Some geometry and arithmetic is used. Students are required to sign up for a recitation section and a small part of the grade will be based on performance in the recitation class. Lecture class size is limited to approximately 250 students. This course is regularly offered in the Fall and Spring Terms and alternate Summer Sessions. This is a self-contained course for students not majoring in the physical sciences.
Lectures mainly deal with astronomical objects that lie outside the solar system.
The properties of stars and processes in them are examined, including a discussion of the birth, evolution, and death of stars, and the formation of pulsars and black holes. On a much larger scale the properties and formation of galaxies and active galaxies, including exotic objects such as quasars, are discussed. Finally, the subject of cosmology and the origin and ultimate fate of the Universe are considered. This course forms an appropriate sequence with either Astronomy 0088, Physics 0081 or Physics 0089. This course is primarily descriptive, but a discussion of models of physical processes at a qualitative level is often necessary.