I think my main function as your professor is to help you understand the more difficult conceptual aspects of the course. In my lectures, I will attempt to mention all of the material that I think is important, but I will spend disproportionately more time on more subtle topics and general concepts, trying to help you visualize them more clearly. I do not require attendance for lectures, but past surveys have shown that students with poor attendance records have usually done poorly. The syllabus should be used as a guide to the lectures, but the precise dates for particular topics will no doubt vary. Above all, I hope everyone will enjoy this course.
Many people never have the opportunity to learn about and appreciate the beauty of the cosmos.
In addition, and especially for those who do not go on in a technical field, this course should also provide you with the conceptual background needed to follow astronomical discoveries as reported in The New York Times , The Boston Globe, or Newsweek . Yes, it looks big, but books that are any smaller tend to become unreadable owing to the dense packing of information. Many find this book easier to read than some of the others. Although the sections in the text that roughly parallel the lectures are listed on the syllabus, please feel free to read the book in any order you like. The reading is intended to give you background knowledge as well as an alternative, calmer point of view.