ASTRONOMY (SC 125), 4 cr. (Sec. 01476)		Schedule for Fall, 2005	Help, Tutorials & Other Stuff			The Grading System	Related Links
INSTRUCTOR: Thomas C. Gibbons				Goals of the Course
OFFICE: Room 132 | TELEPHONE: (319) 244-7132 | EMAIL: tgibbons@eicc.edu ROOM AND TIME: 6:30 PM to 9:15 PM, MTh (including Lab), Rm 127 at CCC Satisfies a general education requirement in the Natural Sciences Area. -- No prerequisite.
SLIDE SHOW: What's Where Out There? | Eastern Iowa Community College Student Page EXTERNAL LINKS RELATED TO ASTRONOMY
Magazines	The Weather				Near Earth Objects -- objects which, just as the name implies, might come close to the earth
NASA	Views of the Moon				The Hipparcos Mission
Information about nebulae, star clusters, and galaxies	Planets outside of our solar system				BAD ASTRONOMY --- a good analysis of a lot of nonsense
OTHER INFORMATION: See the EICCD Libraries Search Engine Page for opportunities to search for other information .
ASTRONOMY.COM website with links for telescope buying and other news
Transfer Information -- other colleges and departments that might be of interest
Course Schedule for Fall 2005| Help & Stuff | Grading System |BACK TO THE TOP

Still under construction, but watch for links to

Powers of Ten

DISCOVERING THE UNIVERSE WEB SITE

Tips about telescopes and observing

Information about labs

Review Questions

More

Related Links

Back to the Top

PUBLICATIONS DEVOTED TO ASTRONOMY

ASTRONOMY MAGAZINE 

SKY AND TELESCOPE MAGAZINE

Back to top

THE WEATHER

EARTHWATCH: WEATHER, SATELLITE DATA, AND RADAR. 

REGIONAL RADAR

SATELLITE DATA ON CLOUD COVER

NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE FORCAST

THE WEATHER CHANNEL

Back to top

A long list of Messier objects including nebulae, star clusters of various types, other galaxies, and everything else in the Messier catalog.

More information and pictures about clusters of stars.

Back to top

NEAR EARTH OBJECTS

These are objects whose orbits are able to bring them close to the earth, at least by solar system standards. According to the official definition, asteroids that come within 121 million miles of the sun are called "Near Earth Objects", or NEO's. It has now been recognized that giant impacts probably played a role in past mass extinctions on the earth, such as the event 65 million years ago during which the dinosaurs became extinct. Many of the NEO's might be capable of producing such a giant impact at some undetermined point in the future. Therefore the study of these objects has become a hot topic for research. Here are a few sites devoted to information about them.

The Near Earth Object Program -- Among other things, you can check the orbits of many NEO's. To do this, go to the site and then click "Orbits". There is also a lot of other information.

The NEAR Program -- The NEAR Shoemaker spacecraft spent a year making 230 orbits around the asteroid Eros, gathered data about the asteroid, and then, on Feb. 12, 2001, it landed.

The Barringer Meteorite Crater – This is a link to the Barringer Meteorite Crater located in Arizona. It is about a mile wide and 570 feet deep, and there used to be 30 tons of meteoritic iron scattered around the area. This was only a small fraction (about one ten thousandth) of the original meteor, which was about 150 feet across and hit the area about 50,000 years ago at 40,000 miles per hour. It would have hit with about the same energy as a rather large hydrogen bomb – about 20 megatons. This information comes from the web site in the link. 

Back to top