This course deals with observation of astronomical objects, and as such will mean more to a student that has had an astronomy class of some sort, such as ASTR 250, ASTR 201, or even NSCI 111. However, motivated students can have this prerequisite waived by the instructor.

Students should be aware that the second half of the course uses unix computers extensively, though we will cover most of what you need to know in class. Mathematics used in class will be primarily trig, geometry, and logarithms; there are no specific calculus or vector prerequisites.