Reading:

Binney and Merrifield, Chapter 1

Optional reading:

Berendzen, R., Hart, R., and Seeley, D. 1984, Man discovers the galaxies. An expanded version of the historical background given in Binney and Merrifield
Hubble, E. 1936, The realm of the nebulae. A unique semi-popular synopsis of our understanding of galaxies and cosmology in the 1930s.

Figures:

basic geometry of the Milky Way:

Kapteyn Universe (from Kapteyn 1922)

Shapley's diagram of the globular cluster system (from Shapley & Shapley 1919)

Optical panorama of the Milky Way

COBE near-infrared panorama of the Milky Way

M31 and the Moon  (from NOAO image gallery)

black hole at the Galactic center:

orbit of star S2 around Sgr A*  (from Schodel et al. 2002)

mass model of the Galactic center  (from Schodel et al. 2002)

Genzel group web site at MPE

Ghez group web site at UCLA

"A Geometric Determination of the Distance to the Galactic Center", Eisenhauer et al. (2003)

"Stellar Orbits Around the Galactic Center Black Hole", Ghez et al. (2005)

"The Proper Motion of Sagittarius A*. II. The Mass of Sagittarius A*", Reid & Brunthaler (2004)

dark matter:

early papers on evidence for dark matter from rotation curves:
    - Freeman (1970)
    - Rogstad & Shostak (1972)
    - Roberts & Rots (1973)
    - Ostriker, Peebles & Yahil (1974)

rotation curve of NGC 3198 (from van Albada et al. 1985)
rotation curves (from Kent 1987)

other handouts:

numbers to memorize