www.williams.edu/Astronomy/Course-Pages/412/

Texts:

Leon Golub and Jay M. Pasachoff, Nearest Star: The Exciting Science of Our Sun (Harvard University Press, 2001); http://www. williams.edu/astronomy/neareststar

Leon Golub and Jay M. Pasachoff, The Solar Corona, 2nd ed. (Cambridge University Press, 2010)

            http://www.williams.edu/astronomy/corona

Jay M. Pasachoff, The Sun (Complete Idiot's Guides series, Alpha Books, 2003); www.williams.edu/astronomy/sun [to be distributed in class]

Additional readings: (* indicates that it is on the Schow reserve shelf)

*Cambridge Encyclopedia of the Sun, by Kenneth Lang (Cambridge U. Press,  2001), QB521 .L24 2001 [LE]

*Sun, Earth, and Sky, by Kenneth Lang (Springer-Verlag, 1995). [L]

*The Sun from Space, by Kenneth Lang (Springer, 2000)QB521 .L25 2000  

*Solar Interior and Atmosphereed. by A. Cox, W. Livingston, and M. S. Matthews (U. Arizona Press, 1991) [CLW on reading list] QB539 I5 S65

*Astronomy: From the Earth to the Universe, 6th ed. (Brooks/Cole, 2002) [ETU6 on reading list]

The Cosmos: Astronomy in the New Millennium, by Jay M. Pasachoff and Alex Filippenko, 3nd ed. (Brooks/Cole, 2007) [Cosmos on reading list]

*The Sun, Our Star by R. W. Noyes (Harvard University Press, 1982)   QB521.N68

*Total Eclipses of the Sun by Jack B. Zirker (Princeton University Press, 1995) QB121.C69

*Journey to the Center of the Sun by Jack B. Zirker (Princeton University Press, 2002) QB521 .Z58

*Sunquakes: Probing the Interior of the Sun by Jack B. Zirker (Johns Hopkins University Press, 2003) QB539.I5 Z57 2003

*Solar Astrophysics by Peter V. Foukal  (Wiley, 1994) [F] QB521 F68 2004

*Guide to the Sun by Kenneth J. H. Phillips (Cambridge, 1992, 1995) [P] QB521 .P45

*The Enigma of Sunspots: A story of discovery and scientific revolution, by Judit Brody (Floris Books, 2002) QB525.B76 2002

Physics of the Solar Corona: An Introduction, by Markus Ashwanden (Springer, 2004)

Fundamentals of Solar Astronomy, by Arvind Bhatnagar and Williams Livingston (World Scientific,  2005)

*Lectures on solar physics, by H.M. Antia, A. Bhatnagar, P. Ulmschneider, eds. (Springer, 2003) QB520.L43 2003

Web site: http://web.williams.edu/Astronomy/Course-Pages/412/index.html and glow.williams.edu

Also, through http://www.williams.edu/astronomy/jay = http://solarcorona.net, go to Updates by Chapter button and then to Chapter 10 for updates and links to GONG, SOHO, Big Bear Solar Observatory, National Solar Observatories, Space Environment Lab., Marshall Space Flight Center (sunspot cycle), etc.

http://www.williams.edu/astronomy/eclipse

http://www.williams.edu/IAU_eclipses (Working Group on Eclipses of the International Astronomical Union), see also related site at http://www.eclipses.info

Web links

http://www.williams.edu/astronomy/jay/solarlinks

[being updated: any volunteers?]

Transits of Venus and Mercury

See http://www.transitofvenus.info.

Office Hours: Monday and Tuesday from 11:15 to 12:15, or by appointment

  TPL 115, 597 2105, jay.m.pasachoff@williams.edu

Movies/Videos

times to be arranged

Solar Observing

times to be arranged

Golub/Pasachoff chapters, Nearest Star [GP_nearest]

1.  The Sun

2.  The Once and Future Sun

3.  What We See: The Solar Disk

4.  What We Don't See

5.  Eclipses

6.  Space Missions

7.  Between Fire and Ice

8.  Space Weather

Golub/Pasachoff chapters, The Solar Corona [GP_corona]

1.  Introduction

2.  Brief history of coronal studies

3.  The coronal spectrum

4.  The solar cycle

5.  Ground-based observations

6.  Observations from space: I.  The first 30 years

7.  Activity of the inner corona

8.  Observations from space: II. Recent missions

9.  Solar flares & the corona

10. Solar-terrestrial physics

Pasachoff chapters, The Complete Idiot's Guide to the Sun [CIG_sun]

Part 1: What the Sun Looks Like

    1    The Sun Shines On Us

    2    The Active Sun

    3    Seeing the Invisible

    4    The Sun Goes Up; the Sun Goes Down

    5    Our Sun: Looking Good

Part 2: The Sun Through Time

    6    The Sun as a Star

    7    The Sun and Civilization

    8    The Birth of the Sun

    9    The Sun at the Center

    10   The Death of the Sun

Part 3: Eclipses of the Sun

    11   Who Stole the Sun?

    12   Saros and Cycles

    13   Helium: Only on the Sun

    14   To the Ends of the Earth

    15   To Be in the Moon's Shadow

    16   Venus Tries to Cover Immodestly    

Part 4: The Sun from Mountaintops

    17   High Above the Clouds

    18   Sunspot, New Mexico, and the House of the Sun

    19   Canaries and the Big Dog

    20   Ringing Like a Bell

Part 5: The Sun from Space

    21   Above the Air Is Better

    22   Sunbeam

    23   Yo Ho, SOHO

    24   Tracing Out the Loops

    25   Plunging into the Sun

Part 6: The Sun-Earth Connection

    26   Constancy, Thy Name Isn't the Sun

    27   Greenhouses of Salt

    28   The Forecast Today Is Flares

Foukal chapters:

1. Development of the Ideas and Instruments of Modern Solar Research

2. Radiative Transfer in the Sun's Atmosphere

3. Solar Spectroscopy

4. Dynamics of Solar Plasmas

5. The Photosphere

6. The Sun's Internal Structure and Energy Generation

7. Rotation, Convection, and Oscillations in the Sun

8. Observations of Photospheric Activity and Magnetism

9. The Chromosphere and Corona

10. Prominences and Flares

11. Dynamics of the Solar Magnetic Field

12. The Solar Wind and Heliosphere

13. The Sun, Our Variable Star

Phillips Guide chapters:

1. The history of solar observation: from sun worship to the space age

2. The solar interior

3. The solar photosophere

4. The solar chromosphere

5. The solar corona

6. The active sun

7. The sun and the solar system

8. The sun and other stars

9. Solar energy

10. Observing the sun

Zirker Journey chapters:

1. Getting Started

2. The Secret Heart of the Sun

3. The Deep Interior

4. Order and Chaos: the Convection Zone

5. Looking Inside from the Outside

6. The Hot Atmosphere

7. The Magnetic Atmosphere

8. The Middle Kingdom: the Chromosphere and Transition Zone

9. Active Regions

10. Explosions on the Sun

11. The Corona and the Wind

12. "Like a Tea Tray in the Sky"

13. The Solar Cycle

14. The Sun and Climate

Lang Sun, Earth, Sky chapters:

1.  Introduction

2.  Energizing the Sun

3.  Ghostlike neutrinos

4.  Taking the pulse of the Sun

5.  A magnetic star

6.  An unseen world of perpetual change (corona and solar wind)

7. The violent sun

8. Energizing space

9. Transforming the Earth's life-sustaining atmosphere

10. Fire and ice

Lang Cambridge Encyclopedia chapters

1. The Sun's domain

2. The Sun as a star

3. What makes the Sun shine?

4. Inside the Sun

5. The magnetic solar atmosphere

6. The explosive Sun

7. The Sun's winds

8. The Sun-Earth connection

9. Observing the Sun