ASTRONOMY 2201: OUR HOME IN THE UNIVERSE FALL 2009

Instructor:	Professor Riccardo Giovanelli (rg39)	Professor Martha Haynes (mph6)
	TA: Joyce Byun	TA: Dan Tamayo
Syllabus & course info:	Lec #1 TR 10:10	Lec #2 MWF 10:10
Schedule:	Lec #1 schedule	Lec #2 schedule
Current assignment:	Essay #6 due Tue Nov 24th	Portfolio due Wed Dec 2nd

Look here for the "frequently asked questions" that correspond to the class as it is currently being taught. This list will be updated as the semester proceeds. Or see the complete list of frequently asked questions for the whole semester.
Take a look at the Cornell ExtraGalactic Group EGG home page to find out what Professors Giovanelli and Haynes does when they explore the universe, particularly in running the Arecibo Legacy Fast ALFA Survey. If Riccardo or Martha look extra-sleepy today, he/she may have been observing with the Arecibo telescope (remotely from here on campus) until the wee hours of the morning.
ALFALFA makes us of the Arecibo telescope; it is operated by Cornell as the National Astronomy and Ionosphere Center -- Perhaps you saw this telescope both in "Golden Eye" and in "Contact". There is some uncertainity about future funding for Arecibo because of the NSF Senior Review. Some recent articles on the subject appeared in the Cornell Daily Sun, Aug 30, '07 and the Washington Post, Sep 9, '07. The NSF recent spent $5.3M to paint the Arecibo telescope structure and has allocated another few $M of stimulus money for improvements to the infrastructure at the Observatory. Would you make this kind of investment in a facility you didn't think was worthy of funding?
Professor Haynes is one of six vice presidents of the International Astronomical Union which has spearheaded the International Year of Astronomy 2009.
Read about Professor Giovanelli's project to study the astronomical qualities of a telescope site at an altitude of 18,000 feet in the high Atacama Desert of northern Chile.
Read about the National Radio Astronomy Observatory, including the GBT, the VLA, the VLBA and the ALMA. Perhaps, you saw the VLA in the film "Contact"? Professor Haynes is a member of the AUI Board which oversees NRAO.
Check out some links to interesting sites elsewhere.

These pages designed by Martha Haynes and Stirling Churchman (CU '99 -- Stirling received her Ph.D. in biophysics at Stanford and is currently a postdoctoral researcher at UC San Francisco).
Last updated on 2009 Nov 18th by martha (don't always believe this date!)