Edward Brown edited about-AST208.tex  about 9 years ago

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AST 208 is the first rigorous course in the astrophysics major. A recommended background course, AST 207 (\emph{The Science of Astronomy}), serves as more of a broad survey over the entire field, whereas AST 208 contains a laboratory (observing) component and explores a specific topic, planetary science \citep[using, e.g.,][]{Lissauer2013Fundamental-Pla}, in greater depth. The marriage of a lecture-based planetary science course with a laboratory course on observational practice came about as a quirk of history. Indeed, in previous editions of the course these two components operated independently. With the introduction of more rigorous data analysis and statistical methods, we felt that a tighter integration of the lecture and the lab was more appropriate.  In Spring 2015, out of 28 students taking AST 208 there were 17 astrophysics majors (including 3 Lyman Briggs astrophysics majors) and 5 physics majors. The remaining students were from assorted majors, majors  and chose to take took  AST 208 as an elective.