1. WELCOME to: First Year Seminar (Astronomy 191A) Instructor: Daniela Calzetti

2. Link: www.astro.umass.edu/~calzetti/academics/a191Afall07/index.html Instructor’s coordinates: Office: LGRT B 524 Phone: 545-3556 E-mail: calzetti@astro.umass.educalzetti@astro.umass.edu Office hours: Mondays, 2:30-4:30 pm Textbook (suggested, but only loosely followed): Pathways to Astronomy, v3.1, by S.E. Schneider & T.T. Arny

3. Requirements  Attendance  Active participation in class work and debate

4. What Is this Course About 1.Getting you all excited about Astronomy [so that you’ll become enthusiastic colleagues!]; 2.Providing a broad-brush panorama of our knowledge on the Cosmos; 3.Providing also a panorama of what we do not know [which is much more than what we know] 4.Giving you a chance to ask questions; the more questions the better.

5. What will we learn About the Universe and its evolution…

6. About galaxies, their diversity, and what that means…

7. About stars, how they form, live and die… About planets and solar system.

8. Syllabus Mo, Sept. 10th -- The Beauty of the Cosmos (V) Mo, Sept. 17th -- Our Planets (V) Mo, Sept. 24th -- The Sky is Our Laboratory Mo, Oct. 1st -- The Life Cycles of Stars (V) Tue, Oct. 9th -- The Sun Mo, Oct 15th -- Black Holes! Mo, Oct. 22nd -- What is Shining? The Interstellar Medium Mo, Oct. 29th -- Other Planets (V) Mo, Nov. 5th -- The Milky Way Wed, Nov. 14th -- Galaxies: the `Salt' of the Cosmos Mo, Nov. 19th -- Galaxy Formation and Evolution - 1 Mo, Nov. 26th -- Galaxy Formation and Evolution - 2 Mo, Dec. 3rd -- The Edges of the Universe Mo, Dec 10th -- The Beginning of the Universe

9. Class Structure 1.A mixture of presentations and scientific movies (including one today) for the first ~hour; 2.10-15 minutes at the end for questions and debate; check the Astronomy Picture of the Day site at: http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/astropix.html; 3.At the end of each class we will make a list of questions that we (both you and I) will try to research for the next class; sometimes some of your questions may not have an easy or available answer…. In each class:

10. And now… Enjoy the movie!