Astronomy at Swarthmore College

People

David Cohen, Associate Professor of Astronomy.

Eric Jensen, Associate Professor of Astronomy.

Mary Ann Klassen, Lecturer.

Physicist Michael Brown has astronomical interests.

John Gaustad, Edward Hicks Magill Professor Emeritus of Astronomy.

Projects

Michael Brown, David Cohen, and Eric Jensen have many on-going research projects involving students. You can find information about specific research projects.

Student Research

For information about student research opportunities both on and off campus, check out the department's webpage about student research. And please feel free to ask any faculty member about getting involved in research. And there is general information for both current students and prospective students on the department's website.

Swarthmore is a member of the Keck consortium. They host a yearly student research symposium in the fall and sponsor a student summer research exchange program.

Sigma Xi gives out grants in aid of research - money to travel, etc. for research. Their application deadlines are March 15 and October 15.

Our local Sigma Xi chapter also gives out (smaller) grants to enable students to attend meetings, as well as to support student research activities.

Information

There are roughly five colloquia in the department each semester.

You can access information about current astronomical events and the night sky.

There is a telescope open house each month. It is on the second Tuesday of the month and is held from 8 to 9 PM, October through March and from 9 to 10 PM, April through September. Call 610-957-6335 for information (but do not leave any messages there; if you require a reply, please email us at physics -at- swarthmore -dot- edu).

We have just started holding these open houses at the new Peter van de Kamp Observatory on the roof of the Science Center. Here is a map and directions.

The next open house is scheduled for Tuesday, November 24, from 8:00 PM to 9:00 PM, with a talk first, at 7:30. This is part of our celebration of the International Year of Astronomy -- see note below.

New: From October 20 through November 24, there will be an open house every Tuesday night to celebrate the International Year of Astronomy, commemorating Galileo's first telescopic discoveries in 1609. This is part of the Philadelphia area's No Night Without a Telescope. These open houses will begin with a talk in Science Center 199 at 7:30, followed by a telescope viewing at 8:00, weather permitting. If the weather is bad, we will still have the talk, but no observing.

Note: Check back here or at the phone hotline on the day of the open house to make sure that the open house hasn't been canceled by bad weather. The weather can change up until the last minute, so you may want to call in the evening before setting out just to make sure the open house is on. You can check the weather data and models yourself to see what the prospects are for clear skies.

Courses

Astro 5/Physics 5: Spacetime, Quanta, and Cosmology is a course taught for the first time in fall 2006, by Profs. Michael Brown and Eric Jensen. It is an introductory course focusing on special relativity, quantum mechanics, and cosmology. It has no prerequisites, and is suitable for any Swarthmore student who has an interest in physics and astronomy. It has six lab meeting scheduled plus one nighttime observing session. It is an NSEP course. Finally, this class replaces Physics 6 as the entry point into the major (physics, astrophysics, or astronomy).

Astro 1 is our introductory survey course.

Astro 3 is an introductory course that covers fewer topics (cosmology, relativity, and the search for life in the universe) in more depth.

Astro 16 is a calculus-based modern astrophysics course, generally taken by sophomores who are thinking of majoring. The occasional humanities major takes it too.

Astro 61 is a half-credit class in which we read and discuss articles in the research literature.

We offer four upper-level seminars, generally one per semester: Astro 121: Observational Techniques, Astro 123: Stars, Astro 126: Interstellar Medium, and Astro 128: Galaxies.

We offered a special seminar in spring, 2005: Astro 129: Cosmology, taught by Prof. Chris Burns.

Course catalog and department's courses webpage.