Astronomy 110-08/09: Labs

Jiehae Choi
Office: Astronomy Building #212
Contact Information: 646-3000, jchoi [at] nmsu.edu
Office Hours: Mondays, Wednesdays 4:00 - 5:00 pm

 110G-08:  Tuesdays,   1:30 - 3:30 pm 
 110G-09:  Tuesdays,   3:30 - 5:30 pm 

Sample Summaries
What to do    What NOT to do


Useful Links
Campus Observatory     Mike's website (Wednesday lab)

The Lab Schedule     The Lab Syllabus (pdf file)     The Lab Manual

Announcement
  - Final Exam will be held on May 8 @ 10:30 - 12:30 (Thursday).
  - There will be a review for the final exam on Wednesday (May 7) @ 7pm at the usual place (BX 102)
  - If you have any questions regarding your grade, please do not hesitate to contact me via email or phone.

  - How to Calculate the final grade
  - How to Read your Lab grades
       Last modifed: 5 May 2008


Attendance:
Please attend all labs. There are no make up labs, and labs count for 25% of your total grade. 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 which is not gauranteed.

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 get reply email from me to confirm that I receive your email.

Lab Preparations:
You need to purchase the ASTR110 lab manual before laboratory sessions begin (by January 22th). It can be found at Kinko's Copy Center on University Ave. It costs $17.

Please read the lab manual and assigned readings for that week before you enter the lab. Reading the material beforehand will aid in comprehension and move you efficiently through the lab. I will quiz you at the beginning of lab sections depending on your performance during labs. 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 the lab manual. 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. Summaries must be typed. No late summaries are accepted. You can find two sample summaries (good and bad) on the top of this page.

Observatory:
Two night time visits to campus observatory (on Williams St., between Stewart St. and Wells St.) will be required. 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. 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: 11 March
2nd Observing: 29 April  

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.

Colliding Galaxies Ignite Stellar Nurseries
Antennae Galaxies
HUBBLE SPACE TELESCOPE