Cuesta College, San Luis Obispo, CA
Students have a weekly online reading assignment (hosted by SurveyMonkey.com), where they answer questions based on reading their textbook, material covered in previous lectures, opinion questions, and/or asking (anonymous) questions or making (anonymous) comments. Full credit is given for completing the online reading assignment before next week's lecture, regardless if whether their answers are correct/incorrect. Selected results/questions/comments are addressed by the instructor at the start of the following lecture.
The following questions were asked on reading textbook chapters and previewing presentations on problems caused by the atmosphere for telescope observing, Earth, and the impacted worlds: the moon, and Mercury.
Describe something you found interesting from the assigned textbook reading or presentation preview, and explain why this was personally interesting for you.
"Turbulence in the sky. I didn't know that there was anything like that possible in the sky. The example of the ocean water while under the water was helpful for me to understand it more."
"Light pollution--I've heard of it before and I find it so sad that it is much harder than it should be to see the stars in the sky."
"The Hubble Space Telescope, since I never knew we sent a telescope into space nor thought it could be done."
"Learning about how light enters the atmosphere and how we see it."
"The greenhouse effect; everyone always talked about how bad it is--well, in excess--but I never knew that it was good for the environment to keep Earth warm."
"The introduction and removal of CO2 into the atmosphere to be interesting because I would assume something like volcanoes, which billow smoke, would be a primary contributor, and that plants would be the primary remover."
"Learning about the craters on the moon."
"I didn't find anything interesting."
Describe something you found confusing from the assigned textbook reading or presentation preview, and explain why this was personally confusing for you.
"The electromagnetic spectrum. I understand was it is supposed to measure, but it was really hard for me to interpret the graph and how it related to what it was measuring."
"How does Earth's ocean force carbon dioxide into the sea floor?"
"The greenhouse effect and how it occurs is confusing to me and I don't understand how to see if it's good or bad."
"The greenhouse effect was more complicated than expected but I think I pretty much got it."
"I don't really get the moon features."
"The geography of the moon and Mercury. It may be that I didn't spend enough time reading it."
A large modern optical telescope in outer space would have images with better __________ than a comparable ground-based telescope.
brightness. *** [3] resolution. *** [3] magnification. * [1] (None of the above choices.) [0] (Two of the above choices.) *********** [11] (All of the above choices.) ***** [5] (Unsure/guessing/lost/help!) *** [3]
Stars to appear to "twinkle" in the night sky because of...
"There are disturbances in the air in the atmosphere that create the illusion of movement like ripples in water."
"Because of turbulence in our 'ocean of air'--Earth's atmosphere, and causes the light from the star to refract in different directions."
"The light from the single point of light from a star is refracted in different directions as the atmosphere churns."
Identify how carbon dioxide enters and how it is taken out of Earth's atmosphere.
(Only correct responses shown.)
Enters atmosphere from: volcanoes [42%]
Taken out of atmosphere by: oceans [38%]
(Only correct responses shown.)
Craters partially filled in with flat lava plains: oldest (formed longest ago) [39%]
Flat lava plains: middle [31%]
Craters on top of flat lava plains: youngest (formed most recently) [46%]
(Only correct responses shown.)
Large crater basins: oldest (formed longest ago) [46%]
Lava-filled lowlands: middle [31%]
Long curving ridges: youngest (formed most recently) [44%]
Ask the instructor an anonymous question, or make a comment. Selected questions/comments may be discussed in class.
"Were the telescopes provided by the school, or do you own them? Very high-tech, neat to look at!" (They're all Cuesta College telescopes; hopefully we'll have a star night at North County campus later this semester.)
"What is the best solution of fixing problems with the atmosphere?" (Putting a telescope in space--unless there's a cheaper solution that can be used to keep the telescope still based on the ground.)
"What is it about the planets that makes them not twinkle as much as a star?" (A star is so far away that it's only a point of light very susceptible to moving around from atmospheric turbulence, and will "twinkle." By comparison a planet will be a large disk that is less susceptible to "moving around" (as a whole, while only its edges will be distorted) so it won't seem to "twinkle" as much as a star.)
"Where is a good area around San Luis Obispo county with super-low light pollution to see the stars?" (Anywhere away from city street lighting. If you want to get extreme, you can go to the Carrizo Plains National Monument.)
What do you think is the best time of year to go out and see the sky or what location would be best if you could go anywhere?" (Anytime, anywhere that is dark. And while camping. And hopefully not too cold.)
"The video link for Mercury’s surface didn’t work." (Thanks for catching that, I've fixed that link.)
"What is Pluto if it's not a planet?" (A dwarf planet. We'll talk about this next week.)
"What's the cat's name that's on top of your head in your profile pic for your blog? (Pocahontas, the Rescue Bengal Cat--she even has her own Facebook page.)
"Should my brother name his twins (due in May) 'Denise' and 'Denephew?'" (He should name his kids whatever he likes. However, you can name them these names. Seems only fair, as they'll be naming you "Uncle.")
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