The public video lectures cover just the astronomy content from the Astronomy Notes textbook. The public lectures do not include the material that is for the astronomy class such as how to use the class Canvas, lecture outlines in the Student Guide, exam review documents, etc. Students in the Bakersfield College astronomy classes should use the astronomy class lecture videos posted in the class Canvas to get that class-specific content.
This video set covers the interstellar medium (the gas and dust between the stars) and the Milky Way: its structure and how we know what it's like while being bound within our tiny solar system. The video lectures are grouped together in the Milky Way Public YouTube playlist. Here are the individual videos for the interstellar medium and the Milky Way:
Video 1: (for webpages #2 and #3) This video lecture is about the interstellar medium, the stuff between the stars. It begins with a description of how empty interstellar space is and then covers the effect of the interstellar dust. After that it goes into the hydrogen gas which makes up most of the interstellar medium, starting with the stuff that glows in the visible band as H II regions and then the very useful 21-cm line radiation that is used to map the Galaxy. First lecture for chapter 14 of Astronomy Notes.
Video 2: (for webpages #4, #5, #6, and #7) This video is about the structure of our home galaxy, the Milky Way. It covers how we can figure out what our Galaxy looks like while being embedded within it and how we determine our location within it. It also covers how we use Cepheid variable stars to measure great distances and how we measure the mass of the Galaxy, including all of the dark matter, using the rotation curve. First of a set about the Milky Way and second lecture for chapter 14 of Astronomy Notes.
Video 3: (for webpages #8 and #9) This video is the second part of the lecture about the structure of our home galaxy, the Milky Way. It covers how spiral arms are formed through spiral density waves, self-propagating star formation, or transient phenomenon. It then covers the Population I and II stars and the supermassive black hole at the center of the Galaxy. Second of a set about the Milky Way and third lecture for chapter 14 of Astronomy Notes.
last updated: June 28, 2022