Haojing Yan
aut viam inveniam aut faciam
Courses that I have developed at MU
Extragalactic Astronomy (PHYCS/ASTRON 4360; PHYCS/ASTRON 7360)
This course aims to introduce to students the most basic knowledge of extragalactic astronomy. It starts from our Milky Way as a galaxy, and extend to the most distant universe where we still have direct observations. The main topics include galaxy morphology and classification, groups and clusters of galaxies, active galactic nuclei, and galaxy formation and evolution. The course also briefly touches on observational cosmology, such as distance ladders, expansion of the universe, etc.
This course was first offered in 2012 Spring as a topic course under the list of PHYCS 4102 and cross-listed with PHYCS 7301. In 2013 Spring, the course was officially listed under PHYCS 4360 and cross-listed with PHYCS 7360. In 2014 Spring, the additional listing of ASTRON 4360 and ASTRON 7360 were added.
Astrophysics Techniques (PHYCS/ASTRON 4020; PHYCS/ASTRON 7020)
The main objective of this course is to introduce to students some of the most basic techniques in observational astronomy, in particular in the optical regime. The main topics include CCD imaging, photometry, and CCD data reduction. The course is designed to be data-oriented, and aims to give students some hand-on experiences in astronomical data analysis.
(This course was first offered under the listing of PHYCS/ASTRON 3020 in 2012 Fall semester. In 2014 Spring, the course numbers were upgraded to PHYCS/ASTRON 4020, and it was cross-listed with the graduate-level PHYCS/ASTRON 8101 (topic course). In 2016 Spring, the graduate-level cross-listing became PHYCS 7020. The course is now offered by Prof. Yicheng Guo, who has been teaching it differently.)
Galactic Astronomy (PHYCS/ASTRON 4350; ASTRON 7350)
This course aims to introduce to students the most basic knowledge of our Galaxy: how it looks like, how it might be formed, and most importantly, how we have gained our knowledge about all this through observations. The main topics include distance measurement of stars, evolution of stars, interstellar medium, star clusters, the structure of Galaxy. The course also briefly touches on “Near-field Cosmology” (sometimes referred to as “Galactic Archeology”), i.e., what we can infer from our Galaxy the general picture of galaxy formation and evolution.
This course was first offered in 2015 Spring under the listing of PHYCS 4350, and was cross-listed with PHYCS 8301 (topic course) for graduate students. It was not until 2020 Spring that the graduate-level course number ASTRON 7350 was added.
History of Astronomy (ASTRON 1200)
Astronomy is the oldest and yet the newest science discipline that has far-reaching impact to our civilization. This course aims to provide a brief historical account of the major milestones in Astronomy that have led to our current understanding of the universe.
This general science education course is taught online asynchronously. I first offered it in 2021 Spring, and it was quite reasonably received. My plan is to offer it on a regular basis.
Other Courses that I have been teaching
Introduction to Astronomy (ASTRON 1010)
Introduction to Astronomy focuses on understanding the nature of science as taught through a survey of the Universe, looking at its content, structures, development over time and the physical processes that determine each of these. This course assumes no prior knowledge of astronomy or physics and emphasizes conceptual understanding of astronomy.
I have taught this course both face-to-face and online (asynchronously).