Copyright © Michael Richmond.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons License.
PHYS 370, Stellar Astrophysics: Fall 2026
This material can be found online at URL
http://spiff.rit.edu/classes/phys370/phys370.html
Outline/syllabus for the course, class schedule, etc.
Tentative schedule for the quarter.
The numbers in parentheses refer to sections
within our textbook (Carroll and Ostlie, first edition).
- Week 1A:
Introduction, properties of light I (3.3-3.4, 5.2)
- Week 1B:
Properties of light II (3.4-3.5, 5.1, 5.3)
- Week 2A:
Magnitudes, colors and distance (3.1-3.2, 3.6)
- Week 2B:
Spectral and luminosity classes (8.1)
- Week 3A:
HR diagram, main sequence, giants and dwarfs (8.2)
- Week 3B:
Stellar atmospheres I: Intensities and radiation pressure (9.1)
- Week 4A:
Stellar atmospheres II: LTE and opacity (9.2)
- Week 4B:
Stellar atmospheres III: random walks and limb darkening
(9.3)
- Week 5A:
Stellar atmospheres IV: the shapes of spectral lines
(9.4)
- Week 5B:
Curve of growth, and the abundance of sodium in the solar photosphere
(9.4)
- Week 6A:
Stellar interiors I: mass and pressure
(10.1-10.2)
- Week 6B:
Stellar interiors II: energy generation
(10.3)
- Week 7A:
Stellar interiors III: The transport of energy by radiation and by convection
(10.4)
- Week 7B:
Stellar interiors IV: Running a stellar model, and what it can tell us
(10.5-10.6)
- Week 8A: No class -- Fall break
- Week 8B: midterm test
- Week 9A:
Star formation: the Jeans criterion
(12.1-12.2)
- Week 9B:
Pre-main-sequence evolution
(12.2-12.3)
- Week 10A:
Post-main-sequence evolution I
(13.1-13.2)
- Week 10B:
Post-main-sequence evolution II
(13.3, 15.3-15.4, 17.4 in first edition)
- Week 11A:
Stellar remnants: neutron stars
(15.6-15.7)
- Week 11B:
Stellar remnants: black holes
(16.1-16.3, 17.1-17.2)
- Week 12A:
Eclipsing binaries I
(7.3)
- Week 12B:
Eclipsing binaries II
- Week 13A:
Pulsing stars I
(14.2-14.3)
- Week 13B:
Pulsing stars II
(14.1)
- Week 14A:
Putting pulsing stars to work
- Week 14B: No class - Thanksgiving break
- Week 15A: Student presentations I (review early for credit)
- Week 15B: Student presentations II (review early for credit)
-
Final Exam: date TBA
Homework
-
HW 1: Properties of light
Due Thursday, Sep 3, at start of class.
-
HW 2: Stars in the solar neighborhood
Due Thursday, Sep 17, at start of class.
-
HW 3: Stars and radiation
Due Thursday, Oct 1, at start of class.
-
HW 4: Stellar interiors and models
Due Thursday, Oct 22, at start of class.
-
HW 5: Stellar evolution
Due Thursday, Nov 12, at start of class.
-
HW 6: Review and comment on student presentations
Due Thursday, Nov 19, and Tuesday, Nov 24, at least 3 hours
before class meets.
Before a presentation is given in class,
read the copy which sits in the "Discussions" section
of myCourses. If you leave a comment in the topic,
providing praise and/or constructive criticism for the
speaker, you will earn credit toward HW 6.
You must comment cogently on at least four presentations
in order to earn full credit. Commenting on additional
presentations can earn extra credit.
Extra credit projects
Extra credit assignments are completely optional.
If you choose to do one,
you can add up to five percent to your overall course score.
Each assignment must be submitted
in hardcopy form.
- I taught a course on stellar astrophysics, but with quite a
different focus, a long time ago. Perhaps some of the
material there could be useful.
- There are some excellent textbooks which are free to read on line.
For this course, you might consider
- Another set of resources which are free to read online are
the lecture notes written by J. B. Tatum,
of the University of Victoria. For this course, you might examine
- A good history and explanation of spectral classification is
-
Spectral classification
by Apellaniz, Negueruela, and Caballero,
to appear as a chapter in
Encyclopeia of Astrophysics, ed. Mandel & Schneider.
This page maintained by Michael Richmond.
Last modified Aug 2, 2026.
Copyright © Michael Richmond.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons License.