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Week 1 Reading Assignment: Chapter 17, "Cosmology" of Arny, also, have a look at The Sand Reckoner by Archimedes (287-211 BC), who was the first person to think about really large numbers.
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Week 2 Reading Assignment: Chapter 3, "Light and Atoms" of Arny (This is the last chapter in the special softcover edition). This chapter, or a chapter like it is generally the second or third chapter of a basic astronomy textbook.
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Week 3 Reading Assignment: Chapter 16, "Galaxies" of Arny. (This is the second chapter in the special softcover edition). This chapter, or a chapter like it is generally about two-thirds of the way through any basic corporate astronomy textbook. In Pasachoff's "Astronomy: From the Earth to the Universe", for example, it is "Chapter 34".
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Week 4 Reading Assignment: Chapter 2, "Gravity and Motion" of Arny. (This is the second-to-last chapter of the special softcover edition). Its really important to me that everyone understands the material in this chapter. It is tough going the first time that you are exposed to the laws of universal gravitation and motion, but ultimately, they will form the core for the most important ideas that I want you to take away from this class. You will want to study this chapter carefully.
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Week 5 Reading Assignment: Chapter 7, "Survey of the Solar System" of Arny. This chapter runs from p. 159-180, and talks about the formation of the Sun and the planets, and about the planetary systems that are being discovered around other stars in the local galactic neighborhood.
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Week 6 Reading Assignment: Chapters 8 and 9, "The Terrestrial Planets", and "The Outer Planets" of Arny. This is mainly descriptive material which talks about the properties of both the terrestrial and the giant planets in our solar system.
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Week 7 reading Assignment: Chapters 8 and 9 of Arny, continue reading from last week.
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Week 8 Reading Assignment: Chapter 11 of Arny (The sun, our star). This chapter focuses on how the Sun works. Its good stuff!
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Week 9 Reading Assignment: Chapter 12 of Arny (Measuring the properties of Stars). I didn't get to cover as much of this as I wanted to in lecture, so its important to read this chapter.
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Week 10 Reading Assignment: Chapter 13 of Arny (Stellar Evolution). In particular, focus on the latter parts of this chapter, which tells the story of the evolution and demise of stars of various masses.