5/7/2002--As promised, the tentative key for today's exam--remember!! it *is* tentative.

5/3/2002--Many new questions added and some updates and edits--please check them as noted immediately below. A total of 75 have been posted.

5/1//2002--click here for a more practice questions--you might find it easiest to browse by "class meeting"--actually the numbers are keyed to the chapters in your book. Since we did not get through the entire book, there will be some chapters where there are no questions. Keep coming back as we will continue to update them.

 Here is a link to a good explanation of SETI

3/14/2002--Click here to see answers for the starry night section and click here to see answers for the regular section of today's test.

3/5/2002--click here for a few practice questions--they will all be up by Thursday

5/9/02--7:15PM Thursday--the clouds are moving so fast that it is impossible to say whether we will be clear at 9PM. The AOL icon sez partly cloudy (surprise, surprise) and predicts some thunderstorms--but who knows what is gonna happen, cuz the doppler radar looks like the worst has passed--bottom line--look out your window before you make plans to come in.

5/7/2002--1:15 PM--Tuesday--We will not be viewing stars this evening. We plan to go out, weather permitting, tomorrow evening, the 8th. This will begin the period, lasting through the 11th, where the view of the conjunction of Mercury, Mars, Venus and Saturn will be the best.

5/3/2002--7:15 PM--Friday--This evening looks very promising--should be a good show with 4 of the 5 visible planets crowding closer and closer together in the sky.

4/26/02--7:45PM--Friday--In spite of the predictions for increasing cloudiness, the weather is clearing and..guess what...the AOL forecast has now changed to mostly clear--there is still a nasty cloud band where we expect to see venus, mars and the pleides--but even this may dissipate

4/26/02--7 PM Friday---extremely hard to call...some very blue sky....some very cloudy sky. The forecast is for increasing cloudiness. As usual...look at the sky before you decide to drive in...I would give it right now a 30% chance of a go.

Since the temp is 44 and decreasing, I suggest that you come only if you really need to get your observations checked off...I will of course be here.

4/25/02--7:15 PM-looks very unlikely

4/25/02--6:30 PM Mostly cloudy right now with some patches of blue. The AOL forecast says mostly cloudy tonite with snow showers. Not the most optimistic prediction, but keep your eyes peeled. I will be here in case it clears unless subsequently noted.

4/18/02- 6:30 PM. It is sunny but there are lots of high clouds on the horizon and the trends for the past 20 minutes look bad---meaning they sem to be building up over the lake which is our prime viewing real estate. If you are coming from far away, I would suggest you keep an eye on the forecast and conditions--right now it is for "partly cloudy"

4/16/02--Very sunny--a chance even of seeing Mercury this PM

3/22/202: ^:05--There is about 50% overcast at Buffalo, most of it to the south whhich raises the POSSIBILITY that there will be some viewable features...perhaps Jupiter and Saturn. As always, intor to telescope can be performed indoors

3/21/2002: 6PM--there is a teeny patch pf blue but I doubt it willl persist given the angry look of the clouds over the lake--we will be doing telescope intros however

3/8/2002: Looking very cloudy at 6PM despite earliuer hopeful signs. I will be happy to do intro to telescope but I think chances for observation of the night sky are slim.

2/28/2002: No Observation tonite--even if it looks good where you are, the procession of Lake effect storms has been unpleasant and I don't think we want to wind up in one of these on the roof

As usual, we are still looking ahead to the possibility of a Friday meeting

2/15/2002: It looks like the weather defeated us again..no observation tonite...next scheduled session is next Thursday, the 21st 

2/15/2002: The weather forecast is for clouds and rain for Friday evening and so it is very doubtful that we will be viewing at this time.

2/14/2002: Good viewing tonite--we went to the top of Madonna  Hall. While there were some high clouds, these disspated abnout 1/2 hour into the session. Jupiter's moons were arranged symmetrically (2 on a side), Saturn's rings were beautiful, tilted towards us at the optimum angle for viewing. The thin crescent of the new moon showed well defined craters, and you could see the "dark side" faintly illuminated by earthlight. We observed the binary star Alnitak in Orion and the planet Mars. Mars was a disappointment (it is at about the farhtest it can get from earth right now) and it will have to await the purchase of more powerful eyepieces.

2/11/2002: Meet at 6:30 this evening in room 216---prospects look goo for a clear night

2/8/2002--We had tosatisfy ourselves with an intro to the telescope last night because things clouded over. We will try again tonite, Friday, 2/8 at 6:30, weather permitting. Come to room 216 at about 6:15. Stay tuned to this web page for further announcements.

2/7/2002-4PM--weather looks good, although there are some clouds on the horizon. Come to room 216 at 6:15 PM

2/7/2002--4:30--eeek--clouds coming from the north...still a modified "GO"

2/7/2002--5:05--starting to look very chancy--if you show up I will give you an intro to the telescope, even if we can't go outside

2/7/2002--6:00--Chances of viewing stars tonite are roughly zero--it is incredible how rapidly the weather changed for the worst

Week of 2/10/2002

We will be addressing the issue of the nature of light this week.

Go here for a shockwave animation showing the relationship between wavelength, frequency, color and speed.