Student Learning Outcomes

• Students will be able to identify parts of equatorial-mount refracting and reflecting telescopes.
• Students will be able to apply three coordinate systems (terrestrial, equatorial, and alt-azimuth) to globes, maps, atlases and the planetarium.
• Matching of Constellation names with their common names (i.e. Taurus = the bull)
• 1) Consider the following 3 telescopes that you can buy at a store. Telescope A: Galilean telescope with 3cm objective lens and 50 cm focal leng Telescope B: Galilean telescope with 10cm objective lens and 100cm focal length Telescope C: Newtonian telescope with 15cm primary mirror and 75cm focal length. All three telescopes come with the same accessories (eyepieces, motorized control, etc.) and are the same quality and price. Note: You may use a telescope more than once. a) Which telescope would you buy if your main interest was observing the structure of craters on Earth's moon? Explain your answer. b) Which telescope would you buy if your main interest was observing a very distant star? Explain your answer. c) Which telescope would you buy if your main interest was observing the moons of Jupiter? Explain your answer. success would be receiving 4 out of 6 points or higher. Each question would be worth 2 points - one point for the correct answer and one point for a valid explanation.
• Students will be able to identify important objects in the sky using planisphere. Start assessing in Fall 08
• Students will be able to compare telescopes to determine which would be the best instrument for a given observation.
• Students will be able to classify spectra of main-sequence stars from an objective prism spectrogram, using key reference spectra.
• Students will be able to identify winter and summer constellations and the brightest stars in each by name.
• Students will be able to plot planetary, lunar and/or solar motions on a graph, utilizing appropriate tables of positions, and interpreting the objects' apparent motions on the celestial sphere
• Students will be able to interpret star atlases, maps, catalogs and planispheres.
• Matching of Constellation Names with their shapes / pictures