Instructor: Dr. Andy Piacsek

Animations and Applets | Online Resources

Course Description

PHYS 101 "Introductory Astronomy" satisfies the General Education requirements for the Natural Sciences - Patterns and Connections in the Natural World. This course covers the identification and description of stars and other celestial objects, the life-cycle of stars, and our own sun-earth-moon system. Special emphasis is placed on the observational techniques used by astronomers in order to appreciate how we (observers stuck on earth) can learn about celestial objects that are so far away (or even know that they are, indeed, very far away). Significant attention is paid to the scientific process, in general, and the historical development of astronomy.

Required Text

The following text is stocked by the University Bookstore and Jerrol's

Stars and Galaxies (7 ed)
Michael Seeds and Dana Backman
Brooks/Cole/Cengage
ISBN: 9780538733175

Animations and Applets

• Retrograde Motion
• Kepler's Second Law
• Animations of Earth
• Your Sky Interactive Planetarium
• Solar System Animations
• SkyView Virtual Laboratory

Online Resources

• Astronomy Picture of the Day
• UTK Astrowiki
• Sky&Telescope Resources
• NASA Science Headlines
• Space.com News
• Ellensburg Night Sky Blog
• WorldWide Telescope
• NASA Homepage
• Hubble Space Telescope
• Universe Today
• Space Weather
• Electromagnetic Spectrum
• Newton and Gravity
• NASA Eclipse Web Site
• The EIGHT Planets - A Tour
• Timeline of Astronomy
• Galileo's Dialogs Online
• Aurora Classroom
• Physics and Astronomy Symbols

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