Chapter 1

I want you to teach this to your children! This is a very important part of the course.

• Observed daily, monthly, and yearly sky motions and cycles.
• Phases of the moon. Given lunar phase, you should be able to tell me rise time, set time, the time of meridian-crossing (transit, or, very loosely speaking, "overhead"), and the sun-earth-moon angle in the plane of the ecliptic. Moon phase picture.
• Altitude and Azimuth coordinates. Meridian, Zenith.
• Celestial sphere: coordinates R.A. and dec., the poles and equator, the ecliptic, the coordinates of the sun on solstices and equinoxes. Celestial Sphere 1. Celestial Sphere 2.
• The cause of the seasons.
• The maximum sun altitude calculation (HW#1).

Chapter 2

The names of various Greeks and what they did will not be on the final.

• Ptolemy's model: deferents, epicycles, etc. Review HW #3.

Chapter 3

• Planet motion; prograde, retrograde, rough time scales.
• How is planet motion produced in Ptolemy's geocentric picture? (be able to sketch)
• How is planet motion produced in Copernicus's heliocentric picture? (be able to sketch)
• Kepler's 3 laws of planetary motion. Don't just memorize the words! Be able to use the formula, draw the pictures, and understand the meaning of them.
• Review table 3.3.

Chapter 4

• The import of Galileo's observations of the phases of Venus: that Venus must orbit the sun, not hover between sun and earth (see HW3 again).
• Basic physics of motion: inertia, velocity, acceleration.
• Newton's 3 laws of motion.
• Newton's law of universal gravitation.
• Understand "enrichment boxes" in this chapter.

Chapter 5

• The three kinds of spectra and Kirchoff's rules. Review the examples!
• Wavelength, frequency, velocity of light. c = f * lambda
• The names for the various wavelength ranges, in order, cosmic rays through radio.
• The structure of an atom.
• The story of how an electron's change of energy level emits or absorbs a photon, and how this leads to the line spectrum we see.
• Powers of ten and how to do arithmetic with them.

Chapter 6

• Refraction & reflection
• Three functions of a telescope: light-gathering, resolution, magnification.
• Theoretical resolution: angle = wavelength / diameter

Chapter 7

• From your notes: special relativity: constant relative motion. We derived a little equation for time dilation (and length contraction and mass increase) that depends only on relative velocity v.
• E = m c²
• The principle of equivalence
• The three geometries of spacetime
• Tests of gen. relativity: gravitational lensing, precession of Mercury. There are also: gravitational redshifts, time dilation, etc., and the prediction of gravity waves.

Chapter 8, 9

• Basic (terrestrial-type) planet structure (core, mantle, crust, and compositions thereof)
• Relative age dating (crater superposition, etc.)
• Unstable isotope decay, half-lives, age-dating of rock samples.
• Ozone hole vs. global warming/greenhouse effect.
• Tides: cause & effect.
• What is the age of the solar system and how do we know?
• What was the cratering rate as a function of time over the history of the solar system?

Chapter 18 (17 in 9th ed.)

• State approximate size of Milky Way.
• How did Shapley figure out that the sun is far from the center of the Milky Way?
• State approximate distance to the Andromeda galaxy.
• List features and attributes of MW disk vs. spheroid.
• What's a Cepheid variable and what are they used for?

Chapter 19 (18 in 9th ed.)

• Hubble classification of galaxy types. (You may have to classify some on the final) Tuning fork diagram.
• Hubble law of expanding universe (note that this concept was introduced in Chapter 7) v = H₀ d.
• How do you find distances to galaxies?
• How do you find recessional velocities of galaxies?
• Is there or was there a center to the universe? An edge? No! Explain why not.
• State approximate "size scale" and age of universe.

Chapter 21 (20 in 9th ed.)

• The two major reasons supporting a big bang picture are the Hubble expansion and the cosmic microwave background radiation. Explain the details.