ASTR 4810/PHYS 5810, Fall 2005

Spectrum of the star HD 1069 (Courtesy of S. Howell, National Optical Astronomy Observatories)

Greetings to students in ASTR 4810/PHYS 5810 from the instructor, Nancy Morrison.

This page is intended to provide a backup copy of the images displayed in lecture, announcements relevant to the class, and access to the wealth of astronomical information on the World Wide Web.

Latest update: 12/5/05 17:46

Links to astronomy resources

The following books are on reserve at Carlson Library on 3-day loan.

Fundamental Astronomy by Karttunen et al. Formerly used as a text in this course, this book is good for celestial coordinates, spherical trig, and related topics. Chapter 2 (sky, time, spherical trig.) is available electronically.
Basic Physics of the Solar System by Blanco and McCuskey. Published in the 1960's, this book is badly dated in some respects, but it's good for celestial coordinates, time, and orbital mechanics.

Also recommended (for basic physics only) but not on reserve: Aller, L. H., Astrophysics; the Atmospheres of the Sun and Stars (New York, Ronald Press Co. [1963])

Backup copies of documents (PDF unless otherwise noted)

Syllabus for course (32kb) .
University calendar for fall 2005 with due dates marked (55k)
Homework assignments: 1 ... 2... 3 (2 typos fixed) ... 4 ... 5 ... 6 ... 7

Selected solutions to problems

Homework 2, problem 4
Homework 3, problem 6: page 1 ... page 2 ... page 3
Homework 4, problem 6 (PDF, 160kb, compatible with Acrobat 5 or later)

Images, or links to images, shown in class are given below.

Monday, December 5:

Luminosity effects at A0, graphical representation (link no. 12 on sidebar at left of page)
Equivalent width example:

Friday, December 2: slitless spectrum of nebula M57

Wednesday, November 30: Sun in white light (showing limb darkening, among other features)

Monday, November 28: energy distribution of the B9 star HD20899, from Jacoby, G. H., Hunter, D. A., and Christian, C. A. 1984, Astrophys. J. Supp. Ser., 56, 257, "A Library of Stellar Spectra" (right click to view full size)

Friday, November 18

Plot of line strengths (actually atomic level populations) predicted by Saha & Boltzmann equations as a function of stellar spectral type or temperature. Similar to Fig. 8.9 (p. 240), so not posted here.
H-R Diagram for stars with known parallaxes (to be posted)
Effects of luminosity on the spectra of A2 stars:

Monday, November 14: image of Betelgeuse made with Hubble Space Telescope; see also published research paper

Wednesday, November 9: Second half of the sequence of stellar spectra, with strong spectral lines and spectral types labeled. To view full size, right click. Adapted from image by the National Optical Astronomy Observatories, original image here.

Monday, November 7: First half of the sequence of stellar spectra, with strong spectral lines and spectral types labeled. To view full size, right click. Adapted from image by the National Optical Astronomy Observatories, original image here.

Monday, October 31

Light curve of the eclipsing binary Algol (β Per) - see handout
The sequence of stellar spectra

Friday, October 28

Orbit of a visual binary star: in the Sixth Catalog of Orbits of Visual Binary Stars, search for 165908 (the HD number of this star) and then click on the `P' link to see the picture shown. This is real astronomy!
Orbit of spectroscopic binary ζ² CrB (PDF, 2 pages); also see publication

Wednesday, October 26

Monday, October 24 - telescopes

Yerkes Observatory 40-inch refractor (picture shown is in a row of four, about halfway down the page)
Primary mirror of Hubble Space Telescope (similar to image shown in class)
Kitt Peak National Observatory's 50-inch reflector (image courtesy of David Morrison):
Kitt Peak National Observatory's 4-meter reflector (image courtesy of David Morrison):
Green Bank Telescope (100-m steerable) (many pictures on this site, but the precise one shown in class is no longer there)
Arecibo radio telescope

Friday, October 21

Discovery image of Pluto's satellite, Charon
Image of Pluto and Charon from the early years of Hubble Space Telescope

Wednesday, October 12:

Spectrum of star, HD 12027, showing hydrogen Balmer series. This star is a bit unusual in that it has an emission line at Hα; all the other Balmer lines are in absorption, as is normal. (Spectrum courtesy of S. Howell, National Optical Astronomy Observatories)

Monday, October 10:

Transmission curves of UBV filters (scroll down; graphic is just above middle of page)
Spectral energy distribution of Sun-like star, HD 33278

Spectral energy distribution of hotter star, HD 20899

Spectrum of Sun-like star with Fraunhofer lines labeled

Example of Doppler shift

Monday, October 3:

The electromagnetic spectrum, from Essential Cosmic Perspective 2nd ed., Fig. 6.4
Graphs of blackbody radiation

Wednesday, September 7:

Friday, September 2:

Wednesday, August 31:

Wednesday, August 24:

Star trails to the north
Star trails to the west [for a correct description of the picture, see the caption]
Star trails seen from a location on the Earth's equator

Greetings to students in ASTR 4810/PHYS 5810 from the instructor, Nancy Morrison. This page is intended to provide a backup copy of the images displayed in lecture, announcements relevant to the class, and access to the wealth of astronomical information on the World Wide Web.