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Lab Policies
  • There are 13 labs during the semester, and they are worth 25% of your final grade.
  • Attendance is mandatory. If you have to miss lab one week and let me know ahead of time, or if you are sick and have a doctor's note, I will arrange a makeup lab for 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.
  • Bring your own paper copies of the labs to lab meetings!!! It is not my resonsibility to print them you for you.
  • Read the intro section of the lab before showing up to do the lab. Skim the rest of the lab. It will make your life (and mine) much easier.
  • Calculators are cool! Cell phones are cool, too, but they can't do scientific notation or cube roots, so bring a calculator.
  • Each team must turn in one copy of the team 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.
    • Make sure you put your name on the team work copy.
    • 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 not be accepted unless you speak to me ahead of time (or during lab) and explain why it's late. You will be given a 2-day grace period to hand in your late lab with no penalty. After that, you will lose 20 points for each additional day that it is late. Repeat offenders will be subject to harsher penalties to be determined by myself and Dr. Chanover. You can turn in late labs directly to me (office 121 in the Astronomy Building) or to my mailbox (next to the Main Office in the Astronomy Building). If it's after hours, you can e-mail me your lab.
Contact Info!
 
TA:
Carlos J. Vargas

Email:
cjvargas@nmsu.edu

Office:
Astronomy Building #109

Office hours:
Fridays 1:00pm - 2.00pm
(or by appointment)

Phone:
646.3409

Lab website:
http://astronomy.nmsu.edu/
cjvargas/ASTR105/

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 team members, or other teams 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.
It is your responsibility to print out and bring the labs to your lab section!
 
Date Lab Date Lab
26, 27 Aug Lab 1: (#1) Tools for Success in ASTR 105G 21, 22 Oct Lab 8: (#10) Locating Earthquakes
2, 3 Sept No Lab! 28, 29 Oct Lab 9: (#14) Water Flow on Mars
9, 10 Sept Lab 2: (#6) Scale Model of the Solar System 4, 5 Nov Lab 10: (#15) Heat Loss from Io (This one isn't in the Lab Manual)
16, 17 Sept Lab 3: (#2) Origin of the Seasons 11, 12 Nov Lab 11: (#16) Building a Comet
23, 24 Sept Lab 4: (#4) Kepler's Laws 18, 19 Nov Lab 12: (#18) Our Sun
30 Sept, 1 Oct Lab 5: (#3) Phases of the Moon 25, 26 Nov No Lab!
7, 8 Oct Lab 6: (#7) Density 2, 3 Dec Lab 13: (#19) Review Lab
14, 15 Oct Lab 7 (#8): Estimating Earth's Density    
 
Campus Observatory Sheets!
Not sure if you need these, but if you do, here's a copy of one.
 

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)


ASTR 105G Lab | Fall 2012 | Cat Wu