Lecture Topics

• Tools of astronomy

Main Points

• Measuring distances in astronomy (parallax, Cepheids variables)
• Measuring velocities in astronomy (Doppler shift)
• Electromagnetic radiation
• characteristics of em waves
• inverse square law
• relative and absolute magnitudes
• Wien's law and the blackbody spectrum

Assigned readings
and bibliography

Required Readings

• Chapter 2

Other useful resources

• SETI on-line module (/tutorial)
• AST101 notes (from Cornell U.): Lecture 6 (instruct1.cit.cornell.edu/courses/astro101/index.htm)
• www.astronomynotes.com