Expectations and Some Notes
Let's start with the expectations
We do expect you to read what is on these pages. Most of the text was written by us, but quite often you will find material that is placed in block quotes. That is material that we have copied from another source, but we believe that it is well presented or includes some phrasing we find interesting. Text in block quotes is required reading.
This is an example of what block quote text looks like.
This is an example of what block quote text looks like.
This is an example of what block quote text looks like.
In several cases we include PDFs in a frame. In a number of cases these will be scientific papers or multi-page abstracts. In most cases we include these to show you particular image or passage. You only need to look at the specified aspect of these, reading the entire PDF is optional. No example of this because we think it will be obvious.
As mentioned on the previous page, there are many included links throughout the text. You don't need to follow the included links. We have included them because we are a curious species and we want to make it easy for you to do some extra reading if a burst of curiosity hits you. In most cases these links lead you to Wikipedia, NASA or some other space related sites, which we think are good starting points.
You will also encounter a number or movie references and links included throughout the course and you may wonder why they are there. The simple answer: We like movies, especially Sci-fi movies. We think/talk about them in our real lives and it seemed a fun thing to include them here; especially given the subject matter. As you'll see later, one of the earliest surviving movies is about a trip to the moon. So, you may or may not find these inclusions amusing, but you do not need to watch any of the movies mentioned.
Some assorted Notes
This course was produced using the software Scalar, which is designed to convey visually impactful information. Of course with every medium there are pros and cons regarding its capabilities. We also have to be careful to properly follow copyright laws, which limits some of the content. So here are some issues you may encounter.Most of the visual content within Scalar (ie. images, movies) is directly sourced from an external website (e.g. http://solarsystem.nasa.gov/). This means you will need a working internet connection and if a site is down or slow, it will take time for the visual content to load.
The way these pages appear to you may depend on the browser and preferences you have set within the browser. One example we have noticed is that large images within IFrames seem to show initially different within different browsers. Check this IFame below, you may recognize this planet:
You may see this image as the full Earth, with a magnifying glass cursor when you move the mouse cursor over it (default in Firefox). Or it may appear as a zoomed in image already and you only see a corner (Safari). We include such large images because we believe it is important to be able to see the detail, but we also realize that it is nice to see the overview. So, if your default is the zoomed version, open the image in a new tab of simply view it and it will automatically be scaled to the browser width. The choice of browser is clearly yours, but we do think that Firefox does the overall best job in displaying our content.
Many scientific papers are behind paywalls which is why we don't include them. We do provide you with some optional links, but whether or not you will actually be able to download the PDF may depend on where you are. Some are accessible from within Brock (because the University pays for it) but not from other domains.
The Brock Library has put together a link of "Services and learning materials in a variety of formats for your consideration and enjoyment" for this course. They are not required, but some are quite good. If you are curious, you can enjoy them here.
One final note. We tried to include sources and links that should be very stable. But, this is the internet. So, if you come across the dreaded "404 Not Found" message for a dead link, please let us know.
The detailed course outline with dates is found in Sakai.
And that's all we have to say, you may as well get started on module 1. We hope you enjoy the course.