[Virginia Tech Department of Physics]

Some Results from the Spring 2010 Semester of PHYS 3154 Observational Astrophysics

Images

The following were produced by students in PHYS 3154 Observational Astrophysics during the Spring semester of 2010, using the 14-inch Optical Telescope or the 2.3m Radio Telescope.


An image of M51 made by the group "People for the Ethical Treatment of Pluto" (Todd Pickering, Katie Rybacki, Steve Smith, and Ryan Stephens). They collected 71 images to produce this result: 12 with a clear filter, 23 with a Bessel B photometric filter, 18 with a Bessel V filter and 18 with a Bessel R filter. All images were made with 45 second exposure times. Each filter's images were combined by regsitering and adding. The color image was produced using the (L)RGB command in the program Iris.

The antenna beam of the 2.3m Radio Telescope as determined by observations of the Sun at L band, by Todd Pickering, Katie Rybacki, Steve Smith, and Ryan Stephens. To produce this result they mapped the antenna response to the Sun using 5x5 antenna positions, centered on the Sun's sky position.

Drift scan of the Sun
A drift scan of the Sun made with the 2.3m Radio Telescope, by Todd Pickering, Katie Rybacki, Steve Smith, and Ryan Stephens. Observations were in L band.


M81 Color Image
Color image of M42 taken by the group "Moondays" (Will Herrin, Annelise Fabian, Elizabeth Gichana, Chuck Hudson, and Corey Shpil).


Mosaic of the Moon
Image of the the Moon by Will Herrin, Annelise Fabian, Elizabeth Gichana, Chuck Hudson, and Corey Shpil. A set of images were combined in Photoshop to make this mosaic.

Presentations

At the end of the semester groups gave an oral presentation on a project they worked on during the semester. The presentations are listed below.
  1. Christopher Gates, Michael Naper, Matthew Rajotte, Elliot Tibor "I Like My Planets with No Tomato and Extrasolar"
  2. Joseph Colandro, Micah Eassa, Ross Lumpkin, Scott Smedile, Ryan Smith "BL Camelopardalis: Differential Photometry of a Variable Star"
  3. Annelise Fabian, Elizabeth Gichana, William Herrin, Chuck Hudson, Cory Shpil "The Mapping of the Moon"
  4. Maria Rye, Jin Share, Thomas Steva, Umair Surani, Melissa Yates "Optical Observations of the Orion Nebula with CCD Imaging Techniques"
  5. Todd Pickering, Katherine Rybacki, Steve Smith, Ryan Stephens "CCD Imaging of M51: Analyzing Color Images"

To PHYS 3154 webpage