Lab Description:
This lab consisits of thirteen weekly labs and two observatory notebooks that counts towards 30% of your final grade in ASTR 110G.

Lab Preparations:
You are required to read the lab manual before you enter the lab. I reserve the right to give a quiz if I feel it is needed. You will also need to have a scientific calculator (one that can compute sines and cosines, and take square roots).

Lab Reports and Summaries:
One lab report per each group will be required, but all group memebers have to submit their own summaries. For lab reports, you should answer all parts of the questions. Each question or exercise has a number of questions. You should answer all of them. I am happy to help you understand problems and procedures, but I am not doing your labs for you. You and your group members should figure out what numbers or eqautions to use.

Summaries should be well-written essays including all the topics mentioned in the lab manual. Do not just copy from books, websites, or any other sources. On that note, plagiarism, as defined in the Student Code of Conduct, will not be tolerated, and any evidence of plagiarism will result in harsh consequences for all involved parties. Copying the lab manual is also plagiarism and it is NOT OKAY to do that. Summaries must be typed. No late summaries are accepted. You can find two sample summaries (good and bad) on the top of this page.
Both the labs and the summaries will be due the following week, at the start of the lab period.

Participation:
Lab attedance is mandatory. You are expected to be present and on-time to all of the lab meetings in your assigned section. I will take attendance every lab. Excessive absence may cause you to be dropped from the course.

In case of absence, you are still required to turn in the previous week's lab summary on time. You can either email me your summary or drop it in my mailbox (located on the first floor of the Astronomy building). You will always get reply email from me to confirm that I receive your email.

Make-up Labs:
Make-up labs will NOT be given. If you know that you will have to miss your laboratory session one week, for a legitimate reason, talk to me before-hand about joining other lab sections for that week which is not gauranteed. If you are absent from lab and do not have a valid excuse, then you will receive a zero for that lab. If you turn in the work for a lab that you have not attended, it will not receive credit. (This is why attendance is important!) If you are absent from lab, try to get your previous lab assignment to me so you do not receive two zeroes.

Tips for Lab Success:
- Double-check to make sure you have answered all the questions in the lab. Short questions may be easy to overlook, and some questions have multiple parts.
- Explain your answer fully. In most cases you will be expected to explain why you have come to your conclusions, even if this is not explicitly stated in the question. Insufficient answers will be marked off.
- Show your work. A calculated number without any calculations will be marked off. Also, if your answer is incorrect, you may still receive partial credit for any work you show.
- Include units. A distance of "36.06" has no meaning unless it is identified as miles, meters, cm, km, AU, or light-year distances. In a table, you do not have to include units for every value, as long as it is clear which values have which units.
- Attend lecture. A few lab questions may require you to use information from lecture. Announcements concerning lab, such as relocations, will also be made in lecture.
- Ask questions. If you do not understand part of the lab procedure or any of the lab questions, do not hesitate to ask me. Also, feel free to e-mail me or come to office hours if you have any questions regarding the lab, your lab grade, the lecture, or anything else. Dr. Klypin, and Ryan Hamilton, or Liz Klimek (other TA's for this class) are also available and willing to answer any questions you have.

Observatory:
Two night time visits to campus observatory (on Williams St., between Stewart St. and Wells St.) will be required,once before midterms and once after. Check the schedule on the observatory website or call at 646-6278 to find out whether the observatory will be open or not. In the back of the Lab Manual are a set of observatory worksheets. You will need four of these on each visit to the observatory. You will be observing 4 objects on each visit. The TAs there will give you instructions on the use of the telescopes. You will be asked to draw objects seen through the telescope in the circle on your observing sheet. You also need to write some facts about the objects and the reference. It is vital that you get each sheet stamped at the observatory. Observatory notebooks without stamps on each observatory worksheet page will not be given credit.
You are welcome to bring your friends and family.

The due dates:
1st Observing: October 15
2nd Observing: December 2 (after the class)

Services for Students with Disabilities:
Any student requiring assistance in class due to a disability is encouraged to contact the Services for Students with Disabilities at 646-6840.

I strongly recommend that you attend early for each observing, so that (1) you don't have to pray for clear skies at the end of the month, and (2) you don't have to wait in a long, long line to use the telescopes.