Astronomical Laboratory - ASTR:4850 - Spring
2018
Research Projects
Research projects:
Students must complete a research project during the semester.
Students are expected to work with their current lab group (teams of
2 or 3) on the research project. Each research project should
represent a substantially body of work, in excess of the work done
for research projects in General Astronomy. 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. Images may be obtained with the VAO, the Orion
or SBIG cameras from the labs (with a lens or telescope of your
choice), or the SBIG AllSky-340 on the roof of Van Allen. If you
wish to use a different source for your images, consult the
instructor.
Research project schedule:
- 3/8 - Choose your project. E-mail both instructors with your
choice. Start collecting images for your project.
- 3/27 - Project proposals - Proposals should be 2-3 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.
- 3/27 - Presentations should be 5 minutes long with 3-4 slides.
- 4/10 - 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. Observations or preliminary data should be
obtained and described in the report. A schedule should be
presented for when all additional needed observations will be
obtained. A preliminary version of the software should be
written and the results and any issues arising should be
described.
- 4/10 - 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 results obtained so far.
- 5/1 - Final presentations.
- 5/4 - Final project reports and the slides for the final
presentations e-mailed to Prof. Kaaret by noon.
Research projects:
- All sky camera - Mount SBIG AllSky-340 on the roof of Van
Allen and create a web site that automatically acquires and
shows the latest images (Luppen and Michael).
- All sky camera - Map a coordinate grid onto images from the
SBIG AllSky-340. Given the date and time of the image, highlight
objects of interest (Isbell, Jones, and Reed).
- HR diagrams of clusters - Obtain images of several clusters in
two or more bands and write software that automatically finds
stars and plots and HR diagram (Hang, Lu, and Song).
- Asteroid search - Obtain multiple images of fields likely to
contain asteroids. Write software to search for moving objects
within the fields (Gulick and Moore).
- Grating spectroscopy with Orion Starshoot and Star Analyzer
SA-200 (Fuelberth and Lipman).
Not being done this semester:
- Prototype a camera for a CubeSat for night-time monitoring of
wildfires - procure a suitable board-level camera and filters,
design and 3D print a structure to hold 3 cameras, write
software to acquire images and register them, test by imaging
fires.
- Supernova search - Obtain multiple images of several galaxies
(preferably a large set) and write software to search for
supernovae within or near the galaxies.