UIS Graduate and Undergraduate Catalog
Academic Year 2005 - 2006

ASTRONOMY - PHYSICS
Thematic Activity

Emeritus Faculty Alexander J. Casella, Charles Schweighauser
Associated Faculty Hei-Chi Chan

Contact: (217) 206-6721
asp@uis.edu or www.uis.edu/astronomy/

Students may pursue an individualized degree that includes astronomy-physics through UIS' liberal studies or individual option programs.

The astronomy-physics option provides courses and laboratory work in astronomy and physics, featuring an astronomical observatory with one eight-inch and one 14-inch Schmidt-Cassegrain telescope, an eight-inch Newtonian telescope, an eight-inch fixed focal point telescope for persons with disabilities, a diffraction grating spectrograph, a hydrogenalpha filter, an objective prism, and a charge-coupled device (CCD). A 20-inch telescope and a 16-inch telescope are installed under dark skies at a site remote from the campus. They are used for training advanced students and for research work in photometry and spectroscopy. Opportunities are provided for students to do research with astronomy-physics faculty.

Admission
Courses are open to undergraduate and master's degree students. In 400-level courses, however, graduate students are expected to do additional work, including reading selected primary sources and, when appropriate, completing additional observatory/laboratory work.

Individualized Degree Option
Students may pursue an individualized degree that includes astronomy-physics through UIS( liberal studies program (bachelor's degree) or individual option program (master's degree). A typical core group of courses for a degree might include:

ASP 203 Modern Astronomy
ASP 404 Astrophysics
ASP 406 Modern Cosmology
ASP 407 Practical Astronomy
ASP 408 Observational Astronomy
ASP 409 Galaxies: Structure and Evolution

Students should ask astronomy-physics faculty for advice about courses related to degree work in the individual option or liberal studies programs.

Contact the program office for further information.