Course Schedule & Important Dates
ASTR 201: Astronomy for Science Majors (Spring 2026)
How to read this schedule
This course repeats one story all semester:
Measure → Infer → Balance → Evolve
Reading labels:
- Required: expected reading from the Fundamentals of Astrophysics () textbook and the lecture readings posted in the Module landing pages.
- Recommended: optional material from the textbook that we will “skim.”
- Optional practice: end-of-chapter Questions & Exercises (only assigned when stated)
Page totals are estimates from the Table of Contents page ranges.
Important dates
- First class: Tue Jan 20, 2026
- Exam 1 (in class): Thu Mar 5, 2026
- Exam 2 (in class): Thu Apr 16, 2026
- Spring Break (no class): Tue Mar 31 & Thu Apr 2
- Last class (synthesis + optional review): Tue May 5
- Final Exam: Thu May 7 10:30 am - 12:30 pm | Room: LH 249
Course schedule
Module 1 — Foundations (Weeks 1–3)
The physics toolkit: laws of motion, gravity, and radiation.
| Week | Dates | Topics (in class) | Required Reading | Recommended |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Jan 20 & 22 | Spoiler Alerts: course overview + the inference framework Tools of the Trade: scaling, units, dimensional analysis |
FoA Ch. 1 | |
| 2 | Jan 27 & 29 | Gravity I: Kepler → Newton (empirical vs physical laws) Gravity II: orbits, energy & angular momentum, virial theorem |
Ch. 7 (pp. 43–46) | 4 |
| 3 | Feb 3 & 5 | Radiation I: EM spectrum, light–matter interactions, blackbody radiation Radiation II: Wien’s law, spectral lines, Doppler, telescopes |
Ch. 4.1–4.3 (pp. 25–27) + Ch. 5 (p. 32) | 4 |
Module 2 — Discovering the HR Diagram (Weeks 4–6)
Module 1 gave us the laws; now we use them. Each lecture answers one question about stars — How far? How hot and how big? What’s it made of? How fast? How heavy? — and contributes one measurable axis. The module culminates with the Hertzsprung–Russell diagram, which emerges as a synthesis of every inference tool we’ve built.
| Week | Dates | Lec | Topics (in class) | Required Reading | Core pp |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 4 | Feb 10 & 12 | 7 | Distance & Parallax — How far? Spherical geometry (source at origin, observer at radius r); angular size & small-angle approximation; parallax → parsec → Gaia; inverse-square law derived (geometric + scaling); flux + distance → luminosity |
Ch. 2 (pp. 10–17) + Ch. 3.1 (pp. 18–19) | 9 |
| 8 | Surface Flux & Colors of Stars — How hot, how big? Emitted / surface flux; Stefan–Boltzmann law (\(L = 4\pi R^2 \sigma T^4\)); Wien’s law applied: color → temperature; inferring stellar radii from \(L\) and \(T\) |
Ch. 3.2 (pp. 19–21) + Ch. 4.4 (p. 28) | 4 | ||
| 5 | Feb 17 & 19 | 9 | Spectra & Composition — What’s it made of, and how is it moving? Spectral lines in context (absorption/emission); OBAFGKM as a temperature sequence; Doppler effect → radial velocity |
Ch. 5 (p. 32) + Ch. 6 (pp. 35–40) | 7 |
| 10 | Masses from Motion — How heavy? Binary stars (visual, spectroscopic, eclipsing); radial velocity curves; Kepler’s 3rd law revisited → stellar masses; the mass–luminosity relation |
Ch. 9 (pp. 54–56) + Ch. 10.1–10.3 (pp. 59–63) | 8 | ||
| 6 | Feb 24 & 26 | 11 | Magnitudes & the Distance Modulus — The astronomer’s brightness scale Logarithms in astronomy; apparent vs absolute magnitude; distance modulus (\(m - M = 5\log_{10}(d/10\,\text{pc})\)); standard candles preview |
Ch. 3.3 (pp. 21–22) | 2 |
| 12 | Building the HR Diagram — Putting it all together \(L\) vs \(T\) plane; main sequence as a mass sequence; luminosity classes & giant/dwarf distinction; lines of constant \(R\) from Stefan–Boltzmann |
Ch. 6 (synthesis) | — |
Module 3 — Stellar structure, evolution, and the stellar graveyard (Weeks 7–12)
This module includes hydrostatic equilibrium, transport, fusion, scaling relations, and stellar endpoints (white dwarfs / neutron stars / black holes). We also cover minimum and maximum stellar masses, including a short Quantum Mechanics/de Broglie motivation for the minimum mass.
Note: The first Module 3 lecture (Week 7 Tue) is delivered before Exam 1 but is not covered on it — this gives you study time for Modules 1–2.
| Week | Dates | Topics (in class) | Required reading (Core) | Core pages |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 7 | Mar 3 & 5 | Ages & lifetimes; timescale reasoning Thu: EXAM 1 (covers Modules 1–2) |
Ch. 8 (pp. 49–51) | 3 |
| 8 | Mar 10 & 12 | Hydrostatic equilibrium + virial temperature (thermal lens) Radiation transport: diffusion, radiation pressure |
Ch. 15 (pp. 101–104) + Ch. 16 (pp. 107–110) | 8 |
| 9 | Mar 17 & 19 | Radiative vs convective envelopes Fusion ignition + main-sequence scalings |
Ch. 17 (pp. 112–116) + Ch. 18 (pp. 120–122) | 7 |
| 10 | Mar 24 & 26 | Min/max masses: brown dwarfs (QM + de Broglie) & Eddington limit Low-mass evolution → white dwarfs |
Ch. 18 (pp. 122–124) + Ch. 19 (pp. 128–131) | 6 |
| Spring Break | Mar 31 & Apr 2 | — No class — | — | — |
| 11 | Apr 7 & 9 | Degeneracy pressure + Chandrasekhar limit (conceptual QM/stat-phys) High-mass evolution → core-collapse supernovae |
Ch. 19 (pp. 131–134) + Ch. 20.1–20.3 (pp. 137–140) | 7 |
| 12 | Apr 14 & 16 | Neutron stars + black holes; where GR matters (conceptual) Thu: EXAM 2 |
Ch. 20.4–20.5 (pp. 140–143) | 4 |
Module 4 — Galaxies & cosmology (includes ISM + star formation) (Weeks 13–15)
| Week | Dates | Topics (in class) | Required reading (Core) | Core pages |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 13 | Apr 21 & 23 | ISM phases; heating vs cooling (thermal balance) Star formation: Jeans criterion; IMF; angular momentum → disks Extinction/reddening (here) |
Ch 21 (pp. 155–163) + Ch 22 (pp. 166–171) + Ch 12.3 (pp. 77–78) | 17 |
| 14 | Apr 28 & 30 | Milky Way: rotation curve → dark matter External galaxies + Hubble law; large-scale structure + lensing |
Ch 26 (pp. 201–210) + Ch 27.1–27.3 (pp. 213–217) + Ch 29 (pp. 232–238) | 22 |
| 15 | May 5 | Cosmology capstone: expansion dynamics → CMB → early eras Synthesis + optional review |
Ch 30 (pp. 243–248) + Ch 32.2–32.4 (pp. 261–264) | 10 |