WRITING PAPERS: Writing is expected to be a part of all Gen Ed courses. You will have to write 2 papers during this semester. Be aware of the requirement and plan ahead!
Your first paper will be on your first observing session at the UNH Observatory. You will have to type up a paper based on what you observed at the observatory. This write-up will be fairly simple, but you will have to attend one observing session to complete it successfully. A guiding principle of the write-up will be to discuss not only what objects you saw, but what astronomers have learned about those objects and HOW they learned it.
The Physics Department's Observatory is located at the edge of the University grounds past the Field House along Main Street. It houses a 14-inch Celestron telescope which is of a design known as Schmidt-Cassegrain.
You will have the opportunity to visit the observatory on up to two nights during the semester. (Some of you may have bad luck with the weather, but we will make every effort to shuffle schedules so that almost everyone gets out.) Your visits to the observatory are intended to give you the opportunity to see a moderate-size telescope in operation, and to give you the chance to view some deep sky objects through it. We also want you to be impressed with the difference between what your eye can see and what can be professionally recorded on film or CCD's, as exemplified by the images in the textbook and those shown in class. You should see that there are good reasons why astronomers no longer rely on their eyes as detectors of light. From the observatory you will be able to obomost of the night sky with few obstacles. This will also give you an opportunity to identify the prominent constellations that are visible.
OBSERVATORY PAPER DUE 2 WEEKS AFTER SESSION
The second write-up will be a "term paper", and should involve some research using your textbook and other materials in the Physics Library (located on the basement level of Demeritt Hall). A second observing session is not required, but it may be helpful in writing your term paper. The term paper can be on anything you want to write about, as long as it has to do with astronomy. The main goal of the term paper is that you learn something. The term paper should be 5-10 double-spaced typed pages, but at least 5 pages!. A list of references, from which the information has been obtained, is required. At least 2 additional sources should be consulted in addition to the course book. At least one of the sources should be more closely related to your topic (not another textbook). A wide selection of books on various interesting topics are compiled in the reference list of the Course Review. It will pay off to draw from a variety of sources! The term paper will be worth three times the credit of each of the other labs, and really good term papers will receive some extra credit. But getting it in on time is essential; credit will be deducted for late papers. No Term Paper at all results in an F in this class!!! Don't wait for your word processor to crash. Get it done at least a few days ahead of time. Keep one copy of your Term Paper for yourself!
TERM PAPER DUE ON APRIL 21, 2008, 11:59 PM on Blackboard
Part of the first observing session will be spent learning about the telescope, its mounting and pointing mechanism, and the general appearance of the night sky. If your first session is early in the semester, the telescope may not have been covered in the lecture yet. Please make sure that you have read the chapter on telescopes in the textbook (In Quest of the Universe) by then. During the observing session there will be the opportunity to ask questions about the telescope, if you did not understand how it works. As one of the main objectives of this exercise a few objects will be viewed through the telescope.
Your write-up for the first observing session should include:
1. Describe how the 14-inch Schmidt-Cassegrain telescope works. Draw a sketch showing where lenses and mirrors are, and sketch the path of light through the telescope. Show what the "14-inch" refers to.
2. What type of mount does our telescope have? How is the mount related to altitude and azimuth? What happens to the telescope as it tracks an object over time having a fixed right ascension and declination? Draw any sketches that might help your explanation.
3. Sketch in a small diagram, and describe the appearance of, each of the objects you saw with the telescope. For each object you looked at, discuss some of its key properties, and how astronomers find out about those properties. Discuss how astronomers use those objects as tools to learn other things. If there are unsolved riddles associated with those objects, discuss the riddles. Use the "Table of Objects" below to help you in your write-up. If there is anything else that intrigues you about those objects (or related objects), feel free to write about it. You will have to consult books from the library to come up with all this information!
4. Why don't some of the objects look like the photographs in the text? How was the "seeing"? Discuss what determines the "resolving power" of our telescope.
5. Draw the outline of some of the constellations you identified. Label any bright stars in these constellations and any of the deep sky objects (other galaxies) located in them.
Here are some hints of what your observatory write-up might include. You may also pick one or a class of objects as the theme for your Term Paper! But feel free to be creative! Being creative also counts towards a good grade!
TABLE OF OBJECTS
REFERENCE MATERIALS ON OBJECTS IN THE SKY
Below is a listing of some useful reference books that can be found in the Physics Library (basement level of Demeritt Hall), in particular, to help you with the write-up from your observatory session. They can also be a starter for Term Paper ideas. Also scan recent issues of Discover, Astronomy, Sky and Telescope, and Scientific American (in increasing order of difficulty).
Please don't hesitate to ask the library personnel, if you have difficulties to find what you need! They will be happy to assist you.
A second observing session should be a fun time looking at some more objects with the telescope. The second session is optional, but may help you to pick a topic for the Term Paper.
The fun ends with the term paper! It should be typed, show evidence that you learned something, and be 5-10 (at least 5!) double-spaced pages in length. The term paper will be worth three times the credit of each of the other labs, and really good term papers will receive some extra credit. But getting it in on time is essential; credit will be deducted for late papers. Don't wait for your word processor to crash. Get it done at least a few days ahead of time. Be reminded that the Term Paper is a requirement to get credit for the course!! No Paper results in an F!
TERM PAPER DUE ON APRIL 21, 2008, 11:59 PM on Blackboard
Late penalties: Each day over until Friday: -2 points each day
After
one week: -15 points each week
Out of 100 points!
One easy way to do a Term Paper is to pick a specific group of objects which were not discussed in your first write-up. These can be objects you saw with the telescope (for example, during the second observing session). Or they can be other objects which you simply feel like writing about. [For example, you are welcome to write about dark matter (missing mass), or black holes, or brown dwarfs, or the sun, or comets, or meteors, or supernovas, or quasars, which you won't see with the telescope, or you may want to write about the life cycle of a star (including some examples of what you observed).]
Alternatively, if you are really intrigued about a single topic in astronomy, you can do a Term Paper on that. (But get your Prof's or TA's permission first if your topic is not clearly related to the content of the course. It will certainly be advisable to check with us, before you write about topics, such as astrology, UFO's, or the possible contact with aliens. These are not disallowed, but you will have to be doubly careful with the selection of sources, and it is more difficult to get real scientific contents into your paper.) A good idea might be to write about one or two of the unsolved problems in astronomy, such as the missing mass problem, the solar neutrino problem, the formation of galaxies and galactic clusters out of a smooth early universe, the formation of planetary systems around other stars, or the energy source and nature of the quasars. Another approach might be to pick a constellation, and write about the different objects that can be found in that constellation (Orion, Cygnus, or Sagittarius are good choices). And if you can't come up with an idea for your term paper, just scan recent issues of Astronomy magazine, Discover, Sky and Telescope, or Scientific American; there are always interesting newsy articles that should intrigue you! Even the Science Section of newspapers such as the New York Times and the Boston Globe may trigger an idea (I will bring articles about new discoveries to class as they appear). In all cases you will have to increase your knowledge by consulting books from the library on the topic. If you have problems where to start or you want some advice of any kind, please come and see me or your TA!
If you have access to the INTERNET you will find lots of wonderful sources there. You have already visited the Homepage for Physics 406 which contains connections to observatories around the world, NASA educational material and to Home Pages of recent spaceflight missions.
We will visit some of these resources in class when it fits into the theme.
Keep in mind for your Term Paper that the philosophy in this course is to learn about how we get the information. Therefore, you should include the physical principles behind the tools astronomers use and that are behind the astronomical wonders. Don't just stop with what is seen out there! Describe reasons behind the phenomena, questions related to them, what we know about them and what we don't know yet. Show how scientific methods have been applied to your topic.
Find the latest news about your topic from Astronomy, Discover, Sky and Telescope, or Scientific American or from the WWW! This will earn you a higher grade.
Structure your Paper!!
It is important to structure your paper. To show that you have learned something you should be able to organize the material and your arguments. Therefore, the paper should have chapters with meaningful subtitles.
DO:
Sample Flowchart for Term Paper Preparation:
Sample Organization of Material for a Paper that might be entitled:
The Life of a Star
a) What happens when a star is born?
1) Observations: very dense gas and dust clouds objects that resemble a disk of a planetary system .....more ...
2) Processes: gas cloud shrinks under gravity gas cloud heats up, must lose heat by radiation then shrinks further gets hot enough in the center that nuclear reactions start .......more ...
b) What happens during the main life of a star?
1) Observations stars shine steady for a long time we can observe stars of the same age in star clusters stars up to a certain mass/luminosity found in the cluster .......more ...
2) Processes: energy source is fusion of H massive stars live shorter -> thus heavier stars already died in a cluster .......more ...
c) How do stars die?
1) Observations of dying stars White Dwarfs Supernovae etc. .....more ...
Sample Paper Outline
Introduction: Nice introductory theme? Motivation for topic .......more ...
How a Star's Life Starts
The Life Span of Mature Stars
Aging of Stars and Star Death
[Remarks on the Life "Cycle"] Supernova blast waves trigger new star births Aging stars and dying stars recycle material into interstellar gas that contributes to new star life So the cycle is closed!
This could appear in your: Conclusions
References: List all the sources you have used - books with title, author and year - Journal articles with title, author, journal, page no. and year - WWW sources with Web page URL (Web address)
DON'T:
If you need Help with your Term Paper, please talk to me, your TA, and/or schedule a help session with the UNH Writing Center (Hamilton Smith 7) Phone: 862-3272
The Writing Center is a resource for you! Its faculty and staff will be happy to assist you. They won't write the paper for you, they will guide you in the right direction. I will dedicate half of one lecture to a discussion of the Term Paper together with a representative from the writing center (about Mid Semester). This will make you familiar with this unique resource. Some more information about this fine service of UNH is attached at the end of this manual.
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