ASTRONOMY 110: EXTRA CREDIT OPPORTUNITIES (FALL 2010)
- This page will be updated throughout the course of the semester, as new
opportunities arise.
- The best way to obtain extra credit for this class is to is to
participate actively in class discussions!
- All extra credit work write-ups must be submitted by no later than
Tuesday, November 30.
- You may work through an additional lab experiment examining lunar
cratering. Your T.A. may have set an earlier date by which extra credit lab
reports are due – check with him or her if you are unsure.
- You may listen to audio
recordings of lectures, and then give us written feedback on how helpful
they are in understanding the material. If you have missed a lecture and
listen to and comment on the recording, we will also excuse your absence. We
are interested in how the experience of hearing the lectures compares
to experiencing it in the classroom, in whether the key concepts can be
absorbed, in whether demonstrations and diagrams are successfully transmitted,
and in the quality of the recordings.
- Attend an observatory open house or night time observing party.
-
Attend the November 8 talk by
Stephen Fadden of the Institute of American Indian Arts, on Native American
Ethnoastronomy and Star Stories. This talk is part of the Fall 2010 College of Arts and
Sciences Colloquium Series.
- Read one of the following science or science fiction books, one that
you have not read previously. Afterward, discuss in a two to three page
write-up your reaction to the material presented in the text.
You may propose alternative books that you find of interest, related to
astronomy and space. We will give reading a book twice the weight of watching
a film or hearing a talk, to encourage you to select a book of interest.
-
Mr. Tompkins Discovers the Atom (Gamow, 1965):
Gamow conceived the notion of presenting scientific ideas to the layperson
through the medium of a fictional character, C.G.H. Tompkins. The
mild-mannered bank clerk with the short attention span and vivid imagination
has inspired, charmed and informed young and old alike, and readers will get
both entertainment and plenty of information about modern physics and
astrophysics.
- The Universe in a Nutshell (Hawking, 2001):
Hawking uncovers the secrets of the universe - from supergravity to
supersymmetry, from quantum theory to M-theory and from holography to duality,
in a remarkably readable text.
- The
Moon is a Harsh Mistress (Heinlein, 1966):
As a society, we proceed down the path marked by Heinlein's ideas - he shows us
where the future lies. Nowhere is this more true than in this gripping tale of
revolution on the Moon, where colonists are kept poor and oppressed by an
Earth-based authority that turns huge profits at their expense.
- First Light (Preston, 1996):
There is a saying among astronomers that five billion people concern
themselves with the surface of the Earth, and ten thousand with everything
else, and if you think the professional stargazers spend most of their
time serenely peering into the night sky, guess again. Today's astronomers are
world-class gadgeteers who scurry about giant (and often frigid) observatories
tinkering with the mechanical and electronic tools of their trade. In First
Light, they tangle with the Hale Telescope, one of the world's oldest and
largest.
- 2001: A Space Odyssey (Clark, 1968):
A classic science fiction novel that changed the way we looked at the stars
and ourselves.
- The Planets (Sobel, 2005):
A scenic tour of the origins and oddities of the planets and the solar system,
embracing astrology, mythology, science fiction, art, music, history, and
even poetry through a series of essays.
- Our Cosmic Habitat (Rees, 2001):
Why is the universe hospitable to life? Is our universe just one of many,
part of an ensemble of universes, most devoid of life? How finely tuned
must the laws of nature be for us to exist?
- Heart of the Comet (Brin, 1986):
A group of adventurers "hitch a ride" through the solar system on mineral-rich
Halley's Comet, hoping to harvest the comet's resources for Earth. Instead,
they discover the comet is teeming with a strange and deadly new life form.
-
The Giants Novels: Inherit the Stars / The Gentle Giants of Ganymede / Giants (Hogan, 1977 - 1981):
An exploration of possible intelligent life in the solar system - beyond Earth,
triggered by the discovery of a spacesuit-clad human body of a 50,000 year-old man, on the Moon.
- In the Company of Others (Czerneda, 2001):
The perils of terraforming (reforming other planets to resemble Earth) for human colonization
and first contact with an alien intelligence, with all too human protagonists.
- Neutron Star and
Tales of Known Space (Niven, 1968 & 1975):
Short stories that trace man's future expansion and colonization throughout space.
- Mission of Gravity (Clement, 1954):
The desperate search for a missing rocket on a planet with very high gravity (up to 700
times stronger than on Earth).
- The Cosmological Distance Ladder (Rowan-Robinson, 1985):
A detailed discussion of how astronomers measure distances to galaxies and distant quasars.
- Watch one of the following science films, one that you have not seen previously.
Afterward, discuss in a two to three page write-up your reaction to the material presented in the film.
You may propose alternative films that you find of interest, related to astronomy and space.
- The Right Stuff (1983):
The first U.S. astronauts were called the Mercury 7, seven men chosen out of
many to be our vanguard in the conquest of space. As such, they have a
historical significance few men have enjoyed, yet they are today almost
forgotten.
- The Dish (2000):
The Parkes radio telescope dish in Australia played an unexpected role in the success of the 1969
manned Moon landing.
- Hidden Figures (2016):
Katherine Johnson,
Dorothy Vaughan,
and Mary Jackson
blazed a trail at NASA in the 1950s and 1960s as female African-American
engineers and human computers (mathematicians) whose calculations made
the American manned spaceflight program possible.
- For All Mankind (1989):
The moon landing made its mark on history not as a cry of American scientific
dominance but, as in the famous words of Neil Armstrong, a giant leap for
all mankind. This documentary is not just the footage of the Apollo 11
moon landing from take-off to touchdown; it inspires pride in what humanity as
a whole has accomplished.
- Apollo 13 (1995):
When America lost interest in its manned space program, we lost something crucial to our vision.
- Contact (1997):
Do you think there are people on other planets? If it's just us, it would be an awful waste of space.
- 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968):
A philosophical statement about man's place in the Universe ... it is
time to move on to the next step, to know that we live not on a planet but
among the stars, and that we are not flesh but intelligence.
-
Gravity (2013):
A gripping adventure about astronauts coping with an orbital disaster.
-
Interstellar (2014):
A search for a new home for humanity in the far-flung future.
-
Cosmos: A Spacetime Odyssey (2014):
An exploration of the cosmos, and our place within it.
- Listen to a complete recording of the orchestral work
The Planets, written by Gustav Holst. The composition is divided into a
series of pieces, each one dedicated to one of the planets in the solar
system. The music attempts to interpret the historical symbolism and cultural
significance of the planets (Mars, for example, is characterized as the
Bringer of War).
Afterward, discuss in a two to three page write-up your reaction to the music.
For example, which piece brought the most emotion out of you? Which was your
favorite? Which conveyed strong feelings for the planet most clearly? If you
were to write a similar piece for Pluto, what emotions would you try to invoke
in the audience, and how would your music sound?