ASTR 102 - Third Assignment
due midnight 12th April 2017
This assignment is meant to be engaging and interesting rather than technically challenging. I don’t want any submissions to exceed the equivalent of a few printed pages. I am completely relaxed about word count, format, and so on, and don’t care about how you format any references or sources you might provide – just make sure that they are coherent enough for me to track down if I need to.
Please submit your report to me as an email attachment, being sure to put your student number on the front page of the report and also in the subject line of the email message, so that I can sort them out quickly.
Extra note: please put anything critical in the body of the email message itself. Although I will try to read your remarks, I won’t be keeping the messages, just downloading the attachments for marking.
For the assignment itself, there is a single requirement, although it comes in three parts, of which you must provide an answer to any two. The two you choose will each be worth half of the total mark, equally weighted, so pay attention to both!
Note: of the available 10 marks in total, you will lose 1.0 full mark for each day or part of a day that the submission is received late.
The Assignment Itself
(choose any two of the three parts)
Find and introduce me to some interesting way in which astronomy has been represented in one of the following contexts:
1. literature (especially poetry) – but not science fiction;
2. music; and
3. the arts – but not the movies; rather, art in its more traditional sense.
Important note: I encourage you to find examples that are not among the more obvious ones. Use your imagination here!
Some examples might help to clarify what I mean by that:
· In music, for instance, the ‘obvious’ things include
o “The Planets” by Gustav Holst;
o “Here Comes the Sun” by the Beatles;
o the theme music to the TV series “The Big Bang Theory;”
o Mozart’s “Jupiter” symphony;
o the opening music “Also Sprach Zarathustra” used in the famous movie “2001: A Space Odyssey;” and many others.
· .Classical art includes
o the ‘Venus de Milo’ sculpture;
o Boticelli’s “Birth of Venus” painting;
o van Gogh’s “Starry Night;” and so on.
Instead of these really obvious ones, try to find something that is truly off the beaten path! – ideally something that may be meaningful to you personally, although that’s not essential.
Contributions from any century and culture – modern or ancient -- are welcome. But I am expecting more than just a name of your chosen item! For instance, it would completely inadequate merely to tell me in a single line that Mozart’s 41st Symphony is called “Jupiter.” I would like you to provide a few relevant comments and a bit of discussion, description, evaluation or interpretation along with your submission.
I am much more knowledgeable about music than I am about art and poetry, but I expect that you can probably draw my attention to some examples that will be very new to me in any one of these three contexts. Where relevant, it would be nice to be given web links to actual performances, if you can. Please embed these in your electronic submission so that I can follow up on them – which I will! And of course embedded still pictures, or links to them, would be appreciated too.
One possibility that might appeal to you is that of seeing how artists have incorporated modern astronomical discoveries into the creative arts or music, perhaps in a way that is meant to express some interpretation (which need not be technical or strive to be completely correct: artistic license is allowed).
On the next page, I present a “marking scheme,” out of five marks. I will apply that scheme twice, once to each of the two aspects you chose to address (e.g. music and poetry, say).
Marking the Submissions
(out of 5 marks per element)
Assessed quality / Rationale / MarkA+ / Something really special and unexpected / 5.0
A / Just about all I could ask for / 4.5
A- / Very good submission / 4.0
B/B+ / Quite good submission / 3.5
B- / Acceptable / 3.0
C’s / Marginal / 2.5
D or poorer / Shows little sign of serious effort / 2.0 or less
What I want to see:
1. Evidence that efforts were made to address the question I asked in a thoughtful and reasonable fashion.
2. Signs that care was taken with the presentation. It should not be filled with bad grammar, misspelt words, and sloppy construction. While it is not meant to be an ‘essay’ in the traditional sense of the word, it should nevertheless present a coherent and intelligible statement, analysis, or brief description – whatever was requested or is appropriate.