Renaissance Astronomy (Physics 489)
Counts for Core Curriculum requirement in International and Cultural Diversity (3 hours credit)
Instructor: Roland E. Allen
1-979-845-4341, Room 519 Engineering/Physics Building
allen@tamu.edu, http://faculty.physics.tamu.edu/allen/
website for Texas A&M astronomy: http://astronomy.tamu.edu/
This is a modified, more qualitative, and more historical version of Basic Astronomy (Physics 306), with an emphasis on the critical role of Renaissance scientists like Copernicus and Galileo. The course will begin with the most ancient origins of astronomy, touch on the contributions of many different cultures around the world, and end with the latest discoveries in planetary astronomy and cosmology, while focusing mainly on Renaissance Astronomy.
The textbook is Foundations of Astronomy, by Michael Seeds (2000 edition in paperback). (Representative old exams etc. for the standard course are listed at http://faculty.physics.tamu.edu/allen/basic-astronomy.html. But this is a very different course.)
Excursions to relevant sites in Italy will be an integral part of this course. We will also have astronomical observations outside the Santa Chiara Study Center on certain favorable nights. Students are encouraged to bring binoculars, and we will have 3 small telescopes.
We will visit at least the first four of the following sites: Florence, where two telescopes and even a finger of Galileo are preserved, with a detailed discussion of his life and work; Rome, where Galileo encountered the hostility of the Church to the Copernican theory; Venice, where Galileo first revealed and used the telescope; Pisa, with its Leaning Tower and the adjacent cathedral, which are central to the legend and true discoveries of Galileo; and Bologna, which has two excellent science museums. This was a momentous time in the history of science, and many famous locations can in principle be reached from the Santa Chiara Study Center.
We plan to have guest lectures. In particular, Dr. Charles Munnerlyn, world-famous as the inventor of laser-correction of vision, will tell us about both his activities in amateur astronomy and his work in founding three companies, the last being VISX.
Evaluation:
Participation: 30%
Notebook recording classes and excursions: 30%
10 page report on a topic relevant to the course: 30%
Final exam on last class day: 10%