[Virginia Tech Department of Physics]

Some Results from the Spring 2003 Semester of PHYS 3154 Observational Astrophysics

Images

The following images were taken by students in PHYS 3154 Observational Astrophysics during the Spring semester of 2003 using the 0.4m telescope.

Orion Nebula
Orion Nebula (M42)
The famous HII region in Orion. This image is a composite of separate images in red, green, and blue parts of the spectrum (including a separate narrow-bandpass H-alpha image). Image by Jennifer Beard, Karina Cheung, Jason Rufner, Jeremy Saria, and Jason Tabeling. Sky North is up, East is to the left.

Jupiter
Jupiter and its Galilean moons
The belts and zones are visible in this composite of separate images in red, green, and blue. Image by Jennifer Beard, Karina Cheung, Jason Rufner, Jeremy Saria, and Jason Tabeling. Sky North is up, East is to the left. From left to right, the moons are Callisto, Ganymede, Europa, and Io. Images were taken at about 24.05 April 2003, UT.

M87
M87 jet
M87 and its Optical Jet
The active elliptical galaxy M87 in the Virgo Cluster, and the same image displayed to show the jet coming from the center of the galaxy. Some structure is evident in the jet. Sky North is up, East is to the left. Image by Edouard Bernard, Chris Clark, Pam Granger, and Rich Roberts. Their red and blue images show that the jet is more blue than red, while the galaxy itself is more red than blue.
M87 color
Color Image of M87 and its Optical Jet
This enlarged view shows a color composite image of the core of M87 and its jet. The bluer color of the jet is apparent.

Reports

Students reported observations of the locations of asteroids to the International Astronomical Union (IAU) Minor Planet Center. For the first time, we reported positions of Near Earth Objects (NEOs) --- 2002 XA and 2002 RH52.

Presentations

At the end of the semester each student gave an oral presentation on a project they worked on during the semester. The presentations are listed below.
  1. Jason Tabeling "Color Imaging of M42 with H-Alpha Luminance Layering"
  2. Karina Cheung "RVB Imaging of Jupiter"
  3. Michael Mayer "Asteroid Safari"
  4. Richard Roberts "Asteroid 1950 DA --- Where are You?"
  5. Jeremy Saria "Color Imaging of the Great Nebula in Orion"
  6. Jennifer Bennett "BL Cam --- The Pulsating Sun"
  7. Pamela Granger "Hunting 1950 DA"
  8. Kevin Jones "The Orbital Period of the Companion of 90 Antiope"
  9. Jason Rufner "Asteroidal Observations"
  10. Christopher Drake "Basic Photometry --- Imaging M42, The Orion Nebula"
  11. Edouard Bernard "Optical Imaging of M87 and its Jet"
  12. Michael Merz "Taking Quality Images"
  13. Jennifer Beard "Differential Photometry from BL Camelopardalis"
To PHYS 3154 webpage