Can anyone tell me about this course..
how the assignments are/ how many, how many tests/ how hard are they?
does it consists of alot of physics/math?
i feel like since its only three lectures a week there isnt very much work involved aside from studying for the tests?
thanks in advnace

Hey,

I took this course during semester one and it was a really fun course!

You have web assignments on something called Mastering Astronomy, though a lot of the stuff on the online assignments have to be self taught through the textbook, so you'll definitely want to purchase that.

The lectures are fun and easy to follow, but they do deal with Kepler's laws and other such space formulas. So be prepared to do some math.

Overall it was a really enjoyable course!

too bad computer science students can't take it , interferes perfectly with a comp sci course

I found that having a background in physics really helped understand alot of the things, some of it is just pure grade 12 physics anyway. it was fun and interesting, the assignments wernt too hard, but the paper we wrote apparently was, because that was my lowest mark on an assignment ever. but if youre better at writting research papers than me then youll get a good mark

I took Astro 1F03 back in first year. It was one of my favourite courses. If you have a basic physics background, you should be fine. The research project was really interesting and fun to do. I don't know of anyone who didn't enjoy this course.

how hard is the phsyics, because in 1L03 i didnt do to well..

There were alot of equations. Alot of it is just plug in and play around with the numbers. ...uh...Kepler's law...planks law...other black-body stuff (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_body). If you aren't comfortable with a little bit of math and equations then this may not be the right course for you. It's not all physics, but a significant chunk of it is. It's definately much easier than the material in Physics 1B03 if that's at all helpful as a reference point.

How about this year's prof (WADSLEY)?

And how do you take the data points I've been hearing about for the project? A website?

Well I have a completely different opinion of this course than the above replies. I found this course to be really boring and I wish I had never taken it! The first midterm was much much easier than anticipated (I thought it would be brutal since the webassign assignments were often ridiculously hard to do), but they really get you on the exam. As an elective, astro 1F03 remains to be my lowest grade for first year -__- I found physics 1B03 to be actually easier since we were familiar with all the concepts from high-school. In astro, they throw a lot of equations at you and unless you know how to properly use them, you wont be able to figure out the more complicated questions. I recommend to STAY THE HELL AWAY FROM THIS COURSE unless you plan on spending hours and hours and hours on an elective. The stuff you learn in that course will not help you in anyway either, unless you're majoring astro/physics.

I took it with Dr. Sills. lol Apparently the course has changed alot? If you aren't fascinated by Astro, don't take it. If you don't like problem solving, don't take it.

Yeah I also had physics with Sills (who was awesome!), and I had astro with Wehner (even though shes really nice, her lectures were really boring and she wasn't able to answer most of the questions that students asked her during lecture, she just replied with "hmm thats a really good question, I might have to look into that one"). Hopefully the prof you get this year is better...

And what "data points" are you talking about? The paper in 1F03 was just a research paper on either a mission or a telescope and the only source was the internet...

Oh! No, I took Astro with Dr. Allison Sills. She was very patient with questions. Took physics with Karen Hughes.

I think it was when Reid taught it. you had a big end year project were you mapped the orbit of some items.

Originally Posted by britb

I think it was when Reid taught it. you had a big end year project were you mapped the orbit of some items.

Yeah I took astron 1f03 when dr. reid was teaching. He is now in UT st. george.

It seems like this course varies year to year but the material overall is pretty interesting if you ever wondered about the various fascinating mysteries about the cosmic universe from questions such as "why we have seasons" to "how the universe began"

You learn about things such as the life of a star and how astronomers study these things.

In my year, we got to do an astronomy project which involved mapping out the orbital period of Jupiter's 4 moons which was frustrating at times but also very fun cuz you got to look through a telescope and actually observe Jupiter in the night sky.

You should take this course out of interest only, there is math and physics involved but if you have interest in what you're learning, you won't find it hard.

5/5 on this course.

All it takes is curiosity

This course gave me headaches every Thursday night ... thats when the assignments were due. Unless your are good a math and willing to learn whole bunch of new equations that you have never seen in your life, dont take this course.I loved the theory aspect of the course.