Wk10-StellarEvolution_NightSky_Actvity
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University of Notre Dame *
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Course
1107
Subject
Astronomy
Date
Jan 9, 2024
Type
Pages
5
Uploaded by savirkris
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Astronomy 1101
Stellar Evolution & Night Sky Activity
Part 1:
Go to
http://stellarium-web.org/
, which is the web interface for the free planetarium software.
Stellarium is also a free desktop app if you find you want to explore more or find it better to
install it.
You do not have to pay for an app
.
Once Stellarium loads, you can click the hamburger in the top left corner (three lines) to close
the left panel. At the bottom you can turn constellation names on with the triangle. You can pinch
zoom in and out of the sky using your fingers on a track pad or phone. You can change the time
in the lower right corner and your location in the lower left.
Pay close attention to the circles, ellipses, and dotted circles, these are celestial objects of
interest. Specifically, the dotted circles are star clusters.
The date should be set to today automatically but change the time to approximately 3am. This
should make Orion appear prominently in the southern part of the sky.
1.
Click on stars and write down five additional star names, their spectral type letters, and
approximate color. You should have at least 1 red and 1 blue star. Example: Sirius (A) White
-
Alpha Centuri, Blue, A8vn
-
3 Cephei, Orange, K0IV
-
Vega, Blue, A0Va
-
Altair, White, A7Vn
- Sadr, Yellow, F8lb
2.
Explore the sky and see if you can find three star clusters. You will have to zoom in and scan
the sky to see all but the most prominent. Write down the star cluster names and the
constellation you found them in.
Pleiades, Taurus
The Lost Jewel, Orion
Double Cluster, Perseus
3.
What other deep sky objects did you find while exploring?
NGC 524, Galaxy
De Marian’s Nebula, Nebula
UGC 12822, Galaxy
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4.
Choose one of your star clusters to look up on Wikipedia. If they are listed, look up the
distance, age, and other notable features.
The lost Jewel, Orion
1. 1793 Light Years
2. 4.7 Million Years old
3. It’s Apparent size is 14 x 14 arc minutes
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5.
Given the age of your cluster, do you expect to see incredibly massive stars on its HR
Diagram? What about low mass stars?
It’s too old but I would not be surprised to see larger stars and a bit hotter.
6.
Now look up two of the stars you wrote down. Read about what the star names mean and
what is special about each star write down highlights. From the information box, find the
stars’ mass, luminosity, evolutionary stage, and age.
7.
For the two stars that you chose, write down the stellar evolution sequence from formation to
how each will die starting with the collapse of a cloud of gas, starting H-fusion and lying on
the Main Sequence to the end stages. Also mark which stage they are in now.
8.
Pick one of your stars. Write down instructions on how you might explain to someone how
you would find it in the night sky. These do not have to be perfect just see if you can describe
how you would find it, and what someone should look for (color, brightness, location relative
to other stars, etc).
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9.
For the star you chose in the previous question, go to
http://simbad.cfa.harvard.edu/simbad/
.
SIMBAD is an astronomical database where you can look up objects and find physical
characteristics, alternative names, as well as a lot of papers about the object. SIMBAD can be
a bit confusing. I will use
Rigel
as an example. But in the “Basic Search” type your star
name. If you get an error go back to the Wikipedia page and choose one of the “other
designations” from the info panel such as “HD 34085” for
Rigel
. Click SIMBAD search and
the star’s information page will show up. You can see all of the star’s identifiers (all the
catalogues it is in) and a lot more information. Below identifiers there is a “References” area.
Write down how many references your star has and between which dates and today.
10. Scroll to the earliest references (from the 1800s in some cases) and click on the blue number,
1892Obs… for Rigel. It takes you to a page that near the bottom says “View Reference in
ADS” click it and it takes you to another database filled with every astronomical publication.
It gives you the publication information but on the right it has a link to “full text” and all you
have to do is click the pdf or image icon and see that journal article.
What was the topic of
your article?
You do not have to understand it or read all of it but skim and see what
astronomers in the 19
th
century were measuring.
Write a short paragraph about the topic
and what you learned.