<p>Hi peoples, </p>
<p>I will probably be attending Olin College, which has cross-reg with Wellesley. I'm wondering, how good are the astronomy/astrophysics courses at Wellesley. Olin doesn't have any, and I'm pretty interested in astrophysics.</p>
<p>Supposedly Olin is currently offering a half semester particle Astrophysics class, but I can't find anything about it on the course catalog (they probably still haven't taken down the advertisement from bulletin board at Wellesley's observatory).</p>
<p>Astronomy at Wellesley is excellent. We have an observatory with two pre-1900 Alvan Clark refractors and a modern 24" research telescope with a CCD camera. All are used pretty much every clear night. The professor we "stole" from MIT is impressed at what facilities we have for our department size. The Astronomy department is one of those homey places where everybody knows everybody and the professors talk with the students because it's fun. The department offers 4 100 level courses, 4 200 level courses, 3 300 level courses and a not for credit course in film Astrophotography.</p>
<p>Astrophysics (or at least the advanced seminar that is called "Astrophysics"), is taught particularly as an advanced subject that has 2 years of physics (intro mechanics, e & m, modern physics, waves/vibrations).</p>
<p>I would recommend taking either Astro 101, or if you are willing to wait until the fall of your sophomore year (you can't x-reg 1st semester), Astro 110 (the intro course for science majors).</p>
<p>You would not be the first Olin student to cross-regester into the Astro department. An Olin student cross-registered for Astro 110 last semester and has been pretty active in the department; he even works for one of the professors doing service observing of Asteroids.</p>
<p>There's also a fairly active Astronomy club (ASTRO) that goes on camping trips, holds open nights and lectures, and does for fun observing and Astrophotography.</p>
<p>The department website has course descriptions, facilities descriptions and photos:
<a href="http://www.wellesley.edu/Astronomy/%5B/url%5D">http://www.wellesley.edu/Astronomy/</a></p>
<p>If you have any further questions, just ask.</p>
<p>Ah, here we are. It's on the bottom of page 9 (as in this document's page nine, not the actual ninth page).</p>