Egg Balancing Photos

Congrats to the folks that balanced their eggs on the narrow side!

How to Create a MasteringAstronomy Account

As promised, here are the steps in creating a MasteringAstronomy account. Please e-mail or IM me (acrider@elon.edu) if you have any questions. Try to complete the Introduction to MasteringAstronomy tutorial before class on Friday so you can ask me questions then if you have them.

Smallest Exoplanet Yet!

Here is the link that I mentioned in class about the smallest planet discovered outside of our solar system. Scientists have found lots of planets orbiting other stars in the past decade, but nearly all of them are larger than Jupiter. This one might be a small, rocky planet like our Earth!

No Labs This Week

As is customary for the lab sciences, there is no lab during the first week of classes. We will begin attempting astronomy labs next week. Later this week, I will be e-mailing you details about the format of the labs for this semester.

Getting Started with PHY 102

Welcome to my astronomy class! This spring, we'll be using this blog, the MasteringAstronomy online homework system, a book by Phil Plait called Bad Astronomy, and a game booklet called The Trial of Galileo. I've already posted a draft version of the schedule and the syllabus for you to look over. Please read Chapter 1 of Bad Astronomy before classes start since we will be doing an activity based on it the first day. See you soon!