[Massachusetts Institute of Technology]
[Department of Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences]
[12.409 Observing Stars and Planets]
Handout 0, 2002 Sep 4
12.409/12S23 Staff List & Course Information, Part 1 of 2
UPDATED FOR 2002 FALL
[
OVERVIEW |
SECTION ASSIGNMENT RITUAL |
MEETING TIMES and Time Management |
CLASSROOM |
GRADING |
TEXTBOOK |
EXPECTED STUDENT PREPARATION |
PHOTO SUPPLIES
]
- Section Instructors:
- 12.409 Classroom: 37-562
This seminar covers
background for and techniques of
visual observing
and imaging
with a small telescope.
As the physics and math involved are elementary,
12.409 does not make the brain-bashing problem-set demands
characteristic of many other MIT courses.
However, you will need to invest a fair amount of time and care in your
work for the course, and the time investment tends to collide
with some of your prime homework-time.
Clear nights in Cambridge are rare enough that we
must take full advantage of each one:
sometimes we're
extremely fortunate, with a section
getting 5 to 7 clear nights during the term.
Sometimes we're extremely UNfortunate,
and a section gets
only 2 or 1 (or less?) useful nights.
As any given class night may be an `observing night',
you must
be prepared to devote one entire evening each week to 12.409.
12.409 uses six 8-inch reflecting telescopes; you'll be paired off and work
two persons per scope. We set up the telescopes on campus until you've had enough
experience to be able to take full advantage of a darker locale. Sometime after
Spring Break we'll move our observing to Wallace
Observatory in Westford, MA (less interfering lighting) as soon as we've
got our transportation arrangements squared away.
- Limited enrollment; preference given to freshmen.
Note that the structure of 12.409 makes taking it as a ``listener'' (audit)
a mostly pointless idea, and can complicate things for those on credit.
Normally ``listener'' status isn't permitted for this seminar, but please
see Joanna if you feel you've a good reason to audit 12.409 rather than
take it for credit. (Hint: ``evading the freshman credit limit'' won't qualify!)
- The resulting list of preliminary section
assignments (and waiting lists if necessary) will be posted 2002 Sep 6
on the 12.409 Web pages (just follow the link). You'll also be emailed with section
assignments (so you have no excuse!)...
Classes will begin meeting evenings during the following week
(i.e. the calendar week that starts on Sunday 2002 Sep 8).
If for some reason you are unable to attend the first meeting of your
assigned section,
you must contact your instructor ahead-of-time to arrange
to attend another
section's first class, just for the first week.
Otherwise,
we'll assume you're dropping 12.409 and will offer your slot
to the next person waiting to join that section.
Each section will meet once a week at the same time every week,
7:00 pm .
- A session on campus will end no later than 10:00pm.
- On clear nights at Wallace (later part of the term),
plan being dropped off back
on campus no later than 12:30am.
IF THIS SEEMS TOO EXTREME A TIME COMMITMENT
PLEASE RECONSIDER NOW WHETHER THIS SEMINAR
IS REALLY THE RIGHT ONE FOR YOU!
Keep in mind also
that when we get to imaging
you'll be spending some non-class time
processing your images.
Each section of 12.409
begins officially at 5 minutes past the
published start time (as is traditional for all classes at MIT);
it's to your advantage to be on time for class,
to obviate loss of observing time or
having to make it up by ending later than usual.
(`Missing the van to Wallace' is a very
demoralizing way of
losing a clear night while at the same time
chalking up an unintended unexcused absence...)
If you know ahead-of-time you have a time-conflict
on some particular class night which might delay your arrival
5-10 minutes, please contact your instructor beforehand
so that he/she knows to wait.
Your pass/fail grade
will be determined using two criteria:
- ATTENDANCE:
As 12.409 is a hands-on `techniques and experience'-type course,
we state the following for the record:
in order to pass 12.409,
you must attend your section each week.
Actually,
this will probably be the most challenging part of this seminar - arraying
your other commitments to handle one night a week of observing.
IF THIS SEEMS TOO EXTREME A TIME COMMITMENT,
PLEASE RECONSIDER NOW WHETHER THIS SEMINAR
IS REALLY THE RIGHT ONE FOR YOU!
-
OBSERVING NOTEBOOK:
You'll need to
have some sort of laboratory notebook
to use for recording observations
and writing calculations.
In 12.409, it will be inspected by your instructor
as a major criterion for evaluating your performance in the course.
Please get yourself an observing notebook before your
first 12.409 class.
An 8.5- by 11-inch spiral-bound notebook of about 50 pages
has always been more than enough for an entire term
(even assuming piles of clear nights),
so that's what we recommend.
Some observers prefer a notebook with lined or graph-paper
pages (to help in reproducing angles and making sketches)
though plain paper should be adequate for our purposes.
You need a notebook in which the pages are bound together,
since looseleaf notebooks
tend to be clumsy if you're out working on a
windy rooftop.
(Plus, fishing white
looseleaf sheets out of a white snowdrift
in the dark a few stories down is kind of a pain.)
Spiral
notebooks are particularly well-suited for 12.409 work:
you can conveniently fold the cover all the way back,
and can include your handouts using looseleaf rings.
(Hint: avoid black covers; they're impossible to locate in the dark.)
Please arrange to have this notebook be exclusively for your 12.409
work, so that its being collected for inspection
won't
deprive you of your notes
for any other classes
you may accidentally be taking.
Please be certain also to bring your notebook to ALL class sessions
(including the first one).
Our laboratory classroom is Room 37-562.
To get there, first be aware that the Bldg. 37 ground-level doors
may actually be locked at 6pm as advertised: if so,
you'll need to come inside through
the second floor of 35 or the third floor of 39.
Once you manage to get in,
take one of Building 37's two elevators to the 5th floor.
Turn left as soon as you exit the elevator;
the first door past the elevators on the same side of the corridor
is marked as being Rooms 37-552, 556, & 562.
Behind the door is a small corridor with 4 doors off it;
37-562 is at the far end, directly in front of you.
Stay on path; avoid land mines.
Most of the ``material'' (such as it is) for 12.409 is distributed as a set of
handouts. However, if you don't yet know the major constellations and bright stars
you should also purchase The Stars by H. A. Rey, which is available
at the Coop as a 12.409 "text". Even if you already know your way around
the sky, but learned to picture the constellations by a method other than Rey's
method of showing them, you might want to get yourself the book since we'll many
times describe locations of stars by where they fit into Rey's pictures (e.g.
``Perseus' left armpit'').
Expected student preparation for an evening of observing
includes
coming to class on-time,
awake,
fed, and
warmly dressed (see next paragraph).
A few words about ``Evening Attire for the Sensible Observer'':
- The reality of observing (or more properly, one reality, for
there are several) is that you can get cold, all the way from late autumn
through early spring. In particular, rooftops are almost always breezy (therefore
cold) and Westford, MA is an "outlying area" (therefore cold). (Lest
you think summer observing is completely trouble-free, forget not Mr. Mosquito.)
- When observing you'll want at least one EXTRA layer
over whatever you usually find effective for a given air temperature;
I recommend dressing as if the air temperature where you'll be observing
were an extra 15 to 20 degrees F lower than
what the thermometer reads.
This extra is necessary because for the most part
you're NOT MOVING AROUND
enough to generate any body heat that way.
Here's what I wear for wintertime observing
(since it's really un-cool for
the instructor to get cold...):
- Long underwear (recommend two sets if T below 25 degrees F)
- Heavy trousers; heavy shirt (wise to bring wool sweater as well)
- Wool socks
- hiking boots (mine aren't specifically insulated but they're made out
of thick stuff; my wool socks do the insulating.) Insulated boots are
good also; sneakers are usually inadequate and are NOT recommended.
- wool neckwarmer or scarf
- wool hat (Having some hat is CRUCIAL, since most of your body heat
is lost through your head.)
- warm gloves
-
Like so many other things in life,
observing is significantly less fun than it could be
if you're underdressed for the occasion.
So, if you err, arrange to do so on the side of preparedness:
if you bring too many warm clothes you can always decide you
need not wear all of them,
but if you bring too few,
you lose, in a most uncomfortable way.