| Week | Date | Assignment | Reading | Topic |
| F Aug 28 | I. Our View of the Universe | |||
| 1 | M Aug 31 | Chap 1, C&M | An introduction to the night sky | |
| W Sep 02 | Chap 2, C&M | Historical Astronomy | ||
| F Sep 04 | Hellenic Astronomy | |||
| 2 | M Sep 07 | Chap 2, C&M | ||
| W Sep 09 | Essay #1 due | Birth of modern astronomy | ||
| F Sep 11 | Chap 3, C&M | Consequences of Newton's Laws | ||
| 3 | M Sep 14 | II. How Astronomers Explore the Universe | ||
| W Sep 16 | Essay #2 due | Chap 4, C&M | ||
| F Sep 18 | Chap 5, C&M | Astronomical images, electromagnetic spectrum | ||
| 4 | M Sep 21 | Astronomical spectra; spectral lines | ||
| W Sep 23 | Paper #1 due | Multiwavelength astronomy; diffraction limit; astronomical seeing | ||
| F Sep 25 | Telescopes | |||
| 5 | M Sep 28 | Future telescopes | ||
| W Sep 30 | Essay #3 due | |||
| F Oct 02 | Chap 16, C&M | III. Do Black Holes Exist? Introduction to Black holes | ||
| 6 | M Oct 05 | Chap 22.5-22.8, C&M | The Sun as a star; internal structure of the Sun, sunspots | |
| W Oct 07 | Paper #2 due | Chap 17.3-17.7, C&M | The H-R diagram | |
| F Oct 09 | Chap 20.1-20.3, C&M | The evolution of low mass stars | ||
| 7 | M Oct 12 | FALL BREAK | ||
| W Oct 14 | Chap 20.4-20.5 | Evolution of high mass stars | ||
| F Oct 16 | Chap 21 | White dwarfs, neutron stars | ||
| 8 | M Oct 19 | Chap 22.1-22.2 | Pulsars, stellar black holes | |
| W Oct 21 | Revision #2 due | Chap 20.6; 22.3-22.4; 22.8 | Binary star orbits; hunting for stellar black holes | |
| F Oct 23 | Hunting for stellar black holes, black hole candidates | |||
| 9 | M Oct 26 |
Deflection of light around a blackhole and Robert Nemiroff's page about blackholes (with movies) |
Chap 23.1-23.3 | Relativity; spacetime around blackholes; types of black holes |
| W Oct 28 | Essay #4 due Portfolio due | Chap 23.7 | Sgr A*: A supermassive black hole | |
| F Oct 30 | Chap 23.4-23.6 | IV. What does the Universe look like? | ||
| 10 | M Nov 02 | Chap 24 | The Milky Way as a Galaxy | |
| W Nov 04 | Essay #5 due | Observing galaxies; morphological classification | ||
| F Nov 06 | What makes a spiral galaxy spiral? | |||
| 11 | M Nov 09 | Chap 26 | The extragalactic distance scale | |
| W Nov 11 | Paper #3 due | Active galactic nuclei; galaxy interactions | ||
| F Nov 13 | Local large scale structure: the Local Group and the Local Supercluster | |||
| 12 | M Nov 16 | Overview: The History of the Universe | ||
| W Nov 18 | Essay #6 due | Chap 25 | Evidence for the Big Bang and Dark Matter | |
| F Nov 20 | Chap 28 | Intelligent Life in the Universe | ||
| 13 | M Nov 23 | Chap 27 | The Early Universe | |
| W Nov 24 | The Importance of Gravity | |||
| F Nov 26 | THANKSGIVING | BREAK | Happy T'day! | |
| 14 | M Nov 30 | Acceleration and Dark Energy | ||
| W Dec 02 | Portfolio due | Inflation | ||
| F Dec 04 | The Big Questions | |||
| 16 | W Dec 16 | Paper #4 due by 2pm |
The 4th and final long paper will be due at 2 pm on Wed Dec 16th. . There will be no final exam.