His tone definitely makes it hard to pay attention and stay awake during his lecture, although he cares about whether students understand the material. If you pay attention to the lecture and quizzes, you should be fine. His tests are MC, and a lot of the questions come from his online quizzes, but a lot of them are also curveballs - WATCH OUT FOR THOSE! That's the only reason why I'd say this class isn't exactly an easy A. The ones that he makes up himself can be very tricky. Don't screw around on the online quizzes (they come straight from the book's website) or the clicker questions or else you'll lose points that you might need later - that's why I got an A- instead of an A. The material was interesting enough, but I would have dropped this class if I didn't have such a cool TA (take Kevin Hainline if you can).

His lectures are REALLY boring but he is such a nice guy that I felt bad if I didnt go. You have to buy this interactive clicker so u can answer random questions throughout lecture (kinda makes u feel like ur on who wants to be a millionaire)...but anyways, the class is pretty easy. Clicker questions are worth 12.5 %, online quizzes are 12.5%, and the two midterms and final are worth 25% each. For the online quizzes and midterm/final make sure u go over the mastering astronomy website because they are the same exact questions. You don't really have to read the book, just go to lecture and refer to the book if needed. Also, he posts lecture notes that are really helpful. Overall, he is a good professor and you should try and enjoy the class because the content is very interesting (I actually learned a lot!).

He is a little monotonish, like the guy from the red eyes eye drop commercial, which makes it hard to stay awake in lecture, esp. with all the slides. But he's passionate about his work, which helps you get into the subject. I'm really into the speculative stuff like relativity and human presence in space, but after this class, I genuinely developed an interest in sun development, notably the fusion reactions within the star that produce energy sooo much more efficiently than anything we can do. As long as you know the quizzes pretty well, this class is not hard at all.

If you want a class where you can simply show up to the midterms and final, take astro 4. It was a class of about 80 and only about 15 people showed up to lectures regularly. The professor puts all of his notes on the internet, including past midterms. If you do decide to go the lectures, be prepared to fall asleep. He's a good guy, but he lectures as if his students are all expert astrophysicists. It's almost like he's speaking in a foreign language. The easiest way to do well is to go to your discussions and have the TA put everything in English. Midterms are easy (most of it is right off the old midterms that he puts on the internet), but there are 3 of them, including a final. It's an easy class to pass and a relatively easy B. If you want the A, you have to keep up with the reading and actually put effort into the class.