This page is an introduction to the Telecourse for students who have just enrolled. I recommend opening two windows on your computer -- one for this page, and one for the Home page -- so that you can more easily follow the discussion below.
     If you have not yet explored my website, take a look at the Home page (http://cseligman.com). The banner area at the top is shown on every page on the website. It links to pages which may be of some use at one time or another (e.g., if you're lost, try using the Site Map), but are not specifically related to the Telecourse. Similarly, the section immediately below, which includes Planetarium and Open House links, may be of great interest, but has nothing to do with the Telecourse.
     The most important material, as far as the Telecourse is concerned, is in the box which begins with Recent Announcements, and includes a link for the Astronomy 1 (Lecture Class and Telecourse) Information page. Note that each link in this section of the Home page has a "revised" date, which indicates when I last made a significant change to that page, or to one of the pages linked from that page. You should frequently check the Home page to see if any of these revision dates are more recent than your last visit. If so, look at the altered page(s), to see whether the change is related to the Telecourse.
     For now, the most important link is to the Astronomy 1 (Lecture Class and Telecourse) Information page. (You can also reach that page directly, at http://cseligman.com/astronomyclasses.htm.) Click that link to view all class-specific pages, such as the regular lecture class Syllabus, the Telecourse Syllabus, the regular lecture class Calendar, the Telecourse Calendar, and so on. At the beginning of the semester, some of these pages may not have been updated from the previous semester, so if the latest revision date is during the previous semester, whatever information is on that page should be taken with a grain of salt.
     Once you reach the Astronomy 1 (Lecture Class and Telecourse) Information page, click on the Telecourse Calendar to see the on-campus meeting dates, a summary of the material to be covered on each exam, and a link to maps of the campus and D building. Also click on the Textbook Information and Reading Assignments page to read about the textbook, as you absolutely have to have a copy of the text to do well in this class, and there are no copies in the Library, nor do I have extra copies to loan to students. Note that the online astronomy eText, although a very important supplement to the required text, is not a replacement for it. You can buy the textbook at the LBCC ASB Bookstore (make sure you get the text for my class, and not the one for Professor Sholle's or the other instructors' classes), or you can save the best part of a hundred dollars by buying a copy of the textbook online. However, there are several different versions of the textbook, and only two (as discussed on the Textbook Information page) are adequate for my class; so if you do buy a textbook online, you should carefully read the discussion on the Textbook Information page beforehand, and use one of the textbook links provided there to make sure that you get the correct textbook (you can also contact me, to see if a text which you already have might do).
     There are many other links on the Astronomy 1 (Lecture Class and Telecourse) Information page which you will make use of, over the course of the semester; but the ones discussed above are the most important ones for now, and I will discuss the others at the first on-campus meeting (see the Telecourse Calendar for the date and time of that meeting). I look forward to meeting you at that time; but if you have any questions about the class or the use of the text or website before then, please contact me at courtney@cseligman.com.