find the mass of jupiter or saturn from time-lapse motions of their satellites

• use this saturn image archive at HOU
            (use the big square images done on the yerkes 24; images exist
            from 01/12/02 - 02/28/02)

      saturn satellite viewer shows where saturn's named moons are at a
            give time and date so that you can figure out which satellite is which
            in an image

•  use this jupiter image archive at HOU

    (there is a nice set of images from 01/18/02 - 01/19/02 on the yrt10)
 

    jupiter satellite viewer shows where jupiter's named moons are at
    a give time and date

 
• using cepheid variable stars' light curves to find the distance to a globular cluster
  
  
  
• discover and investigate a supernova, plot its light curve (apparent magnitude as a function of time);
  find the half-life of the radioactive decayer providing the luminosity?
  you will want to use the HOU image processor (available in ETC, Physics lab 2, downloadable from T)
  because it can measure magnitudes more easily
  
  data for such a supernovae project (1995 d) can be found here
  
  
  
• determine mass of the black hole at the center of our galaxy from motions of stars near
  the black hole; more information, useful for an alternative measurement of the black hole mass is here
  
  
  
• evidence for an accelerating universe; plot a hubble diagram from distant supernova data;
  

 
• a cluster H-R diagram (need B and V images) will tell you its distance and its age

 
• find the rotation period of the sun with FITS images from UCLA

 
• a computer model of a white dwarf star  (you will need to look up the equations for degeneracy pressure and make some assumptions about composition) and be really good at differential equations and computer programming
  



• asteroid project: find and classify asteroids in the SDSS survey to learn about asteroid colors, families, and compositions
     getting started with asteroids at SDSS
  
  
• supernova 1987A and its expanding shell
  
 

• Sloan Digital Sky Survey is a major repository of astronomical data

 
(The SDSS survey will map in detail one-quarter of the entire sky, determining the positions and absolute brightnesses of more than 100 million celestial objects. It will also measure the distances to more than a million galaxies (all galaxies with g magnitude < 17.8)  and quasars.
 
• provides
• FITS images
• FITS spectra
• photometry information [magnitudes in 5 bands:

u(354.3 nm); g (477.0 nm); r (623.1 nm); i (762.5 nm); z (913.4 nm)]
• spectroscopic information (including line identification, spectral class,

redshift)
• projects for students/teachers
• step-by-step Hubble diagram

(and what its supposed to look like when you're done)
• a sample of data available
            (for most data, mouse over of lower right corner allow image resize)
 
• Get Fields  provides access to individual images (JPG format)

 
• Get Plates allows you to select a plate and then lists all galaxies, stars,

    late-type stars, QSOs, high-redshift QSOs; each object has redshift
    listed; click on object returns GIF spectrum
 
• Get Spectra provides access to individual spectra (GIF format)

green lines are identified lines in object's spectrum; knowledge of rest
    wavelengths will allow doppler shift calculation;
    "official" redshift also provided
violet lines are night sky (atmospheric) emission lines @
    560 nm, 590 nm, 630 nm, 725 nm)
 
• Object Explorer

then click on the Click to Explore link to open the ObjectExplorer
(in some ways the most useful tool, but also the most hidden)

First go to Get Plates to find objects with spectra (and their plate no,
fiber no, object type, and redshift)
Then type in plate and fiber no in ObjectExplorer dialog box

Provides access to FITS images and spectra (although FITS spectra
are only 2 rows wide)
Useful tools include:

• "Save in Notes" to save Object type, 5-color magnitudes, RA/Dec, and ObjId
• "Show Notes" allows the data then to be saved as HTML or Excel;

  HTML preserves option to go back to Object Exlorer