NCHU Course Outline

Course Name	(中) 普通天文學(4206)
	(Eng.) General Astronomy
Offering Dept	Department of Physics (Optoelectronics Program)
Course Type	Elective	Credits	3	Teacher	Hashimoto Tetsuya
Department	Department of Physics (Optoelectronics Program)/Undergraduate	Language	English	Semester	2026-FALL
Course Description	[!!! This course will include a short trip to the Lulin Observatory to conduct hands-on observations !!!] The trip is scheduled for 26-28 Dec 2026. The details of the trip will be announced later. The maximum number of students who can participate in the Lulin trip would be ~12, while more students can be accepted for the weekly lectures. This course will overview the cutting-edge of modern astronomy and astrophysics. The course topics includes introduction to astronomy, planets, stars, galaxies, black holes, galaxy clusters, and large-scale structures, and some key concepts e.g., distance ladder, cosmic expansion, dark matter, dark energy etc. If students have physics background, it would help better understand, although the physics background is not required to take this course.
Prerequisites				self-directed learning in the course	Y

Relevance of Course Objectives and Core Learning Outcomes(%)			Teaching and Assessment Methods for Course Objectives
Course Objectives	Competency Indicators	Ratio(%)	Teaching Methods	Assessment Methods
This course aim to learn some basic knowledge to better understand the Universe. Astronomy and Astrophysics are rapidly growing in these years with new instruments and technology, including NASA's James Webb Space Telescope, the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array, and Five-hundred-meter Aperture Spherical Telescope etc. Such cutting-edge telescopes are keep releasing exciting news in the world. This course aims to provide sufficient knowledge to understand such exciting achievements and news in modern astronomy and astrophysics.
Course Content and Homework/Schedule/Tests Schedule
Week Course Content Week 1 (08 Sep): Introduction to the course Week 2 (15 Sep): Introduction to astronomy and astrophysics Week 3 (22 Sep): How to observe the Universe Week 4 (29 Sep): Structures of the Universe: planets, stars, galaxies, and galaxy clusters Week 5 (06 Oct): Black holes in a wide range of physical scales Week 6 (13 Oct): The history of the Universe 1 Week 7 (20 Oct): The history of the Universe 2 (distribute the midterm assignment) Week 8 (27 Oct): Review of Chapters 2-7 and Q&A for the midterm assignment Week 9 (03 Nov): Explosions in the Universe 1: nova, kilonova and supernova (deadline for the midterm assignment) Week 10 (10 Nov): Explosions in the Universe 2: gamma-ray bursts Week 11 (17 Nov): Explosions in the Universe 3: fast radio bursts Week 12 (24 Nov): Remaining mysteries in the Universe 1 Week 13 (01 Dec): Remaining mysteries in the Universe 2 Week 14 (08 Dec): New telescopes and technologies: distribute the final assignment Week 15 (15 Dec): Review of Chapters 9-14 and Q&A for the final assignment Week 16 (22 Dec): Deadline for the final assignment (no need to come) self-directed learning    01.Participation in professional forums, lectures, and corporate sharing sessions related to industry-government-academia-research exchange activities.    02.Viewing multimedia materials related to industry and academia.
Evaluation
Attendance: 40% Active discussion and question: 20% Midterm assignment: 20% Final assignment: 20%
Textbook & other References
I plan to distribute my slides for learning material. Gmeet if necessary meet.google.com/zka-bzjb-uuc
Teaching Aids & Teacher's Website
Teaching materials used in this course will be uploaded to the iLearning3.
Office Hours
08:00 AM-17:00 PM
Sustainable Development Goals, SDGs(Link URL)
include experience courses：N

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Update Date, year/month/day：2026/09/07 16:51:37	Printed Date, year/month/day：2026 / 10 / 17
The second-hand book website：http://www.myub.com.tw/