Introduction to this course

• Course Title
  General Astronomy I (PHYS241000)
   
• Instructor
  CHANG, Hsiang-Kuang 
  Room 511, B-side, General Bldg II, x42952, hkchang@mx.nthu.edu.tw
   
• Contents
  This course is aiming at providing students basic astronomy knowledge as a civilized human may need to know, and, maybe more importantly, at making students aware of uncertainties in our current understanding of the nature. Students with strong motivation are encouraged to take other more advanced astronomy and astrophysics courses in the future.

  The contents of this course, as can be seen in the main web page, can be divided into two parts. The first is a general introduction, including description of celestial body motions in the sky and discussion of some physics and observational facility essential to the modern astronomy. The second covers stellar astronomy, including classification of stars and their evolution.
  There will be homework for each chapter.
  The mid-term and final exams are both open-any-book ones. They are expected to take place on November 5, 2019, and January 7, 2020, respectively.
   

• Textbooks

  Author: Geller, Freedman & Kaufmann
  Title: 'Universe', 11th edition (2019) 
  Publisher: W. H. Freeman 
  ISBN-10: 1-319-03944-8
  ISBN-13: 978-1-319-03944-8 
  

  References:
   
  1. Other textbooks at an introductory level:
    1-1 Seeds & Backman: 'Foundations of Astronomy'
    1-2 Arny & Schneider: 'Explorations, An Introduction to Astronomy'
    1-3 Kaler: 'Astronomy!'
    1-4 Chaisson & McMillan: 'Astronomy Today'
    1-5 Zeilik: 'Astronomy: the Evolving Universe'
   
  2. Some old textbooks which are 'more astrophysical':
    2-1 Shu: 'The Physical Universe -- An Introduction to Astronomy'
    2-2 Carroll & Ostlie: 'An Introduction to Modern Astrophysics'
    2-3 Bowers & Deeming: 'Astrophysics'
   
  3. A fundamental, practical textbook for observations:
    3-1 Birney: 'Observational Astronomy'
   
  4. A more advanced book concerning observations and astrophysics:
    4-1 Smith: 'Observational Astrophysics'
   
• Grading

        GD = F(PT)
        PT = HW x20% + MT x40% + FN x40%
        GD: grade 
        F: a monotonic remapping, which will be determined at the end of the semester.
        HW: homework
        MT: mid-term
        FN: final