Latest SOHO Extreme ultraviolet Imaging Telescope Fe IX,X 17.1 nm solar image Latest SOHO Extreme ultraviolet Imaging Telescope Fe XII 19.5 nm solar image Latest SOHO Extreme ultraviolet Imaging Telescope Fe XV 28.4 nm solar image Latest SOHO Extreme ultraviolet Imaging Telescope He II 30.4 nm solar image Latest soft X-ray solar image in the titanium-polyimide (

{Tiny solar photospheric magnetogram thumbnail image} {Tiny 1083.0 nm solar thumbnail image} {Tiny solar chromospheric magnetogram thumbnail image} {Tiny groundbased coronagraph image} {Tiny pseudo-continuum solar photospheric thumbnail image}

(Above) Latest solar images, from various telescopes and spacecraft. Click on them for more detail.

PHYS 151 Observational Astronomy
MW 6-7:15 (lecture) in McLane 167.
M or Tu or W 7:30-9:20 (lab),
in the Campus Obsevatory.
2018 Fall Course Syllabus:
Please read carefully
Instructor: Professor Ringwald
E-mail: ringwald[at]csufresno.edu and replace [at] with @
Phone: (559) 278-8426
Office: Room 11 in the J wing (Building J) of McLane Hall.
Office hours: MW 12:00-12:50 p.m., Tu 4:00-7:15 p.m.
and other times too, by appointment.


Click here to get the contents of the PHYS 151 DVD,
including the AIP4WIN 1.4.25 software



Course description: (4 credits) Prerequisite: PHYS 4C. Celestial coordinates, time, stellar motions, constellations, star charts, catalogs, astronomical sources, observational limits, telescopes, detectors, atmospheric effects, digital image processing, photometry, and spectroscopy. (3 lecture, 3 lab hours)

Required Course Texts:

Recommended Course Equipment:
Recommended Course Texts (copies of all are in the Campus Observatory and in McLane 220):
Recommended for participating in research:
If you want to be a professional astronomer, or a research scientist in any field, read this entire book:


TENTATIVE list of topics to be covered (updated 2018 November 14):
Week Date Topic Date Topic Read by Wednesday of next week
2 8/27 Introduction;
Astronomical Computer Resources 		8/29 Position and Time Web Power Tools article and the entire Class Syllabus; Chapters 4 and 5 of Gallaway (Position and Time);
The Stars, by H. A. Rey (the whole book);
Section A of the Class Notes (Classical Astronomy).
3 9/03 Holiday 9/05 Position and Time Section B of the Class Notes (the Friendly Manuals).
4 9/10 Position and Time 9/12 Using the Telescope Chapter 6 of Gallaway (Names, catalogs, and databases).
5 9/17 Constellations, star charts, and star catalogs 9/19 Astronomical coordinate systems Chapters 2 and 13 of Gallaway (Light and spectra);
Chapter 9 of Berry & Burnell (Spectroscopy).
6 9/24 Spectroscopy 9/26 Spectroscopy Section C of the Class Notes (Astronomical Sources).
7 10/01 Astronomical Sources:
line radiation (the H atom); thermal (blackbody) radiation 		10/03 Astronomical Sources:
planets, stars, nebulae, and galaxies 		Chapter 3 of Gallaway (Optics and telescopes)
8 10/08 Telescopes and Optics 10/10 Telescopes and Optics Section D of the Class Notes (Telescopes);
Section E of the Class Notes (Seeing and Weather).
9 10/15 Telescope mounts 10/17 Detectors Chapter 7 of Gallaway (Detectors);
Chapter 11 of Gallaway (Statistics);
Chapters 1 and 2 of Berry & Burnell;
Section F of the Class Notes (CCDs).
10 10/22 Mid-Term Exam 1 10/24 CCDs Chapter 8 of Gallaway (Imaging);
Chapter 3 of Berry & Burnell (Imaging Techniques);
Section G of the Class Notes (Practical Digital Imaging);
Section H of the Class Notes (Detectors).
11 10/29 CCDs 10/31 CCDs Chapter 9 of Gallaway (Digital image processing);
Chapter 4 of Berry & Burnell (Image Calibration);
Chapter 5 of Berry & Burnell (Image Analyis software).
12 11/05 Digital Image Processing 11/07 Digital Image Processing Chapter 10 of Gallaway (Photometry);
Chapter 8 of Berry & Burnell (Photometry).
13 11/12 Holiday 11/14 Digital image processing Chapters 17 and 18 of Berry & Burnell (Color and Advanced Imaging).
14 11/19 Imaging and Photometry 11/21 Holiday
-
15 11/26 Imaging and Photometry 11/28 Imaging and Photometry
-
16 12/03 Advanced imaging 12/05 Advanced imaging;
Take-Home Mid-Term Exam 2 due
-
17 12/10 Advanced imaging 12/12 Advanced imaging; Projects and printed recipes due on last day of instruction, Wednesday, December 12.
-


Class Objectives (also known as Learning Outcomes):
(1) To introduce physicists and other scientists to interesting techniques, particularly using telescopes and digital imaging.
(2) To provide teachers with a practical background for their science classes.
(3) To prepare astronomers for the research problems of the future, by getting them to the research frontier as quickly as possible.

Course grades will be awarded for the following final percentages:

85.0-100% = A; 70.0-84.9% = B; 55.0-69.9% = C; 40.0-54.9% = D; 0-39.9% = F.

These percentages will be computed with the following weights:

10% Homework. (Sorry, but no late assignments will be accepted.)
40% Four projects and printed recipes, at 10% each (see below), due Wednesday, December 12, the last day of instruction.
15% Mid-Term Exam 1 (in class, closed book and closed notes).
15% Mid-Term Exam 2 (take-home).
20% Final Exam: in class, open book & notes, 8-10 p.m. Wednesday, December 19 in McLane 167.

Sorry, but I don't give make-up exams. Any student who misses either of the mid-term exams for a valid reason (job interview or illness documented by a physician's note) will have the exam grade voided and the remainder of the grade counted as 100%. Any student who misses the final exam will get a grade of I (Incomplete) for the course, to be made up when the next Final Exam for Phys 151 (Observational Astronomy) will be given.

Concerning exams: it is the student's responsibility to make sure all pages of the exam, as well as the student's answers for all of the questions stated on them, are present in the copy that the student hands in by the end of the time the exam is given. If any questions or answers are missing from the copy the student has handed in, no credit will be given for the items on any missing pages.

Course web age: http://zimmer.csufresno.edu/~fringwal/phys151.html

  • Central Valley Astronomers meetings (public welcome) will be at 7-9 p.m. in East Engineering 191, on:
    September 22, October 27, November 24, and December 15.

  • Star Parties: Phys 151 students are encouraged to get as much observing experience as they can, with the Campus Observatory, and under a dark sky with the Central Valley Astronomers:

  • DO NOT EVER observe the Sun, with the Campus Observatory or any other equipment belonging to Fresno State, unless under Professor Ringwald's direct supervision.

  • Observatory Scheduling: Students registered in Phys 151 (Observational Astronomy) have priority with the Campus Observatory on every night of the week, except on the Friday nights following public planetarium shows, the Saturday nights immediately following Central Valley Astronomers meetings, and the nights of other public observing events (which will be announced in class). We can schedule blocks of telescope time in advance for any observers, whether or not in Phys 151.

  • Public Nights: The Downing Planetarium sometimes has public shows on Friday nights, from 7 p.m. to 9:30 p.m. If Professor Ringwald is not present, Phys 151 students may elect to open the Campus Observatory to the public during this time. However, Phys 151 students are not required to open the observatory for anyone at any time, except other students registered in Phys 151 and Professor Ringwald. In this case, Professor Ringwald recommends that Phys 151 students be courteous but firm with the public: for example, tell the public "Sorry, we're closed, because we're doing work with instruments for a class." Don't be rude to anyone.

  • Please remember: observing labs are the bare minimum of what will be needed for students to learn to use a telescope and a camera. You should plan on spending a lot more time at the telescope, to gain the proficiency you'll need to do astronomy professionally.

    If this doesn't seem like fun to you, something is wrong. Some students treat doing their homework as a dreadful chore. This isn't right. Astronomy is an elective course, and it's a competitive profession. If it isn't fun, you may be happier in an easier, more lucrative field. One can make more money for less work doing just about anything other than astronomy, especially with a physics degree.



  • Projects and recipes: Forty percent of the course grade will be for up to four projects. These projects can be any combination of the following, each of which may be used for more than one of the four projects:

  • Professor Ringwald will allow students to collaborate with each other on homework and projects, provided everyone lists their "co-investigators." Scientists often do this, and the ability to collaborate well and work as part of a team is a good skill to have, in many professions. For a project, first authorship for any CCD image will be for whomever typed the commands into CCDSoft that took that image. Second authorship will be worth 1/2 as much as first authorship; third authorship will be worth 1/3, etc. If there is any doubt about credit, you can make sure you get it by doing one or more additional projects.

    If you do collaborate, it must be genuine collaboration, not one person doing all the work, and the others blindly copying. That's cheating! Therefore, while you may work on homework together, write up the results separately, in your own words. A dead giveaway is when two images are exactly the same: this is very noticeable.

  • Students with Disabilities: The Department of Physics cooperates with the Services for Students with Disabilities (SSD) to make reasonable accommodations for qualified students with physical, perceptual, or learning disabilities (cf. Americans with Disabilities Act and Section 504, Rehabilitation Act). Students with disabilities should present their written accommodation request to Professor Ringwald within the first two weeks of class. Upon identifying themselves to the instructor and the university, students with disabilities will receive reasonable accommodation for learning and evaluation. For more information, contact Services to Students with Disabilities in Madden Library 1049 (559-278-2811).

  • Cheating and plagiarism: Professor Ringwald will not allow students to take work of any kind from the Internet or elsewhere, and turn it in as their own work. This is now easy for professors to detect, with www.plagiarism.org. If Professor Ringwald finds anything on web page anywhere that closely resembles any student's work, that web page had better have the student's name on it. If it doesn't, the student's turning in that work with the student's name on it will be interpreted as an attempt to misrepresent someone else's work as the student's own, which constitutes plagiarism. Remember, always: you are responsible for anything with your name on it.

    If Professor Ringwald finds any plagiarized work, the student will receive an F for the entire course. Professor Ringwald may also send the plagiarized work to the Dean and recommend the student be expelled from the University. Do NOT plagiarize! Modifying someone else's work slightly, or changing the text around, or stringing someone else's paragraphs together, even if they're cited, is no better: none of these dubious practices make it your work. For information on the University's policy regarding cheating and plagiarism, refer to the Schedule of Courses (Legal Notices on Cheating and Plagiarism) or the University Catalog (Policies and Regulations).

    Cheating is the actual or attempted practice of fraudulent or deceptive acts for the purpose of improving one's grade or obtaining course credit; such acts also include assisting another student to do so. Typically, such acts occur in relation to examinations. However, it is the intent of this definition that the term 'cheating' not be limited to examination situations only, but that it include any and all actions by a student that are intended to gain an unearned academic advantage by fraudulent or deceptive means. Plagiarism is a specific form of cheating which consists of the misuse of the published and/or unpublished works of others by misrepresenting the material (i.e., their intellectual property) so used as one's own work." Penalties for cheating and plagiarism range from a 0 or F on a particular assignment, through an F for the course, to expulsion from the university. For more information on the University's policy regarding cheating and plagiarism, refer to the Class Schedule (Polcy/Legal Statements) or the University Catalog (University policies).

  • Computers: Students may use the computers in the Campus Observatory and McLane 220, which have software useful for this course, including AIP4WIN, Photoshop, skycalc, TheSky, CCDsoft, etc. At California State University, Fresno, computers and communications links to remote resources are recognized as being integral to the education and research experience. Every student is required to have his/her own computer or have other personal access to a workstation (including a modem and a printer) with all the recommended software. The minimum and recommended standards for the workstations and software, which may vary by academic major, are updated periodically and are available from Information Technology Services or the University Bookstore. In the curriculum and class assignments, students are presumed to have 24-hour access to a computer workstation and the necessary communication links to the University's information resources.

  • Disruptive Classroom Behavior: The classroom is a special environment in which students and faculty come together to promote learning and growth. It is essential to this learning environment that respect for the rights of others seeking to learn, respect for the professionalism of the instructor, and the general goals of academic freedom are maintained. Differences of viewpoint or concerns should be expressed in terms which are supportive of the learning process, creating an environment in which students and faculty may learn to reason with clarity and compassion, to share of themselves without losing their identities, and to develop and understanding of the community in which they live. Student conduct which disrupts the learning process shall not be tolerated and may lead to disciplinary action and/or removal from class.

  • Copyright policy: Copyright laws and fair use policies protect the rights of those who have produced the material. The copy in this course has been provided for private study, scholarship, or research. Other uses may require permission from the copyright holder. The user of this work is responsible for adhering to copyright law of the U.S. (Title 17, U.S. Code). To help you familiarize yourself with copyright and fair use policies, the University encourages you to visit its copyright web page, at: http://www.fresnostate.edu/home/about/copyright.html. Digital Campus course web sites contains material protected by copyrights held by the instructor, other individuals or institutions. Such material is used for educational purposes in accord with copyright law and/or with permission given by the owners of the original material. You may download one copy of the materials on any single computer for non-commercial, personal, or educational purposes only, provided that you (1) do not modify it, (2) use it only for the duration of this course, and (3) include both this notice and any copyright notice originally included with the material. Beyond this use, no material from the course web site may be copied, reproduced, re-published, uploaded, posted, transmitted, or distributed in any way without the permission of the original copyright holder. The instructor assumes no responsibility for individuals who improperly use copyrighted material placed on the web site.

  • Other astronomy courses at Fresno State include:

  • This syllabus and schedule are subject to change in the event of extenuating circumstances, such as poor weather. If you are absent from class, it is your responsibility to check on announcements made while you were absent.

    Click for Fresno, California Forecast

    Last updated 2018 December 10. Web page by Professor Ringwald (ringwald[at]csufresno.edu and replace [at] with @)
    Go to Professor Ringwald's home page
    Department of Physics, California State University, Fresno. Please read this disclaimer.