ASTR 101 Lab - Department of Physics and Astronomy

ASTR 101 Lab: Our Place in Space
Section 426
Chapman 235, Tuesday, 6 p.m.
Instructor: Josh Fuchs
Office: Phillips 120 and 106. Check both!
Office Hours: Monday 3pm-4pm and Wednesday 1pm-3pm in my office. Please feel
free to stop by anytime or email me to set up an appointment.
Email: jtfuchs@live.unc.edu
Please Note: I reserve the right to alter the syllabus.
Class Websites
• http://skynet.unc.edu/ASTR101L/ • http://skynet.unc.edu/afterglow/
• http://www.webassign.net/ • http://www.physics.unc.edu/~jtfuchs/astrolab.html
Class Overview
This lab follows the historical path of astronomy in determining our place in the solar
system, the Milky Way galaxy, and the universe. You will use state of the art telescopes
and software to answer questions that Copernicus, Galileo, Hubble, Shapley, and Curtis
first answered. You will learn to collect, analyze, and interpret your own data. The labs
supplement material learned in both the Astronomy 101 and 102 lecture courses, though
neither is a prerequisite or co-requisite. You will learn all the concepts and methods
necessary for this class in this class. By the end of the course, you will have a better
understanding of the methods used by astronomers to investigate and understand the
fundamental questions about our place in space.
Honor Code
I encourage you to talk to each other and help each other answer questions. However, the
work you submit must be your words, your calculations, your images, your graphs, etc.
All work is bound by the honor code.
WebAssign
Labs will be completed and submitted using WebAssign. You must be signed up by our
second meeting. The cost for the lab ebook is $61. You can pay for it by credit card
online or by purchasing an access code card at the bookstore. Be forewarned that it is a
little more expensive at the bookstore. If you purchase at the bookstore, you can use
financial aid money. Instructions on getting set up:
• Go to http://www.webassign.net/
• Click the “I Have a Class Key” link
• Use key: unc 5026 1114
Grades
The majority of your grades will come from your WebAssign submitted labs. These labs
consist primarily of three parts: answers to the questions asked in the lab, graphs and
images you upload, and discussions of the results. WebAssign will be auto-grading the
numerical answers; a grader will grade everything else through WebAssign. I will tell
you when the grading is complete, hopefully one week after a lab is due.

There will be a quiz at the beginning of every class over the lab we will do that day. The
quizzes are designed to test that you conceptually understand the purpose and goals of the
lab. The sum of all your quiz scores will be equivalent to one lab grade. If you are late for
lab or miss a lab, you will get a zero for that quiz. No quizzes will be dropped. There will
be two opportunities for extra quiz points that will be discussed during class.
Grading is done on a curve. The curve is based on the number of points you receive for
the lab. Your grade will depend on how you do relative to the rest of the class. The
number of standard deviations you are away from the mean will determine your letter
grade for that lab. The grade distribution will be as follows:
Number of Standard Deviations from Mean
> +0.5 A
-0.5 +0.5 B
-1.5 -0.5 C
-2.5 -1.5 D
< -2.5 F
Letter Grade
After the labs are graded, I will post the distribution on WebAssign so you can keep track
of where you stand. Keep in mind that a 90 is not necessarily an A, 80 is not necessarily a
B, etc. Some of the labs by design will have low numerical averages. Please do not fret
about your grade until you see the curve.
Late Policy
All labs must be submitted by noon on Thursday the week after the lab. This should give
you ample time to meet with me if something does not work or you have questions. I will
not answer questions about the previous lab on the day of our next lab. The telescopes we
use are PROMPT, your work should be as well. Late work will not be accepted.
However, sometimes life does not go as planned. If something happens, please let me
know and we will work something out.
Laptops
Bring a computer with you to class every week. It is your responsibility to have access to
a computer capable of doings these labs.
Schedule of Labs
Date
Lab
24 January Orientation
31 January Lab 1 **At Moorehead Observatory**
7 February Lab 1: Introduction to Skynet
14 February Lab 2: Earth and the Seasons
21 February Lab 2: Earth and the Seasons
28 February Lab 3: The Galilean Revolution
13 March Lab 4: The Cosmic Distance Ladder I
20 March Lab 5: The Cosmic Distance Ladder II
27 March Lab 6: The Great Debate
3 April Lab 7: Dark Matter
10 April Lab 8: Hubble’s Law