Observing projects, from which
you should choose two
Stellar
evolution in globular clusters
Main observational
challenges: measuring accurate magnitudes and colors of about 104
stars in a crowded field, over a 9-10 magnitude range; identifying
several dozen periodically-variable cluster members, and measuring
the cluster distance thereby.
The
nuclei of Seyfert galaxies
Main observational
challenges: making particularly sharp images of certain nearby
spiral galaxies, measuring size and color of their nuclei, and the
colors of clusters and star-formation regions elsewhere in the
galaxies.
Observations of transiting exoplanets
Main
observational challenges: achieving very precise and accurate (<<
1%) relative photometriic measurements; planning time-critical
observations. See below for a couple of utilities.
Asteroid
306128 Pipher
Main observational challenges:
tracking and observing faint objects at non-sidereal rates;
detecting and characterizing variability that is not necessarily
periodic.
Excitation of H II regions
Main observational challenges: precise and acccurate narrowband
photometry; spectrophotometry of extended objects.
See also the
long form addendum to the spectral-line imaging lesson.
Herbig-Haro
objects and mass loss from protostars
Main observational challenges: precise and acccurate narrowband
photometry; spectrophotometry of extended objects.
Drylab
projects 2020
Bad weather and a pandemic have
really ruined the main point of this course.
Common to all the
projects
Telescope startup and shutdown
Guide to
observations
Telescope operation, target
acquisition, autoguiding, and camera operation.
Guide to
image reduction
Basic image calibration,
alignment, coaddition, and composition using CCDStack.
Exoplanet
transit tools
Swarthmore
transit predictor
| Exoplanet
Archive at IPAC
IDL
resources
List of
astrolib
routines | Bob O'Connell's
IDL tutorial | His
astronomer's guide to IDL | Aaron Barth's
ATV instructions
Sample
data: H II regions and HH objects
M 42, Ha,
flux calibrated, units = erg s-1 cm-2 ster-1,
64 MB. One big H II region, three decent-size HH objects, and a
detectable proplyd.
Calibration data for Camera #1 (2014, 5-filter wheel)
1x1 dark
1x1 bias
2x2 dark
2x2
bias
Calibration data for Camera #2 (2019, 7-filter wheel)
1x1 dark
1x1 bias
2x2 dark
2x2
bias