3 posts tagged “ucf”

I finally got registered for my Intro to Astronomy and Lab classes today - woot! Classes begin at UCF and SCC on August 25th, so only three short weeks of sweet freedom left... but that's okay, because I'm very excited now to finally be able to start on my Astronomy minor for real.

I'm slightly worried about what the teacher will be like. He doesn't fare well on Rate My Professor, but I'm going to chalk that up to students who take astronomy for an "easy" science credit, but wind up with a passionate science geek for a teacher. Some of the comments made the guy sound like your basic nerd, and man do I love nerds... so hopefully it will all be fine.

Hmmm... maybe it's about time to break into the "Gravitation" chapter that we skipped in Physics I class.

I can't wait!

I don't want to give the impression that UCF is a bad place to study Astronomy, by the way. They do not offer a major for it, only a minor, but by all indications the faculty is working hard to make a fine planetary astronomy program. The school does offer a Physics major, and those interested in Astronomy probably take the Physics major and fill that out with the Astronomy minor (and hence why the school generally doesn't bother with the AST lab mentioned in the previous post - most of their students are already taking Physics II and it's lab, so few students were signing up for the AST lab).

In fact, UCF researchers have applied for and gotten themselves rather a large share of time on the Spitzer Space Telescope as referenced here on the UCF News & Information Page. The school also has its own observatory, the Robinson Observatory, with "a 20" Ritchie Chretien Telescope" which was just installed within the last year to replace an older, smaller telescope. 

They are currently running several very interesting research projects with the Space Research Initiative, JPL, the National Science Foundation, and of course NASA, as it is practically next door. I'm looking forward to getting into the more serious classes (and, admittedly, a little terrified). Hope they don't mind an English major mucking about and getting in the way. At this rate I'd be happy to sweep the floors and run for coffee if I could just be close to the research looking at or for extrasolar planets!

I'm pretty close to being able to get into the Astronomy class that I want in the Fall semester - at a different college. Maybe I've mentioned before the oddity that UCF offers Intro to Astronomy (AST 2002, at least at UCF) but they don't offer the lab... ever... or at least not anytime in the past or next couple of years. But the lab is kinda sorta required for my Astronomy minor - I could get around this requirement by taking the Physics II lab, of course, but that, you see, would mean that I was taking Physics II. (Do. Not. Want.) Yes, I understand that my whining permits were all revoked when I got that B in Physics I, but it was extremely painful and required a huge amount of help from my beloved, and is an experience that I do not wish to repeat, much less amplify.

So, I am attempting to take Intro and the lab at the other local community college (Seminole Community College) because they are the only place that offers the lab. They also have a cute little planetarium where they do shows on the weekend and for student field trips. Anyway, my transient student form has been approved by the hundred or so (by which I mean three) people through whom it had to pass by at UCF. Now I am waiting on a single approval from the registrar at SCC. Come on dude, or dudette... don't leave me hanging!