Star of Bethlehem

Here is an astronomical look at the Star of Bethlehem: Christmas Star . See if you can use Stellarium to recreate the events discussed in the slide show.

Merry Christmas!

Observing Session for Tuesday, September 21

Thank you to all who showed up. We had a big turnout! To recap, we met on the Crespi campus and viewed Neptune (we could tell that it was blue), Uranus, the globular cluster M13 (although with all the light pollution in Encino, it was nothing more than a faint blob), Jupiter and three of its four Galilean moons (Callisto, Io, and Ganymede; Europa was in front of Jupiter and not seen), and a nearly full Moon. We clearly saw the copper colored North Equatorial Belt in Jupiter's atmosphere. On this night, Jupiter was the largest and brightest it has been since 1963! Jupiter won't be this large or this bright again until 2022.

September 4 Observing Session

We had a great evening of observing! We started off with a view of Albireo, probably the nicest looking double star in the sky (one star is yellow and the other is blue). We next took in the sights of the bright globular cluster M13. From there we moved to M27, the Dumbbell Nebula. This is a planetary nebula and is an example of what our own Sun will turn into in 5 billion years! Our next object was another planetary nebula, the famous Ring Nebula, M57. Next on our list was M8, the Lagoon Nebula in Sagittarius. This is a huge stellar nursery much like The Orion Nebula (which we'll see later in the year). From there we moved onto Aquarius and its planetary nebula NGC 7009. This planetary is much smaller than the two we saw earlier, and this one, also called the Saturn Nebula, shows a greenish/blue color! Moving to the northern sky, we observed M31, the Andromeda Galaxy. Needing a little more time for Jupiter to rise to a nice height above the Eastern horizon, we went back to the southern sky and viewed two nebulae and one globular cluster. The first nebula was M16, the Eagle Nebula in Serpens and the second one was M17, the Omega or Swan Nebula in Sagittarius. M16 was made famous by the Hubble Space Telescope and its picture of the "Pillars of Creation." The globular cluster that we observed in Sagittarius was M22. It is huge and rivals M13 through the eyepiece! Winding down the evening, we next viewed Neptune. Everyone agreed that they could detect a faint blue color. Our next to last object was Uranus. It appeared much brighter than Neptune (it is closer to us), but it did not have any color that was detectable. The final object was Jupiter and its four large Galilean moons. Io was alone on one side, and on the other side of Jupiter, from closet in to farthest out, were Europa, Ganymede, and then Callisto. Nearly everyone also detected the bands in Jupiter's atmosphere. An added bonus for the evening was that we saw a very faint band of the Milky Way rising from Sagittarius and extending up near the zenith. That can only be seen under dark sky conditions.

1st Semester Assignments for 2010-2011

Friday, August 13
go over syllabus, website, stellarium, sky charts, etc.
remember, your Summer work was to read chapters 34-39 of the book "Death by Black Hole" - you will be quizzed on these chapters on Thursday, August 26

Monday, August 16
start chapter 1-Charting the Heavens
Lecture Tutorials (LT) p1-2, 3-6
Lab-Angular Measure

Wednesday, August 18
LT p7-9, 13-17, 87-90, 91-96, 11-12, 79-81, 83-85, 39-41, 35-37
Using Stellarium-this worksheet is due Thursday, August 26

Friday, August 20
Lab-Parallax of thumb
video-"The Universe-Constellations"
review

Tuesday, August 24
Test chapter 1

Thursday, August 26
Quiz on chapters 34-39 of "Death by Black Hole"
start chapter 2-The Copernican Revolution
sections 2.1-2.4
Retrograde Motion worksheet
video clip of retrograde motion from "Wonders of the Solar System" - Youtube
book work: page 60-Review Questions 1-8; Self Test questions 1-4

Monday, August 30
sections 2.5-2.7
Kepler's Laws worksheets
book work: page 60-Review Questions 9-14; Self Test questions 5-8

Wednesday, September 1
section 2.8
Lab-Using a Pendulum to determine the Mass of Earth
book work: page 60-Review Questions 15-20; Self Test questions 9-20

Friday, September 3
video "The Universe-Gravity"
Review
HW - log into your astronomy book website, choose chapter 2, and then take and submit your answers for the Multiple Choice and T/F tests

Monday, September 6 - No School (Labor Day)

Wednesday, September 8
Test for chapter 2
read chapters 19 and 38 of "Death by Black Hole" - quiz will be Monday, Sep. 20

Friday, September 10
Start chapter 3-Radiation
Electromagnetic Spectrum worksheet
Telescopes and Earth's Atmosphere worksheet
book work: page 81 Review Questions 1-12; Self Test questions 1-5 and 11-15
bookwork: page 83 Problems 1-3
Lab-Waves

Tuesday, September 14
Blackbody Radiation worksheet
bookwork: page 81 Review Questions 13-16; Self Test questions 6-8 and 16-19
bookwork: page 83 Problems 6-11
Lab-Energy Absorption

Thursday, September 16
Doppler Shift worksheet
bookwork: page 81 Review Questions 17-20; Self Test questions 9,10,20
bookwork: page 83 Problems 12
online work: log into your astronomy book website, choose the 3rd chapter, and submit the results of your "Tutorial Quiz"

Monday, September 20
Test for chapter 3
Quiz on chapters 19 and 38 of "Death by Black Hole"

Wednesday, September 22
begin chapter 4-Spectroscopy
worksheet "Types of Spectra"
book work page 104 Review 1-6, and 12-14; Self Test 1-4, 8, and 11-13
Read chapter 15 in "Death by Black Hole"-be prepared for a quiz on Thursday,September 30

Friday, September 24
worksheet "Light and Atoms"
Lab-Spectral Lines
after the lab, go to this spectra webpage to identify your elements:http://astro.u-strasbg.fr/~koppen/discharge/
book work page 104 Review 7-11, and 15-16; Self Test 5-7, 9, and 15-17
on-line work: log into your astronomy book website, complete the tutorials and the tutorials quiz-submit your answers

Tuesday, September 28
worksheet "Analyzing Spectra"
video-Easter Island Eclipse
book work page 104 Review 17-20; Self Test 10, 14, 18-20
on-line work: log into your astronomy book website, complete the multiple choice tests, the true/false test, and submit your answers

Thursday, September 30
Test for chapter 4
Quiz on chapter 15 of "Death by Black Hole"

Monday, October 4
start chapter 5-Telescopes
Optical Telescopes
Ray Diagram for a Concave Mirror
Ray Diagram for a Converging (Convex) Lens
Las Vegas Hotel acts like a giant Death-Ray Mirror
Lab-Lenses and Mirrors in Telescopes
bookwork p140 Review 2; Self Test 11,12
online work: log into your account, perform the 3 tutorials in chapter 5 and then take and submit your answers for the Tutorials Quiz

Wednesday, October 6
Telescope Size, Resolving Power, Light Gathering Power, Images and Detectors
Lab-angular Resolution
worksheet-resolving power and light gathering power
bookwork p140 Review 1, 3, 6, 7, 8, 20; Self Test 1-3, 6, 7, 13,14

Friday, October 8
High Resolution Astronomy, Radio Astronomy, Interferometry, Space-Based Astronomy, Full-Spectrum Coverage
video-400 Years of the Telescope
bookwork p140 Review 4, 5, 9-19; Self Test 4, 5, 8-10, 15-20
online work: take and submit your scores for the MC and T/F tests on the book's website

Monday, October 11 - NO School - Columbus Day

Wednesday, October 13 - School-wide Testing (no classes)

Thursday, October 14
Test on chapter 5

Monday, October 18 - NO School (faculty retreat)

Tuesday, October 19
Begin chapter 6: The Solar System
6.1 An Inventory of the Solar System, 6.2 Measuring the Planets, 6.3 Overall Layout of the Solar System, 6.4 Terrestrial and Jovian Planets
video-The Planets
bookwork p166 Review 2, 3, 6-9, Self Test 1-5, 8, 11-14
Read chapters 4 and 7 in "Death by Black Hole" - you will be quizzed on them on Wed., Oct. 27

Thursday, October 21
6.5 Interplanetary Matter, 6.6 Spacecraft Exploration, 6.7 How did the Solar System Form?
Lab-Angular Momentum
bookwork p166 Review 1,4,5,10-20; Self Test 6,7,9,10,15-20

Monday, October 25
video-Voyage to the Planets
online work: take the online T/F and MC tests and submit your scores

Wednesday, October 27
test for chapter 6
quiz on chapters 4 and 7 of "Death by BlackHole"

Friday, October 29
Begin chapter 7-Earth
7.1 Overall Structure of the Earth, 7.2 Earth's Atmosphere
video-"Six Degrees"
bookwork p196 Review 2,5,20; Self Test 1-3,13,14
Read chapter 24 in the book "Death by Black Hole"-you will be quizzed on it on Nov. 12

Tuesday, November 2
finish video
7.3 Earth's Interior, 7.4 Surface Activity
worksheet-Earth's Changing Surface
bookwork p196 Review 1,3,4,6-13; Self Test 4-6,11,12,15-17

Thursday, November 4
7.5 Earth's Magnetosphere, 7.6 The Tides
video-The Formation of the Earth
bookwork p196 Review 14-19; Self Test 7-10,18-20

Friday, November 5 - NO School (8th grade day)

Monday, November 8 - NO School (Veteran's Day)

Wednesday, November 10
finish video
online work: take the online T/F and MC tests and submit your scores

Friday, November 12
test for chapter 7
quiz on chapter 24 of "Death by BlackHole"

Tuesday, November 16
Start chapter 8-The Moon and Mercury
(the chapter 8 test will include questions from any videos we watch)
8.1-8.3 (Orbital Properties, Physical Properties, Surface Features)
HW p226 Review 1-3,5,6; Self Test 1,4,5,11,17
video-The Universe: The Moon
Read chapter 9 from the book "Death by Black Hole"

Thursday, November 18
8.4-8.6 (Rotation Rates, Lunar Cratering and Surface Composition, Surface of Mercury)
HW p226 Review 2,4,7-11,13,16-20; Self Test 2,3,6-9,13-16
video-The Universe: The Inner Planets

Monday, November 22
8.7-8.9 (Interiors, Origin of the Moon, History of the Moon and Mercury)
Discuss the Messenger Mission to Mercury
Moon survival activity
Reading:How Scientists Discovered a Solar System "Superhighway"
Complete and submit the online chapter 8 MC and T/F tests
review chapter 8
quiz on chapter 9 from "Death by Black Hole"

Wednesday, November 24 (1-7 schedule, 11:30 dismissal)
test on chapter 8

Thursday, November 25-Sunday, November 28 - Thanksgiving Break

Monday, November 29
start chapter 9-Venus
9.1 Orbital Properties, 9.2 Physical Properties, 9.3 Long Distance Observations
HW p248 Review 1-8; Self Test 1-3, 11-14

Wednesday, December 1
9.4 The Surface of Venus, 9.5 The Atmosphere of Venus, 9.6 Venus' Magnetic Field and Internal Structure
video-The Universe:The Inner Planets (Venus)
HW p248 Review 9-20; Self Test 4-10, 15-20
Take and submit the online chapter 9 tests

Friday, December 3
start chapter 10-Mars
10.1 Orbital Properties, 10.2 Physical Properties, 10.3 Long Distance Observations, 10.4 The Martian Surface
overview of NASA Mars Missions
Hw p275 Review 1-3, 6-8; Self Test 1, 4-6, 8, 11-13, 15-16
Review for Semester 1 Final Exam (taken in class on Thursday, December 9)

Tuesday, December 7
10.5 Water on Mars, 10.6 Martian Atmosphere, 10.7 Martian Internal Structure, 10.8 The Moons of Mars
video-The Universe:Mars
Hw p275 Review 4,5,9-20; Self Test 2,3,7,9,10,14,17-20
take and submit the online chapter 10 tests

Thursday, December 9
Semester 1 Final is taken in class today

Summary of Observing Session for May 15

This was our last session for the current school year, and we saw a lot of impressive objects. The evening started with a view of Venus. With high magnification we could see that it was exhibiting a phase much like our moon. Our next object was the giant elliptical galaxy M87 that lies at the heart of the Virgo Cluster. Even though it has a mass of several trillion solar masses, because it lies 60 million lightyears away, it appeared as a faint fuzzy patch. From there we moved on to M60, another elliptical galaxy in the Virgo Cluster, as well as NGC 4647, a spiral galaxy that is interacting with M60. The next object was M64, the Black Eye galaxy. This is a spiral galaxy with a lot of gas and dust which we saw as a dark band across the central portion of the galaxy. Next up were two globular star clusters, M53 and M3. Both of these globulars contain many RR Lyrae variable stars which we just discussed in class. What came next was mind boggling. After the globular clusters we viewed the quasar 3C 273 which lies 2.44 BILLION lightyears away! Light from this active galaxy had traveled through space for over 2 billion years before entering our eyes. This is the most distant object that most amateur astronomers can see. Somewhat closer to home at "only" 50 million lightyears away, we next turned our attention to M104, the Sombrero Galaxy. This is a beautiful edge on spiral in Virgo. Our next to last object was the Cats Eye Nebula (NGC 6543) in Draco. This is an easily seen and beautiful planetary nebula. The last object of the evening was the jewel of the solar system, Saturn. We had great seeing conditions, and even though the rings were not tilted much right now, we could easily see them as well as three of its moons: Titan, Dione, and Tethys.

summary of March 13 observing session

Thank you to those who turned out. We saw an impressive list of objects this month starting with M42-the Orion Nebula. This is the closest, large star forming region at a distance of 1,300 lightyears (lyr). It looks spectacular in the telescope! Our second object was NGC2392-the Eskimo Nebula in Gemini. This is a planetary nebula much like our own Sun will form in 5 billion years. Our next sight was NGC 2683-the UFO Galaxy in Lynx. This is a nearly edge-on spiral galaxy with an active nucleus. It lies 16 million lyr away. Our fourth object was another planetary nebula, NGC 2438. In order to see this, we needed to use an OIII filter. Next was Mars. The sixth object was another spiral galaxy, M66 in Leo. The seventh object was NGC 3158, an elliptical galaxy in Leo. This galaxy is 300 million lyr away and is currently the most distant object our class has seen. The light we saw left that galaxy 300 million years ago! Next, we moved to Ursa Major to view a number of its objects. The first object in Ursa Major we saw was M81-Bode's Galaxy. Next, we viewed M82-the Cigar Galaxy which is interacting with M81. Our last object in Ursa Major was M97-the Owl Nebula, a planetary nebula. Leaving Ursa Major, we visited NGC 3242-another planetary nebula known as The Ghost of Jupiter. It is a bright blue when seen through the telescope. Our final target of the evening was Saturn. Even though its rings are nearly edge-on to our line of sight right now, we could still see them. A bonus was seeing two of its moons, Titan and Iapetus.

Summary of Feb. 13 Observing Session

No more observing sessions in February since we were able to view a large number of objects Saturday night. I'll see you all in class on Wednesday.


On Saturday night we had a nice clear, moonless night for observing. We had a much better view of M31 (the Andromeda Galaxy) than we had in December when the moon was full. The Orion Nebula (M42) was amazing and we saw our most distant object yet, M81. M81 is a galaxy in Ursa Major that is 12,000,000 lightyears away! We saw the Perseus Double Cluster (NGC 869/884) as well as M79 which is a globular cluster that may be part of the neighboring Canis Major Dwarf Galaxy which is interacting with our own Milky Way Galaxy. In addition, we saw NGC 2264 (the Cone Nebula), M44 (the Beehive Cluster), M41 (an open cluster), and the third largest asteroid which is called Vesta. Our final objects were Mars and the comet 118P/Shoemaker-Levy.

Get your sky chart here:
http://www.skymaps.com/downloads.html
-the link for the map is near the bottom of the page
(there is a new one posted each month!)

Semester Two Assignments for 2010

Tuesday, Jan 12
Start chapter 11-Jupiter
11.1 Orbital and Physical Properties11.2 Atmosphere of Jupiter (including Discovery 11.1:A Cometary Impact)
HW p304 Review 1-3, 6-8; Self Test 2-4, 11-15

Thursday, Jan 14
11.3 Internal Structure (including Discovery 11.2:Almost a Star)11.4 Jupiter's Magnetosphere
video-The Universe-Jupiter:The Giant Planet
HW p304 Review 9-11; Self Test 1,5,6,16,17

Monday, Jan 18 - Observing Session from 6-8pm at Cheeseboro location

Tuesday, Jan 19
11.5 The Moon's of Jupiter (Discovery 11.3:Jupiter's Many Moons); 11.6 Jupiter's Ring
HW p304 Review 4,5,12-20; Self Test 7-10, 18-20
Take and Submit the on-line tests

Thursday, Jan 21
Review
Test on chapter 11

Monday, Jan 25
Start chapter 12-Saturn
12.1 Orbital and Physical Properties
12.2 Saturn's Atmosphere
HW p334 Review 3,5,7,8 ; Self Test 2,3,12-14

Wednesday, Jan 27
finish chapter 12
video-The Universe:Saturn-Lord of the Rings
HW p334 Review 1,2,4,6,9-20; Self Test 1,4-11,15-20
HW read the Enceladus article and write a 2 page, double spaced summary

Friday, Jan 29
chapter 13-Uranus and Neptune
video-The Universe: The Outer Planets
HW p355 Review 1-20; Self Test 1-20
take and submit the online tests for chapters 12 and 13

Tuesday, Feb 2
begin chapter 14-Solar System Debris
video-The Universe: The End of the Earth (just the portion about asteroids)
video-The Universe: Cosmic Collisions (just the part about asteroids)
HW p386 Review 1-6; Self Test 2,3,11-14, 18
read chapters 8, 28, 29, and 32 from "Death by Black Hole"-be prepared for a quiz as early as Feb 10

Thursday, Feb 4
review
test covering chapters 12 and 13

Monday, Feb 8
Comets
video-The Universe: Deadly Comets
HW p386 Review 7-13,19; Self Test 1,4-6,15,16

Wednesday, Feb 10
Quiz on "Death by Black Hole"
Kuiper Belt Objects
video-The Universe: Cosmic Collisions (the first 5 questions about Kuiper Belt objects)
assignment-Meteor Crater Analysis-due Tues, Feb 24
HW p386 Review 14,15; Self Test 7,17
chapter 14 Test is Wednesday, Feb 17

Friday, Feb 12
Lab-Impact Cratering-due Wednesday, Feb 17
video-The Universe: Stopping Armageddon

Monday, Feb 15 - NO SCHOOL (Presidents' Day)

Wednesday, Feb 17
review
test on chapter 14

Friday, Feb 19
begin chapter 16-The Sun
16.1 Physical Properties16.2 Solar Interior
Lab-Measuring the Solar Constant
HW p446 Review 1-4, 8-11; Self Test 1, 4-6, 11-14, 16, 17
read chapters 6 and 18 from "Death by Black Hole"-Quiz on Friday, Mar 5

Tuesday, Feb 23
16.3 Sun's Atmosphere
16.4 Solar Magnetism
video-The Universe: Secrets of the Sun
HW p446 Review 12-15; Self Test 19
read chapters 6, 17, 18 from "Death by Black Hole"-Quiz on Friday, Mar 5

Thursday, Feb 25
16.5 Active Sun\16.6 The Heart of the Sun
16.7 Solar Neutrinos\Radiation
HW p446 Review 5-7, 16-20; Self Test 2, 3, 7-10, 15, 18, 20
video-Trinity and Beyond
chapter 16 Test is Wednesday, Mar 3
read chapters 6, 17, 18 from "Death by Black Hole"-Quiz on Friday, Mar 5

Monday, Mar 1
start chapter 17-The Stars
17.1 Solar Neighborhood
-parallax
-nearest neighbors
-naming stars
17.2 Luminosity and Apparent Brightness
Lab-Parallax (on football field)
HW p476 Review 1-4, 7; Self Test 2, 11-15
read chapter 17 from "Death by Black Hole"-Quiz on chapters 6, 17, 18 will be Friday, Mar 5

Wednesday, Mar 3
review
Test on chapter 16

worksheets:
1. apparent magnitude
2. luminosity and parallax

Friday, Mar 5
Quiz on chapters 6,17,and 18 of "Death by Black Hole"
17.3 Stellar Temperature-color and blackbody curve-stellar spectra and spectral classification
17.4 Stellar Size
17.5 HR Diagrams-Lecture Tutorial: HR Diagram (p109-110)
HW p476 Review 5, 6, 8-16; Self Test 1, 3-6, 9, 10, 16-19
HW worksheet "Stellar Temperature/Size/H-R Diagram"
Major Assignments:
This is on hold for now while I rework them. (NOT assigned yet)
1. HR Diagram of 100 Closest Stars
2. HR Diagram of 100 Brightest Stars-both assignments are due Tuesday, March 23 (get started at once as these will take awhile!)

Tuesday, Mar 9
17.6 Extending the Cosmic Distance Scale
17.7 Stellar Masses
17.8 Mass and Other Properties
worksheet-"Putting it all together"
HW p476 Review 17-20; Self Test 7,8,20
HW p477 Problems 3-6, 9-10, 13-14

Thursday, Mar 11
chapter 19-Star Formation
video-The Universe: Nebulas
HW p524 Review 1-20; Self Test 1-20
HW p525 Problems 4, 6, 9, 11

Monday, Mar 15
start chapter 20-Stellar Evolution
20.1 Leaving the Main Sequence
20.2 Evolution of a Sun-like Star
20.3 The Death of a Low-Mass Star
video-The Universe: Life and Death of a Star
HW p552 Review 1-10, 13-17; Self Test 1-7, 9, 11, 13-20
HW p553 Problems 2-4, 9, 11

Wednesday, Mar 17
20.4 Evolution of Stars More Massive than the Sun
20.5 Observing Stellar Evolution in Star Clusters
20.6 Stellar Evolution in Binary Systems
video-The Universe: The Search for Cosmic Clusters
HW p552 Review 11, 12, 18-20; Self Test 8, 10, 12
HW p553 Problems 7, 13

Friday, Mar 19
test covering chapters 17, 19, and 20

Tuesday, Mar 23
HR Diagram assignments due today

Chapter 21-Stellar Explosions
21.1 Life and Death for White Dwarfs
21.2 The End of a High-Mass Star
video-The Universe: Pulsars and Quasars (just Pulsar portion for now)
HW summarize "Discovery 21-1"

Friday, Mar 26 (Wed, Mar 24 was Iowa testing day...throws schedule off by a day)
21.3 Supernovae
21.4 Formation of the Elements
21.5 Cycle of Stellar Evolution
video-The Universe: Supernovas
HW p575 Review 1-20; Self Test 1-20

Monday, Mar 29-Friday, April 9 - NO School (Easter Break)

Tuesday, April 13
Chapter 22-Neutron Stars and Black Holes
video-The Universe: Cosmic Holes
Superfluid in Neutron Star Cores
HW p611 Review 1-20; Self Test 1-20

Thursday, April 15
video-Einstein (from The History Channel)
take and submit the online tests for chapters 21-22
HW p612 Problems 1,3,4,7,8,11,14

Monday, Apr 19
video-Monster Black Holes

Wednesday, Apr 21
test for chapters 21 and 22
Because of the Academic Awards Ceremony that is being held on Tuesday, April 20, I am moving the test to Monday, April 26.

Thursday, Apr 22 - STEP Day
all science students present their projects during the day
Astronomy students will offer views of the Sun through the telescope

Monday, Apr 26
Test chapters 21 and 22

Wednesday, Apr 28
chapter 23-Milky Way Galaxy
video-The Universe: The Milky Way
Cepheid Variable mass
Cepheid Variables not as standard as once thought
HW p645 Review 1-20; Self Test 1-20

Friday, Apr 30
Senior Breakfast-no seniors in class

Tuesday, May 4
chapter 24-Galaxies
video-The Universe: Alien Galaxies
HW p678 Review 1-20; Self Test 1-20

Thursday, May 6
video-The Universe: Pulsars and Quasars (just Quasar portion now)
Galaxy Zoo Classification project
http://www.galaxyzoo.org/
search The Physics To Go site for info related to Quasar 3C273
take and submit the online tests for chapters 23-24

Monday, May 10
chapter 25-Galaxies and Dark Matter
video-The Universe: Dark Matter
HW p705 Review 1-20; Self Test 1-20

Wednesday, May 12
test for chapters 23-24

Friday, May 14
chapter 26-Cosmology
video-The Universe: Beyond the Big Bang
HW p730 Review 1-20; Self Test 1-20

Tuesday, May 18
chapter 27-The Early Universe
video-Elegant Universe/Creation of the Universe
HW p756 Review 1-20; Self Test 1-20

Thursday, May 20
finish Elegant Universe/Creation of the Universe

Monday, May 24
string theory, etc.
video-The Universe: Parallel Universes
take and submit online tests for chapters 25-27

Wednesday, May 26
Final Exam (taken in class)

Friday, May 28
Space Travel
video-The Universe: Light Speed
video-The Universe: Space Travel