PHYS 1156 Astronomy Laboratory
Astronomy Lab does not start until the second week of classes!
You must read the syllabus (see link below) prior to attending the first lab meeting.
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Welcome to the PHYS 1156 Astronomy Laboratory Website
Phys 1156 is a 1-credit Astronomy Laboratory course for
introductory astronomy. You will learn how to use moderate-sized telescopes
to view bright objects, learn some constellations, and perform a variety
of indoor exercises. The knowledgable Teaching Assistants will be your
guides. We hope you will find this course fun!
There are no prerequisities. You are not expected to have any
previous experience using a telescope, or to have any specific knowledge
of the night sky. You will learn any related background in the
corequisite lecture course Phys 1056 Introduction to Astronomy.
- Syllabus
- Detailed discussion of how the course will work, grades, etc.
- Scholar
- To check your lab scores login to Scholar.
Course Materials
- SIP
- Sky Image Processor (SIP) is the Java web-based image analyzer we use for some of the lab exercises.
- Prices Fork Observatory Exercise
- The handout for the Prices Fork Observatory Exercise. This exercise
must be done at one of the Prices Fork Observatory Open Houses. The Prices Fork
Observatory Open Houses are scheduled for every Friday
evening when classes are in session, but only occur if the sky is not cloudy! Consult
the syllabus and the Open
House webpage for more details.
- Planisphere
- Uncle Al's Sky Wheels can be downloaded in three parts:
the star wheel cover,
the first insert with constellations and bright star names, and
the second insert with constellations and celestial
coordinate lines. These downloads are for the 2000 version.
The 2009 version does not have star names.
- LST Clock at USNO
- A link to a page at the US Naval Observatory that shows the Local Sideral Time (LST).
First you have to enter "Blacksburg" and "VA" in the appropriate text boxes, then hit
the Compute button.
- Jupiter's Moons Javascript Utility
- A Javascript Utility at Sky and Telescope's website that will display the configuration of the Galilean Moons of Jupiter on any given date
and time.
- Transit Times of Jupiter's Great Red Spot
- A page at Sky and Telescope's website that will display a list of the transit times of Jupiter's Great
Red Spot, for a given date.
- Astronomy Picture of the Day: The Incredible Expanding Crab
- A link to the APOD page showing the expansion of the Crab Nebula from 1973 to 2001. The individual images that went
into the expanding time-lapse image are CrabNebula1973.bmp and
CrabNebula2001.bmp. An image with labeled, well-defined knots in the Crab filaments is
CrabNebulaFilaments.bmp.
- Open Cluster Observations
- Here are maps necessary for carrying out these observations: Map of the Pleiades,
Map 1, Map 2, and Map 3.
- ESA Exercise on the Black Hole at the Center of the Milky Way
- An exercise designed by the European Space Agency, in which you will determine the mass of the black hole
at the center of the Milky Way Galaxy.
Astronomy Minor
Virginia Tech offers an Astronomy Minor open to
students of all majors. The Minor is designed for students who want to
supplement their major, students who want to enter astronomy
professionally, or students who simply have a keen interest in the
subject. This course is one of the required courses for the Minor.
Outside Links of Interest
-
Sky and Telescope's webpage on Pronouncing Constellation Names
- Sky and Telescope's webpage on how to pronounce constellation names. Includes mpg files so you
can actually hear the pronunciations, and interesting historical information.
- VT Astronomy and Astrophysics
- The webpage containing links to all VT Astronomy and Astrophysics courses, plus
links to many external sources of information on astronomy and astrophysics.
Image of M51 by Adam Drake, Victor Gehman, Seth Hornstein, and Chad
King (using the 0.4m Telescope, PHYS 3154, Spring semester 1999).
To Virginia Tech Physics.