Welcome to GS107: Astronomy!!

This is a class in the group of classes known as General Science. They are intended to offer you, as the student, a range of learning experiences about the processes and tools from a variety of physical science disciplines. As you will notice when you explore the course outcomes on the main page for this course, the focus of this course is more about process than particular content. Astronomy, like every field of study, is an enormous body of ideas and principles that requires many years to explore thoroughly. In this class we will explore a few central ideas and tools from Astronomy. There are many topics in Astronomy that may be of personal interest to you and you should feel free to ask about them before and after class. I am primarily a physicist with a background in astrophysics so there are many cool topics about which I am woefully ignorant. Same is true for physics actually which is just a reminder of how enormous these topics are.

While one can hope that I am superfluous as an instructor we will be gathering regularly to discuss the material, ask and answer questions you may have, and practice additional problems to develop your skills.

Breadcrumbs are a learning tool that is my effort to provide a public resource for you as the class progresses. The breadcrumb pages begin as my preparation notes for each class. They include exercises and examples that I plan to use in class as well as links to documents or videos that I intend to share. I hope that they wil be a rough record of what we did in class and the key concepts and ideas I would like you to remember. As a result of the changes brought about by COVID these 'notes' play a more significant role in my class than they once did. I will endeavor to provide examples of specific calculations I expect you to be able to make as well as links to additional reading and other resources. It is my desire/hope that you spend time carefully reading through the breadcrumb and working through any examples or videos in preparation for the our discussions and additional problems we will explore in class.

If you find that there is something you wish were in the breadcrumbs please let me know and I will try to get it in there as soon as possilble.