Topical Astronomy

Preface
About the Author

Module 01. Introduction
01.1. The Nature of Science
1. 2600 years toward the limits of rationalism
2. What scientists create
3. The scientific method (such as it is)
4. Reduction and deduction
5. Laws and theories
01.2. The Contribution of Astronomy
1. Place
2. The nature of astronomy
3. A review of scales in 7 images
An appendix on numbers
Review Questions

Module 02. The Changing Sky
02.1. Day and Night
1. Blue skies and red sunsets
2. The illuminated Earth
3. The view from space
4. About Universal Time and time zones
02.2. The Celestial Sphere
1. The Earth in space
2. The north celestial pole and Polaris
3. Sky motions and the celestial equator
02.3. Earth’s Annual Motion around the Sun
1. The ecliptic
2. The solar day vs. the sidereal day
3. The zodiac
4. The night sky throughout the year
5. Finding the Moon and planets
6. Online and smartphone planetarium software
Review Questions
Appendix: How to find Polaris in the night sky

Module 03. Phases and Eclipses of the Moon
03.1. The Changing Illumination of the Moon
1. The cycle of phases
2. When and where to observe the Moon
3. The synodic month vs. the sidereal month
03.2. Eclipses
1. Shadows
2. Circumstances
3. Eclipse seasons
03.3. The Calendar
1. Astronomical origins
2. Cultural varieties
03.4. A Postscript on the Moon Illusion
Review Questions

Module 04. The Seasons
04.1. The Reasons for the Seasons
1. Another common misconception
2. The inclination of the Earth’s rotation axis
3. Illustration from the ecliptic pole
4. Sunrise and sunset directions
5. Seasonal temperatures
6. Leap years and the dates of the astronomical seasons
04.2. Precession
1. Axial twist
2. The sidereal year vs. the tropical year
04.3. Ice Ages
1. The perihelion
2. The obliquity
3. The eccentricity
Review Questions

Module 05. Historical Astronomy
05.1. Historical Astronomy
1. A timeline
2. Archeoastronomy
3. Greek accomplishments: the birth of Natural Philosophy
4. Renaissance astronomy and the Copernican Revolution
5. Galileo and the telescope
05.2. Newtonian Mechanics
1. Some definitions
2. Newton’s laws of motion and gravity
3. On mass vs. weight
05.3. Orbits
Review Questions

Module 06. Electromagnetic Radiation and Telescopes
06.1. Electromagnetic Radiation
1. The electromagnetic spectrum
2. Black body radiation
3. Information from different regions of the spectrum
4. Atmospheric transparency
06.2. Telescopes
1. Optics
2. Light collecting and magnification
3. Telescope mountings and operation
4. Further reading on small telescopes
06.3. Telescopes used by Professional Astronomers
Review Questions

Module 07. Introduction to the Solar System
07.1. Contents
1. Classes of objects
2. Orbits
3. Basic data
07.2. Observing the planets
1. Configurations
2. The naked-eye planets
07.3. Asteroids
07.4. Kuiper belt objects
07.5. Comets
1. Short-period comets
2. Long-period comets
07.6. Meteoroids, Meteors, and Meteorites
07.7. Planet X
07.8. A Postscript on Pluto’s "Demotion"
Review Questions

Module 08. Planet Interiors
08.1. Materials
1. Abundances of the elements
2. Molecules and materials
08.2. Planet classes
08.3. The Terrestrial Planets
1. Differentiation
2. Plate tectonics
3. Magnetism
4. Individual planets
08.4. The Gas and Ice Giants
Glossary
Review Questions

Module 09. Planet Atmospheres
09.1. Terrestrial Atmospheres
1. Atmospheric data
2. The greenhouse effect
3. Anthropogenic global warming
4. Temperature profiles and cloud constituents for individual planets
5. Histories
6. Water on Mars
09.2. Giant Planet Atmospheres
1. Jupiter and Saturn
2. Uranus and Neptune
3. Clouds and weather patterns
Glossary
Mix-and-match review questions and answers

Module 10. Satellites, Rings, and Leftovers
10.1. Satellites
1. Introduction
2. Selected detailed images
10.2. Rings
1. Saturn
2. Jupiter, Uranus, and Neptune
3. Chariklo, Chiron, and Haumea
10.3. Ceres and Vesta
1. Ceres
2. Vesta
10.4. Kuiper Belt Objects / Trans-Neptunian Objects
10.5. Interlopers
Mix-and-match review questions and answers

Module 11. Ages in the Solar System
11.1. Radioactivity
1. Half-lives
2. Radiometric dating
11.2. Crater Counts
1. Craters on the Moon
2. Lunar surface degradation
3. Craters on Venus
11.3. Meteoritic ages
1. Classes
2. Chondrites
3. Ages
4. Is my rock a meteorite?
Glossary
Mix-and-match review questions and answers
An interesting project in Lunar geology

Module 12. Formation of the Solar System and Evidence for Other Systems
12.1. What any Theory of the Origin and Aging of the Solar System Must Explain
12.2. The Accepted Model for the Formation of the Solar System
1. Birth
2. Conservation of angular momentum
3. The collapse to a disk
4. The condensation sequence
5. Planetary accumulation
6. The final big events
7. An addendum on Earth’s water
12.3. Other Systems: The Discovery of Exoplanets
1. Discovery methods
2. Populations and statistics
Mix-and-match review questions and answers

Module 13. The Sun
13.1. The Sun’s Interior
1. Hydrostatic equilibrium
2. Nuclear reactions
3. Neutrinos
4. Energy transport out of the core
5. Helioseismology
13.2. The Visible Layers
1. The photosphere
2. The chromosphere
3. The transition region
4. The corona
5. The Solar wind
13.3. Magnetic Activity
1. Sunspot
2. Prominences
3. Flares and coronal mass ejections
4. The sunspot cycle
5. The Maunder minimum
Glossary
Mix-and-match review questions and answers

Module 14. Analyzing Starlight
14.1. The Electromagnetic Spectrum: A Review
14.2. Black Body Radiation
14.3. Atomic Physics and Spectroscopy
1. Electrons in atoms: wave modes and quantum mechanics
2. Spectroscopy
3. Types of astrophysical spectra
14.4. Doppler Shifts
Review questions

Module 15. Stars
15.1. Distances to the Stars
15.2. Fundamental Properties
1. Brightness: luminosity vs. apparent
2. Surface temperature: color and spectral type
3. Mass
4. Other properties
15.3. The Hertzsprung-Russell Diagram
15.4. Distances Revisited: Cepheid Variable Stars
Glossary
Mix-and-match review questions and answers

Module 16. The Lives of the Stars
16.1. Birth
1. Collapse to a disk
2. Approach to the main sequence
3. Definition of a star
4. Brown dwarfs
16.2. On the Main Sequence
1. The mass-luminosity relation
2. Lifetimes
16.3. Aging
1. On becoming a red giant
2. Clusters and the main sequence turn-off point
16.4. The Final Stages in the Lives of Stars
1. The end of low-mass stars
2. White dwarfs
3. The end of high-mass stars
4. Neutron stars
5. Black holes
16.5. Nucleosynthesis
Mix-and-match review questions and answers

Module 17. The Milky Way
17.1. Shape and Size
1. The disk
2. Spiral arms
3. Halo and globular clusters
4. Stellar populations
5. The Sun’s location
6. Dark matter: the first evidence
17.2. At the Center
1. Sgr A
2. The supermassive black hole at the center of the Milky Way
17.3. The Interstellar Material
1. Neutral hydrogen gas
2. H II regions
3. Dust
4. Giant molecular clouds
Mix-and-match review questions and answers

Module 18. The Galaxy Zoo
18.1. The Hubble Classification of Galaxies
1. Elliptical galaxies
2. Spiral galaxies
3. Lenticular galaxies
4. Irregular galaxies
18.2. Active Galactic Nuclei
1. Varieties
2. Quasars
18.3. Galactic Collisions and Cannibalism
1. Examples and star streams
2. The fate of the Milky Way
Mix-and-match review questions and answers

Module 19. Matter in Space
19.1. The Cosmic Distance Ladder
1. Tully-Fisher and Fundamental Plane relations
2. Type Ia supernovae
3. Hubble’s Law
19.2. The Arrangement of Galaxies
1. Clustering
2. The Local Group
3. The Virgo Cluster
4. Laniakea
19.3. The Large-scale Structure of the Universe
19.4. The Origins and Aging of Galaxies
19.5. The Distribution of Dark Matter Today
19.6. The Cosmological Principle
Mix-and-match review questions and answers

Module 20. The Big Bang
20.1. The Hubble Expansion
1. A review of distance determination
2. A review of velocity determination
3. Hubble’s Law
20.2. The Hubble Time
1. The Cosmological Principle
2. Tracing back the Hubble expansion
3. Naked-eye cosmology: Olbers Paradox
20.3. The Cosmic Microwave Background
20.4. In the Beginning…
1. Energy considerations
2. One second after the Big Bang
3. Three minutes after the Big Bang
4. 300,000 years after the Big Bang
20.5. The Origin of Time
20.6. More Evidence for Unseen Matter and Energy
1. Dark matter
2. The flatness of the Universe
3. Dark energy
20.7. The Evidence for a Big Bang Origin of the Universe
Mix-and-match review questions and answers

Module 21. Life
21.1. Necessities
1. Cosmological constants
2. Carbon
3. Water
4. Habitability and time
21.2. Life on Earth
21.3. Other places
1. Within the Solar System
2. Exoplanets and the Drake Equation
21.4. Where are they?