(For PHSC2B Students Only)
Check the Weather
Check the Weather
The observatory will usually be open on clear Monday, Tuesday,
Wednesday and Thursday nights. It is required that you go to the observatory
at least once during the semester. If we have a lot of cloudy
nights, we shall open more frequently. Because the class is large, we will try to get everyone up, but in the end it is your responsibility.
Don't blow it off and then find that the weather closes in for November and December and that there are no more clear nights. Helpful hint: September and October often have clear nights that are not too cold. Perfect
If you think you are going to have some difficulty getting up to the observatory (job, night classes, rehearsals etc), you must come and see me immediately, and we will figure out what to do.
Sessions will start at 8 pm until the end of daylight savings
time. After that they will start at 7 pm. Sessions will last about
2 hours, depending on how many people are there.
You will sign up for particular nights in class (the sign-up sheet
will be passed around in class on Mondays), and we will take you
up in groups of ten. (More than ten people gets to be a zoo.)
The observatory has an answering machine at x6-2908. If it starts
raining, obviously you will not be observing. If it is partially
cloudy and you are not sure, call x6-2908 after 6:00pm, and there
should be a message if observing is canceled. If you are still
not sure, meet at the designated time and place and see what happens.
You will meet at the top of the wheelchair ramp outside Gerstenzang
123 (near the science library), and the TA will take you up to
the observatory. The physics building is locked at night. If you
are late, you will not be able to observe. Be there 10 minutes
before the observing session is scheduled to begin.
Bring a notebook (black book is fine), and dress warmly. The observatory is unheated
(why?), and you will be surprised how cold you get. A small flash
light would be useful, so you can see what you are writing.
Everyone will sign a list, when they observe. The first item
in your report must state the date that you observed.
The TA will give you further instructions about writing a good observatory
report. But .......
I expect about 1-3 pages of writing, plus diagrams and sketches, making 3-5 pages in all. It must be typed. Your report will include an explanation of how the telescope works, plus.....
labeled working diagrams of (a) the telescope and how it is mounted, and (b) the optical path with the lenses and mirrors, plus......
careful sketches of everything you saw, with brief description
and commentary.
None of the sketches are to be torn out of the black book. Carefully redo them on plain paper for what you hand in. This requires that you anotate them rather extensively when you are up in the observatory, so you can remember what you saw. Imagine you are Galileo himself looking through a telescope for the first time. What would his notebooks have looked like?
The telescope, especially, is not easy to draw. What I want is a working schematic diagram -- more like a cartoon than an artists rendidtion -- so that someone else can understand what it is all about. You probably have seen David McCauley's great book "The Way Things Work." That's what to aim for.
If you are smart, you will go up early in the semester. You can
then go up later as well, and see how much the sky has changed
in a couple of months. Maybe catch different phases of the moon,
or a spectacularly clear night (we do have them!), and see things
that are normally too faint to observe easily.
Obviously it would be smart to write the paper as soon as you have been up, and it is fresh in your mind. Do not hand it in to me until the end of the semester. If you go up a second time, you can just add a couple of pages of observations and commentary to what you have already written.