We will meet twice a week, on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 9:00 to 9:50 am in Koch 122. The format for this section will be as follows: On Tuesdays, we will hear student presentations on an area of interest, selected by the students from a list of suggestions. On Thursdays, I will provide a technical discussion of elements that will be relevant to your upcoming presentations—that way you will have some background for preparing your talk. Your evaluation for this (astrophysics) portion of the course will be based on the quality and content of your presentations, as well as your ability to discuss your topic casually and answer questions posed during your presentation.

	Monday	Wednesday
Week A		Astrophysical Objects.    Introduction to the class. A condensed overview of the contents of the Universe including various types of stars, compact objects, and galaxies.
Week B	Astrophysical Objects.    Student presentations on an “Object Of Interest.” Discussing the microquasar GRS 1915+105, and the Cat's Eye nebula—a sampler of stellar relics.	Detectors.    Overview of a variety of detector techniques. Fundamental concepts in the design of optical, X-ray, and gamma-ray telescopes, as well as neutrino and cosmic ray detectors.
Week C	Astrophysical Objects.    Student presentations on an “Object Of Interest.” Exploring black holes and neutron stars with discussions of Cygnus X-1 and PSR 1913+16.	TBA.
Week D	Detectors & Observatories.    Student presentations on an “Observatory Of Interest.” Discussions of two ground-based observatories: the Amanda/IceCube neutrino detector, and the AUGER cosmic ray array.	Detectors & Observatories.    Student presentations on an “Observatory Of Interest.” A look at space-based observatories with the Swift gamma-ray burst satellite, and the Chandra X-ray observatory.

NASA's High Energy Astrophysics Science Archive Research Center (HEASARC). Use the “Observatories” link for data on satellite missions.
NASA's Astrophysics Data System is a comprehensive search engine for primary literature searches.