Battle Point Astronomical Association Lecture Series 2002

Battle Point Astronomical Association Home Page

Measuring the Universe

How our ideas of the size of the earth, the solar system, the galaxy and the universe have evolved.

A ten lecture series offered at the Ritchie Observatory, Battle Point Park, Bainbridge Island, WA. by Paul Middents, "adjunct emeritus" from Olympic College and veteran of four previous BPAA courses and lecture series, the last given in 2001.  

Each lecture will start at 7 P.M. on Thursday evenings and last for approximately two hours with breaks for the faint of heart. 

Lectures are scheduled for the following dates. Click on each lecture for a page devoted to that topic:

• Feb. 13    Thirty minute introduction and overview as part  of  the regular monthly meeting of the BPAA.

• Feb 28    Lecture 1     The Ancient Greeks

• Mar 14   Lecture 2     Copernicus, Brahe, Kepler

• Mar 21   Lecture 3   The Great Theories, Implementation and Confirmation; The 17th Century Transits

• Apr 11    Lecture 4    Halley, Comets and Newton

• Apr 18    Lecture 5   Bradley Finds Aberration; Cook Finds Australia; Herschel Finds a Planet and a Galaxy

• Apr 25    Lecture 6    19th Century; Parallax Found!

• May 2    Lecture 7    The Great Refractor Race Makes Nebula Less Nebulous

• May 16   Lecture 8    The Rise of Astrophysics; Photometry, Photography and Spectroscopy

• May 23   Lecture 9    Building the Ladder

  May 30   Lecture 10 The Cosmological Red Shift; The Distance Scale Expands and Implies           a Big  Bang

The only prerequisite for this course is a mature interest in astronomy. Familiarity with mathematics through high school algebra, geometry and trigonometry will be useful but you will be able to follow most of the material  without applying any mathematics.

The perspective will be strongly historical. Emphasis will be placed on the role of transits of Venus in developing a knowledge of the size of the solar system. This is inspired by the occurrence of the next transit on June 8, 2004. This will be the first one since 1882. If you don't know what a transit is, come to the lectures and find out! Actually the following link will help pave the way:

Transit of Venus

This link is based on a book of the same name and one of the sources I will be drawing on for this series. I will provide other links via this web page. Standard introductory astronomy texts such as the one used in previous BPAA courses will also be useful:

Discovering the Universe, 5th Edition, Comins and Kaufman

Other sources for this course

Venus in Transit, Eli Maor

Parallax, Alan W. Hirshfeld, W. H. Freeman 2001

Web access will be very useful to all participants.

Please contact me with any questions.

pmiddents@charter.net