Solar Eclipse Classes - Academic Courses

Oregon State offers several astronomy courses accessible to those with no previous astronomy or astrophysics experience. We will be emphasizing the science of the upcoming eclipse in these courses below. The courses in the astronomy sequence (PH 104, PH 205, PH 206, PH 207, PH 299) can be taken in any order.

Courses offered for academic credit are part of OSU Summer Session and will include curriculum directly related to the solar eclipse.

PH 104 DESCRIPTIVE ASTRONOMY Historical and cultural context of discoveries concerning planets and stars and their motions. Topics include the solar system, the constellations, birth and death of stars, pulsars and black holes. An accompanying laboratory is used for demonstrations, experiments and projects, as well as for outdoor observations. PH 104 is offered on campus during winter, spring and summer leading up to the eclipse in August.

PH 205 SOLAR SYSTEM ASTRONOMY History, laws and tools of astronomy. Composition, motion and origin of the sun, planets, moons, asteroids and comets. Phenomena including auroras, lunar and solar eclipses and meteor showers are also covered. An accompanying laboratory is used for demonstrations, experiments and projects, as well as for outdoor observations. PH 205 is available online through OSU Ecampus. It is offered during winter, spring and summer.

PH 206 STARS AND STELLAR EVOLUTION Properties of stars; star formation, evolution and death; supernovae, pulsars and black holes. An accompanying laboratory is used for demonstrations, experiments and projects, as well as for outdoor observations. PH 206 is offered online through OSU Ecampus in the spring and summer.

PH 299 SPECIAL TOPICS: OBSERVATIONAL ASTRONOMY Introduction to the fundamentals of observational astronomy with attention to how we know what we know about celestial bodies and the current technologies used to gather astronomical data.  Observational astronomy is focused on acquiring data from observations of celestial objects by optical-visible light, infrared, radio and high-energy astronomy.  A key aspect of the class is astrophotography fundamentals, especially in preparation for the Solar Eclipse of 2017. PH 299 will be offered in the spring.

Instructors

Randall Milstein has a doctorate in geology from Oregon State University. His interests include comparative planetology, astrogeology, impact cratering dynamics, planet modifying catastrophes and extinction events and the intersections of science and the arts.

Kathryn Hadley has a doctorate in physics from the University of Oregon. Her research interest is theoretical astrophysics, focusing on computational modeling of protostellar disks.

Davide Lazzati has a doctorate in astronomy from the University of Milan in Italy. He did postdoctoral work with Martin Rees at Cambridge. His research interests include gamma ray bursts and the nature of cosmic dust.