Astronomy Lab

Catalog description

This course is an optional lab which can ONLY be taken concurrently with PHY-140. Laboratory sessions will include several outdoor sessions, weather permitting, using IWU portable telescopes to observe and photograph craters on the moon, the planets Jupiter, Saturn, Mars and Venus, brighter nebula and star clusters. Other topics to be covered include the basic operation and handling of telescopes, use of celestial coordinates and setting circles, and an introduction to the visible constellations. The remaining labs will be performed indoors, incorporating laboratory studies of optics, spectral emission lines, Doppler shifts and other astronomy related topics. This course will fulfill the general education lab science requirement ONLY if it is taken concurrently with PHY-140.