Spring is here!!

Block 3, Tentative Schedule:

Mar 25       Mar 27

Apr 1   APR 3

Apr8          Apr 10

Apr  15(Exam # 3)
 

 

Tues Mar 25th

"... Stars are good too. I wish I could get some to put in my hair. But I suppose I never can. You would be surprised to find how far off they are, for they do not look it. ... after I was rested I got a basket and started for a place on the extreme rim of the circle, where the stars are close to the ground and I could get them with my hands, which would be better anyway, because I could gather them tenderly then, and not break them."

Mark Twain Eve's Diary

 Women in Astronomy

• Women in Astronomy
• Women Hold up Half the Sky
• Reading: Mercury, Journal of Astronomical Society of the Pacific, Jan/Feb 1992 The entire volume is loaded with information about Women in Astronomy. It was especially devoted to the topic and only to that topic.
• This is National Women's History Month. NASA has a great web page for this event.
• Check out the American Astronomical Society's page on the Status of Women in Astronomy.
• Review of Thursday's exam

THE SUN - OUR STAR

"the sun, with all the planets revolving around it, and depending on it, can still ripen a bunch of grapes as though it had nothing else in the universe to do."

Galileo Galilei



 


Video: None

        Textbook:

         1.  Overview Five:    Stars

          2.  Chapter Eleven : The Sun, Our Star, Sections 11.1 - 11.5,  pg 329 - 350
                Test Yourself Questions, pg 351, 1 -5


Objectives: You should be able to:

1. Explain how we know the Sun's distance, mass, size, luminosity, and surface temperature
2. Describe the Sun's spectrum and what physical processes are responsible for this spectrum
3. Describe the thermonuclear processes that go on in the Sun's interior to produce energy
4. Describe the features of the Photosphere
5. Describe features of the Solar Chromosphere
6. Describe the Solar Corona
7. Explain the nature of the Solar Wind
8. Describe how the Solar Wind pervades the Solar System
9. Explain the Sunspot Cycle
10. Explain how Energy is transported from the interior where it is produced to the surface from which it is radiated outward to the rest of the Solar System
11. Describe Solar Prominences
Sunspot Lab (This is Lab # 6,  weather permitting)

Key Words: You may use these for Review or SEARCH items:

• PP Cycle
• Spicule
• Solar Flares
• Prominence
• Granules
• Conduction
• Convection
• Radiation
• Solar Neutrinos

Thursday,  March 27th

THE PROPERTIES of STARS

"How distant some of these nocturnal Suns!
So distant (says the sagfe) 'twere not absurd
To doubt, if Beams set out at Nature's Birth,
Are yet arrived at this so foreign World
Tho' nothing half so rapid as their Flight."
 

Longfellow - Ode to Charles Sumner

 

Video:None

Textbook:

         1.  Chapter Twelve : Measuring the Properties of Stars, Sections 12.1 - 12.8,  pg 355 - 385

                Test Yourself Questions, pg 386, 1 -5

Objectives: You should be able to:

1. Explain how to determine the distance to close stars by Stellar Parallax
2. Calculate the distance to stars if the parallax angle is measured
3. Describe how to determine the distance to a distant star by the Standard Candle method
4. Explain how properties of stars are determined from their Light
5. Understand the meaning of Luminosity
6. Explain how the Inverse Square Law relates distance and apparent brightness
7. Explain how the Stefan Boltzmann Law helps us determine the size of stars
8. Explain the difference between Apparent and Absolute Magnitudes
9. Explain how temperature affects a star's spectrum
10. Describe the classification of stellar spectra, O,B,A,F,G,K,M
11. Explain how Binary stars help us determine the mass of stars
• Visual Binaries
• Spectroscopic Binaries
• Eclipsing BinariesEclipsing Binaries
12. Construct an HR Diagram and identify types of stars on the diagram.
13. Using the HR Diagram, discuss differences in Physical Propertiesbetween White Dwarfs, Main sequence and Giant Stars

Key Words: You may use these for Review or SEARCH items:

• Stellar Parallax
• Luminosity
• Black Body Radiation
• Apparent Magnitude
• Absolute Magnitude
• HR Diagram
• Parsec
• Main Sequence Star
• White Dwarf
• Red Giant
• Super Giant
• Visual Binary
• Spectroscopic Binary
• Eclipsing Binary
• Apr 1

Don't Forget  Tuesday, April 1st  is April Fools Day  Are you going to play a trick on your neighbor?

 

 

Tuesday,  April 1st

 

STELLAR STRUCTURE and EVOLUTION

"and is there glory from the heavens departed?
-- Oh! void unmarked! -- thy sisters of the sky
Still hold their place on high,
Though from its rank their orb so long hath started
Thou, that no more art seen of naked eye."
 
 

Mrs Hermann - The Last Pleiad

Textbook:

         1.  Chapter Thirteen : Stellar Evolution, Sections 13.1 - 13.8,  pg 389 - 414

                Test Yourself Questions, pg 416, 1 -5

Objectives: You should be able to:

1. Describe the Life History of a Typical Star
2. Relate how Gravity determines the evolution of a star
3. Describe the process of Star Formation
4. Describe the Nature of Interstellar Dust
5. Describe a theoretical model for Star Birth out of Interstellar Molecular Clouds
• Protostar
• Herbig-Haro Objects
• T-Tauri Stars
6. Explain how stars generate energy
• Nuclear Binding Energy
• PP Cycles
• CNO Cycle
• Nucleosynthesis of Heavy Elements
7. Describe the importance of Mass in determining the core temperature and development of a star
8. Relate the lifetime of a Main Sequence Star to its Mass and Luminosity
9. Describe the process by which stars leave the Main Sequence and become Red Giants
• Triple Alpha Process
• Pulsating Stars
10. Describe how stars like our SUN will ultimately die

Key Words: You may use these for Review or SEARCH items:

• Interstellar Medium
• Emission Nebula
• Reflection Nebula
• Protostar
• T Tauri Star
• Herbig-Haro object
• Bok Globule
• PP Cycle
• CNO Cycle
• Brown Dwarf
• Zero Age Main Sequence

Thursday, April 3rd

 

The DEATHS of STARS

"Many a night I saw the Pleiads, Rising thro' the mellow shade, Glitter like a swarm of fire-flies Tangled in a silver braid.

Tennyson



  Video:None



Objectives: You should be able to:

1. Describe how Main Sequence Stars become Giants
2. Explain the fusion of Helium and the Triple Alpha Process
3. Describe Degenerate Matter and how it supports a White Dwarf
4. Describe the process by which a giant star gently sheds it outer mass as a Planetary Nebula
5. Describe how massive stars go SuperNova
6. Contrast Type I and Type II Super Novae
7. Describe the evolution of Binary Star Systems


Key Words: You may use these for Review or SEARCH items:

• Degenerate Matter
• Electron Degeneracy
• White Dwarf
• Brown Dwarfs
• Planetary Nebula
• Mass Transfer
• Roche Lobe
• Accretion Disc
• Recurring Novae

Lab#8: You will be assigned a specific laboratory activity that is consistent with the weather and where you are in the objectives. Check with your instructor before you forge ahead.

Outside:

• Orientation to Night Sky and Observatory
• Constellations/Asterisms
• Ursa Major/Big Dipper
• Casseopieia
• Perseus and Algol, the Demon Star
• Taurus
• Orion
• Nebulae-
• M45
• M42
Alert, Alert! This will be an opportunity to work on your Naked Eye Photometry Lab. You already did the simulated version inside, on your own, checking against photometric standards. Outdoors you can do the real thing. Draw yourself a star chart so you can find the known and unknown stars. Remember that your telescope will invert the image of the cluster. Use the portable three inch telescopes to do this. This will be one of your last chances. The Pleiades is getting lower and lower in the sky. It will be gone soon. Don't dawdle. Get this project done!

Inside: Your preparation for entries into your Journal will be assisted if you get some help from internet pages on mythology of constellations. Don't forget that your journal is worth three labs!

 

 

 

 

Tuesday,  April 8th

A Resource that might be helpful to you in designing and improving your observing journal is found on the www.

Review - Stellar Structure and Evolution, Birth to Death

"A day is a miniature eternity"

Ralph Waldo Emerson

  Video:The Star Salesman

Objectives: You should be able to:

Key Words: You may use these for Review or SEARCH items:

 
Thursday,  April 10th

NEUTRON STARS and BLACK HOLES

"The Sun is a mass of fiery stone, a little larger than Greece"

Anaxagoras, 434 BC

  Video:Stephen Hawkings - A Brief History of Time

 

Textbook:

         1.  Chapter Fourteen : Stellar Remnants: White dwarfs, Neutron Stars, and Black Holes, Sections 14.1 - 14.3,  pg 419 - 437

               Test Yourself Questions, pg 437, 1 -5
 
 

Objectives: You should be able to:

1. Explain what Neutron Degeneracy is
2. Describe the structure of a Neutron Star
3. Explain what a Pulsar is
4. List evidence for Pulsar Planets
5. Define Escape Velocity
6. Define the Schwarzschild Radius
7. Describe what a Black Hole is
8. Discuss current evidence from the HST and radio interferometry for the existence of black holes

Key Words: You may use these for Review or SEARCH items:

• Pulsar
• Lighthouse Radiation
• Escape Velocity
• Singularity
• Event Horizon
• Time Dilation
• Gravitational Red Shift

 
      This will be an opportunity to review all of stellar structure and evolution to prepare for the third examination. A review session will be held in class and an opportunity to catch up on all lab work. Your observing journals should be more than half way done. In fact, they ought to be about 3/4th complete!

Oh, did you pay your taxes???

Tuesday,  April 15th

 

Opportunity to Excel # 3:  The SUN, Stars, Stellar Structure and Evolution of Stars and their Final Fate! This exam will be online, available from anywhere.

Lab#9: You will be assigned a specific laboratory activity that is consistent with the weather and where you are in the objectives. Check with your instructor before you forge ahead.