/~jrv/Ay20/labs/lab2_theAU.pdf. In this lab, you will use an image of Mercury's transit of the Sun, taken by the TRACE mission, to estimate the distance to the Sun. This builds on our measurement of the radius of the Earth (but feel free to use a more accurate value than the one we got). The lab is due Sunday night by midnight.

The Known Universe

Here's the video I showed in class Monday. Enjoy!

Week 3 Reading

Read C&O Chapter 3.3-3.5 (The Nature of light, Black bodies)

iObserve

Right on the heels of our celestial sphere lessons, here's a post at Astrobetter about a handy tool for planning your observations.

Monday's Guest

Monday we'll be joined by an esteemed visitor, Dr. Jon Swift:

http://jonswiftastro.com/

Dr. Swift was my graduate student mentor at UC Berkeley and we both ended up at the University of Hawaii together as postdocs, where he was a Sub-millimeter Array Postdoctoral (SMA) Fellow. His research focus is on massive star formation and he uses interferometers to study molecular clouds where these behemoth baby stars are born.

Dr. Swift is also a professional musician, photographer, poet and an accomplished surfer.

Come prepared with questions for our guest. We'll also be learning about blackbody radiation, so stay tuned for the worksheet, which will be posted this weekend.