Why, hello there, student! If you're looking for Maria Patterson's webpage for the Astronomy 110 lab section M04, you've come to the right place. Maria's lab meets on Wednesdays from 4:30 pm - 6:30 pm in the Biology Annex building. Here is a link to Dr. Holtzman's class website.

For lab, you will need the required lab manual (which can be found at Kinko's Copy Center on University Avenue), a scientific calculator, and the appropriate writing equipment. Since lab work is worth 30% of your overall grade, it is in your best interest to also bring a positive attitude and a willingness to learn.

If you are feeling a little uneasy about any of the Astronomy 110 lab material or anything covered in class just ask! If my office hours don't work for you, you can drop me an email and set up another time to meet. You can also try and stop by my office to see if I'm there, but no promises.

Check out the astronomy lab syllabus.

Here's a link to the AstroPortal for homeworks, textbook, and class notes access.

If you have not already done so, please fill out this Lab Questionnaire.

Class policies ...

• Attend all labs and arrive on time. Attendance is mandatory in order to pass the class, and there will be no makeup labs. Expect to use the full two hours to complete a lab. If you have a legitimate conflict, you might be able to attend a different lab section for that week alone IF I know about it beforehand and can work it out in advance. Your two lowest lab scores will be dropped at the end of the course.

• Turn off your cell phones and other beepy electronics before entering lab. It's distracting and discourteous to the rest of the class. If your phone goes off in lab, I may have to answer it myself, and oh, how embarrassing that will be.

• Prepare by reading the lab before you come. Reading ahead of time helps you understand the material and gives you a far better chance of not getting lost. I will also periodically quiz you at the beginning of lab sections. Since we will be skipping around the Astronomy 110 lab manual a bit, be sure to check the lab schedule (below) so that you prepare for the correct lab.

• Go to the Campus Observatory twice for your Observatory Notebook. Campus Observatory will be open two days a week. You are required to visit campus observatory a total of two times, once before October 15th and once after. Each time, bring four of the observing sheets found in the back of your lab manual. You will need to get these stamped at each session to prove your attendance. Don't wait too long to go, as you may encounter long lines or canceled sessions due to bad weather.

  
  

Week	Lab Name	Pre-Lab Reading	Date
02	Lab # 1: Lab introduction	Lab 1 in manual	27 August
03	Lab # 4: Shaping Surfaces in the Solar System	Lab 4 in manual	03 September
04	Lab # 15: Galaxy Morphology	Lab 15 in manual	10 September
05	Lab # 2: Origin of Seasons	Lab 2 in manual	17 September
06	Lab # 9: Measuring Distances Using Parallax	Lab 9 in manual	24 September
07	Lab # 7: Kepler's Laws II	Lab 7 in manual	01 October
08	Lab # 8: Orbit of Mercury	Lab 8 in manual	08 October
09	Lab # 10: Optics	Lab 10 in manual	15 October
10	Lab # 11: The Power of Light: Spectroscopy	Lab 11 in manual	22 October
11	Lab # 13: The Hertzsprung-Russell Diagram	Lab 13 in manual	27 October
12	Lab # 5: Intro to the Geology of Terrestrial Planets	Lab 5 in manual	05 November
13	Lab # 3: The Surface of the Moon	Lab 3 in manual	12 November
14	Lab # 12: Our Sun	Lab 12 in manual	19 November
15	Final review session!	Observatory Notebooks due	03 December

Note well: If you are printing your lab manual from the website, be sure to print the PDF version, as the html version will mess up many important figures.

Wanna see what's up in the sky tonight? I will often use Weather Underground's Sky site. You just type in the zip code, date, and time, and it will show you all the stars, planets, and constellations up in the sky. The star charts are interactive, so you can click on an object for more cool info like its rising and setting time and distance from earth. You can also use this to check up on the phase of the moon.

All I'll say is, "I knew it!" Check out what happens when you zoom in too close to our lovely Luna on Google Moon!

Find the exact times and sky locations of visible ISS, satellite, shuttle passings, and whatnot at heavens-above.com. Way cool.

Some other cool links...

Astronomy Picture of the Day (aka APOD) has a different image or photograph each day of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer.

Space.com is a great resource for easy-to-read articles.

Universe Today is in the same vein as Space.com: a great site to trawl through.

HubbleSite has those fantastic images you've all seen as well as great articles.

Build a solar system lets you calculate your own scale model of the solar system; or, for a more intuitive feel of the size of the solar system, you can visit the Virtual solar system scale model.

Check out some neat pics of the moon I took with my own telescope! I have an 8" Schmidt-Cassegrain telescope, which I love very much.

And some (not so great, but still cool) pics of the lunar eclipse on 28 August 2007...