Cosmic Zoom

A Scientific Visualization of our Universe
Instructor: Garry T. Stasiuk

Visual Aids

On line

• Solar System Simulator
• Planet Finder
• Wiki Sky
• Sky View Cafe
• World Wide Telescope

List of Software
Mac & PC

• Commercial and Free Astronomy Software

Active Spacecraft

• Current NASA Missions

ESA Missions

• Astronomy - Physics
• Planetary - Solar

Observatories

There is no assigned text book, we will use a computer with internet browser(s) and "planetarium" programs (Free and Open Source) to determine our location and relationship to the universe. We will also use the real sky, binoculars and telescopes to find our way in the sky at the end of class (weather permitting.)

Each class will explore images from space probes and telescopes. URL’s for sources of the images will be posted on the class web site.

We will take a grand tour of the Universe as seen through the eyes of spacecraft, and the very largest telescopes of the world. We will begin at home and move out to the observable edge of the Universe. We will see computer simulations, that is, Scientific Visualizations of major cosmic events..

As we journey outward, our discourse will focus on where we are in the Universe, focusing on:

1. Our relationship to the Night Sky
2. Cosmogony. The contents and structure of the Universe.
3. Cosmology. The beginning and end of the Universe.
4. SETI. The Search for Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence, with side excursions to look at...
5. Stellar and Solar system evolution
6. The Big and the Small --Quantum theory and the nature of the curvature of space, string theory and other space oddities, like dark matter/energy.