How CCD works 15 points.

Basic Details of a CCD can be found here. A CCD is a light bucket that can analyze photons through something called the photoelectric effect. We can thank Einstein for this understanding....

Your goal today is to learn more about the photoelectric effect by working on the lab design here

Summarize your findings on your blog for this lab. Tables of data would be nice.

Using the Sloan Digital Sky Survey LAB--25 pts

SDSS is an ambitious project that attempts to map 1/4 of the visible sky over a period of years. This is a HUGE database of more than 90 million objects.

To familiarize yourself with such a tool, you will be doing an online lab, found here

The accompanying worksheet can be found here Copy it into a Microsoft Word document if you wish, or print it off and write in the values.

Everyone must do this post, even if not enrolled in the lab section of astronomy.

Due Date: 10/7/2008

Wilson and Penzias vs. Davis and Bahcall

It's not fair! Wilson and Penzias discovered CMB in months, while Davis and Bahcall had to work almost 40 years to get their results on the neutrino.

Comment on the role of serendipity in the role of science. Do you think serendipity played a part in the discoveries of either team?

Also, comment on the fact that three of the four above won Nobel prizes. Do Nobel prizes favor experimentalists or theorists? Who gets left out?

Finding out about Sunspots LAB (30 pts)

Sunspots


How do sunspots affect us? What do you know about sunspots? Want to observe sunspots? Track solar flare/sunspot activity?m Interpret Maunder diagrams? Look at magnetic fields of sunspots?


Here's your chance. You have one week to take a look at sunspots and create an artifact and 1 page summary. Talk to me if you have questions.

How do you study? (10)

There will be a test next week, and the first two tests have not gone so well for many of you. Perhaps it is a college test that creates anxiety. Perhaps it is a lack of studying. Perhaps it is not knowing WHAT to study.

SO please, tell me by Friday noon, 9/26/2008, exactly how you prepare for the exam. Post as a COMMENT on this blog. Late assignments for the post will not be accepted.

Telescope Types (15)

As we study ideas like the HR diagram, we need more and more telescopes to gather data. How do new telescopes, like the Webb telescopes, which focus on gathering light from ancient stars, differ from Galileo's or Newton's, or even the Hale telescope? What types of EM radiation do they look for? Why can't we see these from earth?

Pick one of the following telescopes and find out a)the EM radiation range targeted by the following telescopes (there may be more than one) b) a picture generated by this telescope (or, if it is a prototype, a schematic of the design) c) how old the light coming into the telescope is, in light years or light minutes d) if the telescope uses mirrors, CCDs, lenses, or a combination of all. Post. Note: this is such an open-ended assignment that it would be INCONCEIVABLE for all the data to be the same (so quit copying..I notice :-)


Chandra

James Webb Telescope

Hubble

Spitzer

SOHO

the Very Large Array

Notes on Stellar Spectra (10 pts)

The picture includes some of the notes that the class took on stars and stellar spectra. Use the class-generated information to answer the questions below. Do this on your own blog, please.

1. Absorption spectra are created when a gas passes in front of an emitted photon of light. A line spectra appears when no gas is available. What type of spectra are more likely to be produced when light travels to earth?

2. Is parallax more likely to appear for closer or further stars? Why do you believe this?

3. A Cepheid variable is a star that allows us to measure distance using a period? What variable are we using for the period?

4. What is the the nuclear engine in the heart of a star, and how does it work?

5. How is magnitude different from a star's intensity? Why?