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Planetarium

Advanced Astronomy Syllabus

The Solar System
Gravitation and circular motion, escape velocity and retention of atmosphere.
The Moon's orbit and librations.
The Earth's structure, evolution and age.
The Moon's structure, lunar features and phases.
Planetary rotation from doppler shift, distances and apparent sizes.
Volcanism, cratering, rings and angular momentum.
Artificial satellites and rockets.
Tidal forces and the Roche limit.

The Sun
Solar co-ordinates, sunspots and optical depth.
Life span, evolution and energy generation of the Sun, as a typical star.
Solar flares, solar wind and solar neutrino problem.

The Radiation from Stars
The Bohr atom, energy levels and transitions, energy, frequency and spectral lines.
Doppler shift.
Black body radiation and the Planck curves, Wien's law, Stefan's law, energy and frequency.
UBV wavelengths and colour index, H, spectral line broadening and equivalent width.
Luminosity, intensity, flux, solid angle and the inverse square law.
Eclipsing binary light curves.
Apparent magnitude, absolute magnitude and the distance modulus.

Stars as Radiating bodies
Nuclear energy generation and transportation, inside stars and the evolution of stars.
The production of heavy elements.
Mass luminosity law and time scales.
Stable stars, pulsating stars, supernovae and the enrichment of the interstellar medium.
Second generation star formation, nebulae and clusters.
Cepheids and intergalactic distance.
Cosmic rays and pulsars.

Optical Aids
The structure of the eye, colour vision, response to changes in intensity and wavelength.
The camera, photographic emulsion and exposure time.
Types of glass and reflective index, telescopes, chromatic and spherical aberrations.
Focal ratio, resolution and limiting magnitude.
Eyepieces, eye relief, exit pupil, film plate scale and image size and brightness.

Invisible Astronomy
Observations in the infrared, ultra violet, x ray gamma ray and radio regions of the spectrum.
Detectors, atmospheric absorption and sources of these radiations.
Earth rotation synthesis.

Galaxies and Cosmology
The structure and distribution of matter in the Milky Way.
Galactic rotation and stellar populations.
Hubble classification, sizes and distribution of galaxies.
Red shift, distance and the expanding universe, Hubble's law, the age and size of the universe.
Speed of light, relativity, big bang and origin of the elements.

The Sky Co-ordinate System
Right ascension, declination, altitude, azimuth, hour angle and rising and setting.
Time systems and use of an ephemeris.
Equatorial, ecliptic and galactic co-ordinates.

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