The Moon Hoax

Today in class, we're going to watch Conspiracy Theory: Did We Land on the Moon? If you miss this, you can watch it on YouTube on your own. (Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5)

Phil Plait started writing about all the inaccuracies in this on his Bad Astronomy blog years ago. Several groups have posted video responses included National Geographic, Penn and Teller, and Mythbusters. Here are some clips from that episode of Mythbusters.

The Pluto Game

Today and Wednesday we're playing The Pluto Debate game. You can download the student slides and review them beforehand to better prepare for the game. Today we have a few students presentations and one student vote. On Wednesday we will vote on 5A, 5B, 6A, and 6B. Be sure to have your questions ready!

Introduction to MasteringAstronomy practice homework

I've received a few comments from students that missed points on Assignment 1 because they didn't know how to enter in their responses. Checking my gradebook, I discovered that the vast majority of these students had not done the "Introduction to MasteringAstronomy" practice homework that taught you how to do this in MasteringAstronomy. I've decided to re-open that practice homework so people can do it if they skipped it. Please, please, PLEASE go back and finish this if you haven't already. Even though it is not worth any points itself, you will likely miss points in the future on regular assignments if you haven't completed it.