Physics 134 – Observational Astrophysics – Fall 2020

Weekly papers – Each week a paper on a topic of your interest in observational astrophysics is due by 5 PM Monday (except first week). Please submit on GauchoSpace.

Homework – HW will be assigned as needed. Submit on GauchoSpace.

HW 1 – Due Oct 9 – Astro Art tutorials (download Astro Art demo (free) – submit one PDF of all screen shots http://users.libero.it/mnico/labindex.htm

HW 2 – Due Oct 15 Physics 134 HW 1-a

HW 3 – Due Oct 25 – bbColors bbColors (see below)

Final Exam

TBD Online – Each group will present a 20 minute talk summarizing all of all of their work. Split the time , as usual, between each team member to allow everyone to speak.

Introduce the project(s) with some background as to what you are doing and why it is important and what the larger context in astronomy is for this subject.

Final Research Paper – Have ready by the final and place in your folder under a sub directory call “Final Research Paper”. The paper should be about 20 pages long and should include the following sections:

Introduction and theory of project
Historical background
Larger context of importance of the research
Data collection including any problems you had
Summary images of your data (all your good data (images, plots, code etc)) should be placed in dir with the paper under a sub (sub) dir “Data”
Data analysis including plots
Error analysis as appropriate
Summary and conclusions including what you would do next time if you were to do it “all over again”

Class Gmail account (will not be used this quarter):

User: ucsb.physics134

Pass: given in class

Class Data Server – UCSB Box (this is where your LCO images will appear and where you will put your PPTX or equivalent presentations.

Make a sub directory with your full name (first and last). DO NOT delete other peoples folders!

ucsb.box.com

sign-in with UCSB Net ID

Stellarium – http://www.stellarium.org/ – this is very useful in planning your observations.

Events and Links (Note that due to the current CV situation, most of these are remote and may be at different times/ days this quarter)

Physics Department Colloquium: Tuesdays at 4:00 in Broida 1640

Astro Colloquium: Thur 2:45-3:45 in Broida 3302

LCOGT Colloq usually Thur 3:30-4:30 at the LCOGT facility – BUT van to colloq leaves from Physics lot at 3:15 and you must sign up to get room on the van. Van returns you to Broida after talk.

Physics Dept Colloq schedule

Astro web event schedule

LCOGT Colloq Schedule (must sign up for van)

KITP Schedule

LCOGT – Las Cumbres Observatory

Sedgwick Weather log

LCO – Exposure Time Calculator

LCO – Visibility Tool

LCO – Instruments

LCO – Filters

Available filters on 0.4m LCO telescopes:

Bessel-B
Bessel-V
Clear
PanSTARRS-Z
PanSTARRS-w
SDSS-gp
SDSS-ip
SDSS-rp
SDSS-up

Mandatory Assignments and Presentations

]Write a short (1-2 page) paper each week on an astro topic of interest such as one of the APOD pics of the week by Monday the following week (except the first week) by 5 PM (PT).

Send papers to the class TA on GauchoSpace. TA will send you info on this.

Additionally, there is an exercise involving blackbodies and color

Blackbody and Color temperature HW exercise is here:

bbColors

Blackbody Calculator:

https://www.spectralcalc.com/blackbody_calculator/blackbody.php

Observing Projects

Each student will do several observing projects. We encourage groups of students to work together. A maximum of three students per groups. Single student projects are also possible.

You should have two or three science-oriented observing projects and no more than one astrophotography
(pretty picture) project (three projects in all). Each group or student will give a 5 minute presentation on ONE of each of their projects. This is not
optional. In general this is done during class meetings.

Here is an example request form to submit to the TA, who will then submit your request to LCO and return the data to you:

Observation Request Sheet template

Ongoing Information

Class Notes

The most up to date version of the class notes (different than the observation instructions, below)
can be found below. Copies should be available on the class drive, but they cannot be guaranteed
to be up to date.

Class Notes available here:

134-Notes – 10-19

134-Notes-a

Aperture Photometry Notes:

CH6 – Aperture Photometry

Astroart Labs

To do the Astroart Labs, follow the tutorial given here. You should be able to do labs 1-3,5, and 6,
but please do check out the others and read what they have to say. A few of the commands
mentioned have been deprecated since this was made, but you should be able to find your way
around anyway. The images needed are present in the Astroart Labs directory on the class drive.
If they are corrupted, you can recreate them with the zipped files present.

Observing with LCOGT’s BOS Telescope

See the quick guide linked below. After your observation is made, the relevant FITS files will be put
on to the class server account. Simply upload/download your files to your directory on the class drive and begin working with them as you please.

Observation Instructions

To add an observation, click on the “Google Calendar” button, log in on the class gmail account,
and make your edits there. Be careful not to disturb other observations!