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.
Selected/edited responses are given below.Describe something you found interesting from the assigned textbook reading or presentation preview, and explain why this was personally interesting for you.
"One thing I found interesting is why astronomers decide to place optical telescopes on mountains. I visited the Griffith Observatory in Los Angeles and wondered why it was on a mountain, now, I know its because the air is thin and transparent up there."
"How Mauna Kea is essentially an outer space viewing Mecca."
"The reason stars appear to twinkle is because of turbulence in the atmosphere. I had never actually considered the reason why before."
"The twinkling of a star is actually caused from the atmosphere around Earth and that it doesn't 'twinkle' outside our atmosphere."
"How much placing a telescope in space can differ from one placed on the ground."
"How light pollution affects the view of the stars, which honestly is sad."
"That light is reflected by particles in the atmosphere and washes out the stars, also the analogy of being underwater and looking up and how that distortion parallels turbulence in the atmosphere was particularly interesting to me because I am interesting in learning about light pollution and 'twinkling.'"
"It was really cool to see the SOFIA plane in the text. A family member worked on that and was publishing a book about it before he passed away."
"The inner four planets, Mercury, Venus, and Earth and Mars are small, dense worlds composed of rock and iron are known to be terrestrial planets. The outer four planets, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune are called the jovian planets because they have low-density materials."
"I think it is really cool how the smaller planets are more dense than the bigger planets."
"I can't seem to find where this was anymore but when I began reviewing this chapter I found a section on the theory of two planets colliding with each other and having the remnants form into the moon and Mercury, I thought that was interesting because of HOW COOL that is! PLANETS GO BOOM."
"That the moon's core is smaller than expected and that mercury's core is larger than expected. This means that Mercury has a thinner crust."
"It was really interesting to me learning about the greenhouse effect, especially because there are good and bad effects."
"After reading about the Turkey/Cornish Hen effect, I was fascinated how simple it was to determine the cooling factor and/or speed of different planet cores."
Describe something you found confusing from the assigned textbook reading or presentation preview, and explain why this was personally confusing for you.
"I just need a little more clarification on how adaptive optics works."
"How can disturbed air make you not be able to see, it's windy all the time and I can still see"
"What in the atmosphere exactly is causing this turbulence?"
"The electromagnetic spectrum chart was very confusing. I don't understand how to read that or what it really means?"
"I need more help in understanding how carbon dioxide enters the atmosphere. I read that carbon dioxide dissolves in water, but not clear on how it enters."
"I understand that volcanos release carbon dioxide into the atmosphere and that carbon dioxide gets absorbed into the ocean, but how much is absorbed by plants? I was taught in school that plants produce oxygen and take in carbon dioxide, but I’ve never heard of the ocean taking in carbon dioxide."
"Understanding the one-way function of greenhouse gases/material took longer for me to comprehend. It is just something that was hard to get when first reading the explanation, but the visual provided helped."
"I didn't find that much confusing, just a lot to take in."
A large modern optical telescope in outer space would have images with better __________ than a comparable ground-based telescope.
brightness. ** [2] resolution. **************** [16] magnification. ** [2] (None of the above choices.) * [1] (Two of the above choices.) ******** [8] (All of the above choices.) ******* [7] (Unsure/guessing/lost/help!) * [1]
Stars to appear to "twinkle" in the night sky because of...
"Turbulence in the atmosphere."
"Because of disturbances in our atmosphere like wind and temperatures and densities."
"As the star's light go through Earth's atmosphere it gets bounced around therefore causing the twinkling."
"Don't know."
Identify how carbon dioxide enters and how it is taken out of Earth's atmosphere.
(Only correct responses shown.)
Enters atmosphere from: volcanoes [51%]
Taken out of atmosphere by: oceans [46%]
(Only correct responses shown.)
Craters partially filled in with flat lava plains: oldest (formed longest ago) [43%]
Flat lava plains: middle [37%]
Craters on top of flat lava plains: youngest (formed most recently) [59%]
(Only correct responses shown.)
Large crater basins: oldest (formed longest ago) [46%]
Lava-filled lowlands: middle [35%]
Long curving ridges: youngest (formed most recently) [65%]
Ask the instructor an anonymous question, or make a comment. Selected questions/comments may be discussed in class.
"I don't have any today."
"Is there such a thing as a telescope that's 'too big?'" (Only for refractors, as there is a limited to how big a single piece of glass can be made into a lens before it begins to sag under its own weight. For reflectors, you can support the mirror from the back, so it doesn't matter how big/heavy it gets.)
"Will we get to go back to the observatory and use it?" (Later this semester, weather permitting. Also, the dome still needs to get fixed.)
"How was the large impact hypothesis confirmed? (From studying the rocks brought back from the moon, which solidified from crust that was vaporized at super-high temperatures (as opposed to molten temperatures.)
"Could we watch more animations of collision theory and see more planets go BOOM?"
"What are the chances of another planet or moon impacting Earth? What's protecting us?" (Zero. However, there are plenty of asteroids out there that can still hit us. NASA is currently planning a Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) to see if an incoming asteroid can be redirected away from us. Soon. Maybe.)
"Please go over the presentation slides in class if there is time, because I learn mostly through listening!"
"Do you offer extra-credit during the course?" (Yes, later this semester.)
"Can we talk about the upcoming exam and go over what we need to study exactly?" (For now concentrate on Quiz 3, which is on telescopes and also a review of selected topics from the first two quizzes; then we'll have a review session for the first midterm.)
"Thanks for being a cool teacher."
"You are an awesome teacher!"
"P-dog you are by far my favorite teacher. You make learning exciting and I thank you for that."
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