Due Nov 3

Gas Giants and the Discovery of New Planets

Herschel observations yield Uranus, Le Verrier’s calculations yield Neptune. Storytellers imagine travel to the Moon.

In Class: Midterm

The midterm will take place during the first half of class. Details linked at top right.

Astronomy Reading

Openstax Astronomy (pdf | online), Chapter 11.

Arts Assignment

Read “A Visit to the Moon,” by George Griffith, published in the January 1900 issue of Pearson’s Magazine. The story is the second (or perhaps the third) episode from a longer series detailing the adventures of a newlywed couple traveling through the Solar System. I wasn’t able to lay hands on the original magazine, but I took the text from freeread.de, an Australian version of Project Gutenberg. I did correct a few obvious errors in the process, so if you need to cite this source later in the term, I suppose you should credit me, Charles Henebry, as editor and give a link to our course website as your source.

Watch A Trip to the Moon, a pioneering 1902 movie by Georges Méliès. France was a leader in the cinema of the Silent Era, and this film made a powerful impression across the globe for its special effects and production values. Today multiple copies of this 16-minute adventure short have been uploaded to YouTube, differing principally in the audio accompaniment, but I particularly recommend this version: link.

Respond with at least one comment to at least one of the following prompts:

1. Discuss the two stories’ scientific accuracy. You can answer by comparing the two, or focus on just one story. Either way, ground your analysis in telling details.
2. What sort of person ventures into space? Discuss the theme of human audacity in the two stories. You can answer by comparing the two, or focus on just one story. Either way, ground your analysis in telling details.
3. What are aliens like? What cultural clichés stand out in these stories’ depiction of the moon and its inhabitants? You can answer by comparing the two stories, or focus on just one. Either way, ground your analysis in telling details.