Course Topics

1. The scale of the universe
2. The night sky and stellar observations
3. Cycles of the moon and sun
4. Archeoastronomy
5. Origins of modern astronomy; including the Copernican Revolution, Brahe, Kepler, Newton, and Einstein
6. Tools of astronomy; including light, radiation, and telescopes (ground, and space based)
7. Stellar evolution; including nebulae, and HR diagrams
8. Life and death of stars; including processes, and types, such as main sequence, variable stars, supernovae, white dwarfs, neutron stars, and black holes
9. Galaxies; including Hubble classification, AGN, and quasars
10. The solar system; its origin, inner planets, outer planets, asteroids, comets, KBOs
11. Cosmology; including Big Bang, Hubble equation, and current theories
12. Life in the universe