Kurt/Bernie/Jon/Nicole/Nancy:

Over the X-mas break I will be working on the Ast110 lab manual. The main
goal is to merge the current Blackbody Lab with the Spectral Lines lab.
As this leaves us with one less lab, I have put together a new lab for
possible replacement: The Orbit of Mercury (note that I will move the
old Blackbody lab to the back of the manual where I will collect defunct
labs that some professors may wish to continue using). This new lab follows the 
Kepler's laws lab in our manual. This was my all-time favorite lab when I TA'd 
(but I am weird).  I attach the entire new lab---completely worked through. I 
took no special care in doing this, so you see that it gives pretty nice 
results. It is somewhat tedious for the students as they have to plot a bunch 
of angles. But at least they'll understand how to use a protractor after this 
lab!

-Tom


PS. There are probably some minor modifications to this lab I still have
to make to insure it follows the format of the other labs.