Astronomy 105 Lab Spring 2009

Lab Policies Attendance is mandatory and will be reflected in your final lab grade. If you have to miss lab one week (for a legitimate reason, which is at my discretion) and let me know ahead of time, or if you are sick and have a doctor's note, it will not be held against you. You are still required to turn in the previous week's lab on time. If you miss a lab and you do not have an excuse, you will receive a zero for that day's lab. There are no make-up labs available. Calculators are cool! Cell phones are cool, too, but they can't do scientific notation or cube roots, so bring a calculator. You may work in groups of 3 or 4. Each group must turn in one copy of its in-lab work, and each individual must turn in his/her own take home section. Any instances of plagiarism will earn a zero for all parties involved. The group lab should have "Group Lab" written on the front and list all the group members' names. Please staple your lab and make sure the pages are in order. Labs are due one week from when they are assigned. Late labs will be penalized 10% for each day that they are late. Each student is allowed to turn in one lab one week late with no penalty. This applies to the take-home section of the lab only. You must tell me you are using your free late pass.

Suggestions Show your work.   I'm a big fan of partial credit, but it's hard to give you points if the only thing you write down is a wrong answer. Remember your units.   2 hours is very different from 2 seconds, and 26.2 miles is very different from 26.2 cm. If you're confused, ask!   Talk to me, your group members, or other groups if you want to check your answer, if you're totally lost, or if you're somewhere in between.

If you have any questions about lab, class, astronomy in the news, or anything else, don't hesitate to ask me! You can come see me during office hours, talk to me after class, send me an email, give me a call, randomly stop by my office, or (of course) talk to me during lab.

Lab Manual in its entirety! There are some extra labs in there that we are not doing this semester. The links below are for individual labs.
Date	Lab	Date	Lab
Jan 22	Lab 1: Tools for Success in ASTR 105G	Mar 12	Lab 8: Estimating Earth's Density
Jan 29	Lab 2: Density	Mar 19	NO LAB!
Feb 5	Lab 3: Scale Model of the Solar System	Apr 2	Lab 9: Surface of the Moon
Feb 12	Lab 4: Phases of the Moon	Apr 9	Lab 10: Surface Water Flow Features on Mars
Feb 19	Lab 5: The Origin of the Seasons	Apr 16	Lab 11: Building a Comet
Feb 26	Lab 6: The Orbit of Mercury	Apr 23	Lab 12: The Sun
Mar 5	Lab 7: Kepler's Laws	Apr 30	Lab 13: Review
Campus Observatory Sheets! There are already some in your lab manual, but you might need a few extra ones. You need 4 sheets each time you go to Campus Observatory, and you'll probably have to go twice.

Help with. . .

Scale Model of the Solar System

New Mexico State map   -   Mile markers are black boxes with white numbers.

For the take home part of lab, choose an object from the following list that has the approximate size that you need. 32 inches -- width of an office door 10 inches -- diameter of a soccer ball 20 feet -- height of a 2-story building 60.5 feet -- distance from pitcher's mound to home plate (in baseball) 605 feet -- height of the Space Needle 17 inches -- width of home plate (in baseball) 2 feet -- height of a German Shepherd dog 20 feet -- 2 times the height of a basketball hoop 50 feet -- width of a basketball court 57 inches -- length of a pool stick (cue stick)