astronomy 101 planetarium lab
DESCRIPTION
Astronomy 101 Planetarium Lab. Instructor: Brian Pohl ConOps: Craig Zdanowicz www.physics.unc.edu/~bpohl/ YOU MAY SIT WHERE YOU WISH (except for the front row and the south section). Administrative Stuff. This is the last required lab Due next Wednesday (Apr .1 st ), no foolin! - PowerPoint PPT PresentationTRANSCRIPT
Astronomy 101 Planetarium Lab
Instructor: Brian PohlConOps: Craig Zdanowicz
www.physics.unc.edu/~bpohl/
YOU MAY SIT WHERE YOU WISH(except for the front row and the south section)
Administrative Stuff• This is the last required lab
– Due next Wednesday (Apr .1st), no foolin!• Next lab is the Make-up Lab (optional)
– 2 weeks hence: ( Apr. 13th, 14th )– I will have my last office hours on Monday and
Tuesday Apr. 20th and 21st (see last slide for details)
– Makeup lab due Wednesday Apr. 22nd
• Evaluations at end of lab today
Measurement in Astronomy
Angles in the Sky & Time
Size of the Earth & Location on the Earth
Motions of the Planets
Night Lab Measurements– Coordinates and the Motion of Stars,
quantitatively– Relative brightness of the stars– Size of planets– Structure of the surface of the Moon– The Spectrum of Hydrogen– Perhaps the Doppler shift, again from the
Spectrum– Possibly the physics of craters and meteors
Variable Brightness
May I present the Zeiss show!!
Intrinsic variables• Changes in
brightness caused by physical changes inside stars themselves
• Two types• Pulsating (what
we’ll deal with today)
• Eruptive
Pulsating starsExpansion and contraction of surface
Pressure and gravity are not in equilibrium
Smooth change in light curve
Note: The smaller a single star is physically, the brighter
Extrinsic variables• Changes in brightness
are apparent• Two types
– Eclipsing binaries (what we’ll deal with today)
– Rotating stars• Eclipsing binary
– Changes in brightness caused from eclipses of two stars as they orbit each other
Primary eclipse happens when hottest star goes behind
Note: a higher mass star is smaller in size
MagnitudeMagnitude system - use certain stars as brightness
standards a higher magnitude is a fainter object
Apparent magnitude - measure of how bright a star appears at earth, regardless of distance
Absolute magnitude - apparent magnitude it would have if star were placed at distance of 10 parsecs
1 2 3 4 5
Bright Less Bright Dim Dimmer Dimmest
Lab Write Up• No percent errors • Still need 2 sources of error!
– “Skill” of mag. Meas.• Only rewrite data or calculations if neatness
is an issue• Graphs - label period, axes, connect points
– Make sure magnitude goes in correct direction!• Answer questions on pages 59&60
– Incorporate these into your conclusion section
Some physical considerations
• What are we trying to measure?– Magnitudes? Yes
• But! The physical cause of the variability is the MOST important thing we are trying to measure– What interferes with our ability to
determine the physical cause of the variability??
All Power Points are on my website:http://www.physics.unc.edu/~bpohl
Visit office hours or email me if you have questions! [email protected]
Morehead room 403
Monday (week-after-lab) 3:00pm-5:00pmTuesday (week-after-lab) 5:00pm – 7:00pm
Evaluations
• Please turn in evaluations to Craig• You are evaluating the planetarium portion of the
lab. Night labs evaluated separately • Comments are appreciated, Please be constructive
– Something I did well– Something that needs improvement