This will be a closed-book, closed-notes, open-mind exam, with 50 multiple-choice questions, and will last until 12:50 p.m. I'll need you to bring number 2 pencils, scientific calculators, and 882-ES Scantron forms, available in the campus bookstore. Material covered will include:

• Everything I wrote during class, on the chalkboard or on overhead transparencies.
• Chapters 7-13 and S2 of the Cosmic Perspective, by Bennett et al. Take notes while reading, it really does help.
• The following pages assigned from the Orion catalogs handed out in class: 8-9, 39 (sidebar on right), 59, 87 (top)
• The following labs:
  Introduction to Telescopes (pages 9-16),
  The Basics of Optics and Telescopes (pages 29-34),
  Spectroscopy: Fingerprinting Elements (pages 43-44).

  A spectrum plot (a plot of intensity [or brightness] versus wavelength) of a blackbody at three different temperatures, noting how the peak wavelength (at which the brightness is greatest) becomes bluer, as temperature increases.

  Kirchoff's laws of spectral lines: (1) blackbodies make continuous spectra; (2) thin gases make emission [bright line] spectra; (3) hot objects surrounded by thin gas such as stars make absorption [dark line] spectra.

  Aside from the physical state of the gas, what else do spectra tell us? Many things, including: (1) Chemical composition; (2) Temperatures; (3) Motion toward or away from the observer, by the Doppler effect. How does the Doppler effect work?

  Handout on Refractors vs. reflectors, and optics

  The article from page 10 of the February 10 issue of Sky & Telescope, on how telescope ads can often be deceptive.

  Handout on Why CCDs are nearly perfect astronomical detectors

  Handout on Other detectors: the eye and photography

  The important properties of telescopes, in order: (1) Light-gathering power; (2) Image resolution; (2a) Portability, for small telescopes; (3) Magnification.

  What a Dobsonian telescope is (a Newtonian reflector on an altazimth mount with teflon bearings, like the ones we have at the Range).

  What astronomers specifically mean by the term "seeing": the amount of atmospheric turbulence. "Good seeing" means little turbulence, allowing images with resolutions of less than 1 arcsecond to be made. In "poor seeing," the air is turbulent, allowing resolutions of greater than 3-4 arcseconds.

  Why mountaintops in general, and why California, Chile, and Hawaii in particular are such good astronomical sites: because they often have excellent seeing, because all are steep rises out of the ocean, so the Earth's atmosphere has not broken up into turbulence.

  Why it's desirable to put telescopes on spacecraft. (Answer: the seeing is perfect, and also because ultraviolet and higher-energy light is blocked by ozone in the Earth's atmosphere, and because infrared light is blocked by water vapor.

  The diffraction limit, and how to beat it with interferometers.

  The calculations that were on the optional homework assignment from March 26.

  How do we know how the Solar System formed? How do we know how old rocks are? (Answers: See chapter 8. The presence of impact craters shows the importance of planetesimal accretion in the early Solar System; radioactive dating is used to find the ages of rocks. We can also use the crater density of a surface to find its relative age [heavily cratered = older], if we have samples that show its absolute age).

  What four types of extrasolar planets have been found so far? How were they detected? Why were the first three types surprises? (Answers: pulsar planets, hot Jupiters, eccentric Jupiters, and classical Jupiters. The first three classes were completely unexpected, because they were unlike anything in the Solar System.)

  The four primary geological processes (impact cratering, tectonism, volcanism, and gradation), and their relative importance in shaping the surfaces of the planets and planetary satellites. Make a table, and do this carefully yourself.

  How are asteroids different from comets? (Answer: asteroids are rocky, being from the inner Solar System; comets are icy, from the outer Solar System. That's about all the difference there really is: the more we learn about them, the more similar they appear.)

  Where in the Solar System do we find complex organic compounds, containing chemicals similar to the building blocks of life? (Answer: almost everywhere in the outer Solar System, including the atmospheres of the giant planets and the moons Titan and Triton, the surfaces of many moons, and in comets and carbonaceous asteroids, the most common kind.)

  How are Jovian planets different from Terrestrial planets, compositionally? (They are almost all gas, and much more massive.)

  Anything else covered in class.