Astronomical Laboratory - 29:137 - Fall 2013
Research Projects
Research projects: Students must complete a research
project during the semester. Students are allowed to work in
teams of 2 or 3 on the research project. Each research project
should represent a substantially body of work (far in excess of the
work done for research projects in 29:61 or 29:62). Each
project should include acquisition of a significant number of
astronomical images, writing of software in Python for data
analysis, presentation of the results to the class, and preparation
of a written report.
Research project schedule:
- 9/23 - Project proposals - Proposals should be 2 pages and
describe the context and motivation for the project, the
observations or instrumentation work to be performed, the data
analysis to be performed including any software to be written,
the results to be obtained and their expected impact and
significance.
- 10/28 or 11/4 - Project status presentation - Each team will
give a 15 minute presentation on the status of their project
including the scientific motivation and goals, the observing and
analysis plan, and any results obtained so far.
- 11/20 - First draft reports - First draft reports should
contain complete text for the Introduction and Motivation
section and outlines for the remaining sections including
descriptions of all of the figures and tables that will appear
in the final report.
- 12/9 - Final project reports - Final project reports will be
handed in at the beginning of class on 12/9. Presentations
will occur on 12/9.
Potential research projects:
- Cepheids in M31 - use Rigel to monitor M31, write software to
do photometry of candidate Cepheids and plot their light curves,
use the results to estimate the distance to M31.
- Supernova search - use Rigel to monitor a selected set of
nearby galaxies, write software to difference images and search
for supernovae.
- All-sky camera - mount the SBIG AllSky-340 on the roof, write
software to ascribe astronomical coordinates to images and serve
them on a web site.
- Comet ISON - use Rigel to monitor Comet ISON, write software
to do astrometry, use the results to calculate the comet's
orbit.
- Original research projects are most welcome.