Instructors: Pat Browne Stephen Collie Rick Scholes Course assistant

Spring 2012 Astronomy Course Mississippi Valley Night Sky Conservation The Sky Around Us
Instructors: Pat Browne Stephen Collie Rick Scholes Course assistant Amy Booth April Announcements: Errata – M46, M47 in the constellation Puppis Course Assistant Amy Booth Course Group online: invitations pending… Program developed by Mississippi Valley Conservation Authority Royal Astronomical Society of Canada Ottawa Astronomy Friends Earth Centered Universe software for illustrations – courtesy David Lane

II Stars in our Milky Way Galaxy
WHERE Locating stars on the Celestial Sphere -Constellations, Aligning our telescopes to track the stars WHEN Do they rise and set on our local horizon WHAT Stellar properties, stellar designation, classification asterisms clusters of stars WHO Pioneers in stellar astronomy: Annie Jump Canon Helen Sawyer Hogg (Canadian) Ejnar Hertzprung- Henry Russell

Last week on our plansiphere
Our first NightSky…

Objects on our Celestial Sphere = Stars in our Milky Way Galaxy
Celestial Sphere – April Recall: What we see in the sky depends Date Time What our latitude is which sets our local horizon Demo first on the planisphere then on the celestial sphere (local horizon) Lets do this for April 20… The stars rise 4 minutes earlier each day because the earth has also moved through its orbit as it has rotated around from night to day to night.

Star Time – Sidereal Time A year on earth in star time…
Sidereal Time = our time measurement with respect to the stars.. 1 Day = 1/365th of a circle ~ about one degree around the Sun. Earth rotates on its axis as well as rotates around the sun. So, the time for a star to return to the same place in our sky the following evening is only 23 hours, 56 minutes and 4 seconds (not 24) This is called a sidereal day ( 1 revolution of the earth with respect to the stars) Do the earth rotating dance around the sun then with respect to the stars infinitely far away…

Say ‘goodbye” to winter constellations
Lets do this for Apr 20… Say ‘goodbye” to winter constellations

Observations from Last week Open Clusters Nebula and Stars Globular Clusters Galaxies

As the Earth Turns –Tour of the Night Sky April 13 2012, 9pm EDT
Mars As the Earth Turns –Tour of the Night Sky April , 9pm EDT N/S line - Meridian M44 M67 When planning your are observing session , start with the things that are going to set first – Westward HO! Here is the ECU view of the celestial sphere showing the western sky, You can see this on your planisphere. But your planisphere does not record the planets because they change from year to year. ECU can program the planets in… Jupiter, nearly set… Venus (the brightest object) We shall see a phase on Venus Constellation Object Taurus M1 Crab Nebula – Supernova remnant Taurus M45 – the Pleaides – setting… Gemini M35 – Open Cluster Auriga M37,M36,M38 OCs Orion M42 Orion Nebula Emission, M78 Reflection Nebula Monoceros M46, M47 OCs Cancer M44 Beehive Cluster , M67 We finish the Western tour with ruddy Mars which is culminating on our meridian. M37 M35 M36 M46,M47 M38 M1 M78 Venus Venus M42 M45 line of the planets (ecliptic) horizon (west) Jupiter

We went after the western Winter sky – objects that would soon set.
What We Observed Recall: We went after the western Winter sky – objects that would soon set. These objects were mostly in the Winter Milky Way althouch you couldn’t tell that because the sun was still lighting up the horizon We saw lots of Open Clusters . Their sizes/brightness differences were obvious in Puppis (not Monoceros) M47 vs M46 Cancer Beehive M44 vs M67 We saw Emission and Reflection Nebula like M42 and M43 which are in fact illuminating proto-stars We saw a Supernova Remnant, the Crab Nebula in Taurus, … the Cosmic Dust Bunny! Particular observations? This excellent image of M43 shows well the dark lane separating it from its larger neighbor, M42, the Orion Nebula. It was taken with the KPNO 0.9-meter telescope on the night of December 20th 2002 UT. The central star is a young irregular variable designated NU Orionis or HD As in many deep images, this star looks elliptical here, presumably due to the material surrounding it (at least, we hope that's the explanation). Notes on M43 This excellent image of M43 shows well the dark lane separating it from its larger neighbor, M42, the Orion Nebula. It was taken with the KPNO 0.9-meter telescope on the night of December 20th 2002 UT. The central star is a young irregular variable designated NU Orionis or HD As in many deep images, this star looks elliptical here, presumably due to the material surrounding it (at least, we hope that's the explanation). Notes on M78 itself as an eerie ghost with two eyes. 146x made the nebula brighter. But the eerie feeling turned into panic at 220x when all of the surrounding stars were no longer seen and the ghost simply was staring at me with two bright eyes. At this point, I got the feeling someone was looking at me behind my

Puppis (not Monoceros)
Constellation Celestial Object Taurus M1 Crab Nebula M45 Pleiades Gemini M35 Auriga M37 M36 M38 Orion M42 M43 M78 Puppis (not Monoceros) M47 M46 Cancer M44 Beehive M67 2700 6.1 30 Leo M65 - Leo Triplet M66 Canes Venatici M3 - Globular Cluster 33900 6.2 18 M51 - Whirlpool Galaxy 8.4 11x7 Ursa Major M81 6.9 21x10 M82 - peculiar galaxy 9x4

Distance, Magnitude, Size
Constellation Celestial Object Distance (lys) Magnitude Size Arc min Taurus M1 Crab Nebula 6300 8.4 6x4 M45 Pleiades 440 1.6 110 Gemini M35 2800 5.3 28 Auriga M37 4400 6.2 24 M36 4100 6.3 12.0 M38 4200 7.4 21 Orion M42 1300 4 85x60 M43 9 20x15 M78 1600 8.3 8x6 Puppis (not Monoceros) M47 5.2 30 M46 5400 6 27 Cancer M44 Beehive 577 3.7 M67 2700 6.1 Leo M65 - Leo Triplet 60,000,000 9.3 8x1.5 M66 8.9 8x2.5 Canes Venatici M3 - Globular Cluster 33,900 18 M51 - Whirlpool Galaxy 20,000000 11x7 Ursa Major M81 10,000000 6.9 21x10 M82 - peculiar galaxy 10,000,000 9x4

Distance Graph and Brightness Graphs of what we saw
Galaxies Globulars Distance dimming Log When we look at Open Clusters, we are looking into the disk of the Milky Way between 500 – 1000 light years distance. It turns out we are looking at two different spiral arms – Auriga Open Clusters are in the Perseus Arm, whereas the Orion/Puppis clusters are in the Orion Arm When we look at Globular Clusters we are looking 10x more deeply out of the disk of the galaxy in a halo around it – M3 is one example Finally when we look at Galaxies, we are looking outside of our own galaxy > 10,000,000 light years The brightest objects are the smaller magnitudes! ! Surface brightness depends on the concentration of the material as well as the distance to the object. M1, the Crab nebula is considered a difficult object in the city because of its low surface brightness. It is also on the higher end of the distance for these asterisms.

Practical Procedures – when thinking about Telescopes
What we practically need to know is how to set up our scopes if we have an equatorial mount. … Setting up our equatorial mount is just like setting our local horizon on the celestial sphere…

pointing to the Pole star Polaris.
To set the scope polar axis to the celestial polar axis, the wedge is rotated to match the altitude of polaris at your latitude. This is the same thing as setting the altitude of the polestar equal to our latitude (45 deg) Point the telescope North and Look up the polar axis. Se the altitude of the wedge to your Latitude. To line us up on the axis. We do this by pointing to the Pole star Polaris. Polaris should be centered in the eyepiece

Celestial Coordinate System = Equatorial Mount Coordinates
Once we are aligned, we only have to nudge the Right Ascension axis (around the polar axis), in order to keep the object centered in the eyepiece. Because when we are aligned with our polar axis we track the sky. Polaris in not on the zenith but roughly 45 degrees up = our latitude above the equator Meridian facing north Lines of Right Ascension Parallels of Declination Celestial Equator The equatorial mount has the same axes as the celestial sphere. It is an alt-azimuth mount that has been tilted up to the pole star so that one axis can be turned with the earth turning.

Back to what’s out there in … the Night Sky …
Star hopping to find objects does not require fancy mounts Different scopes without equatorial mounts

When we observe… Always dress warmly as if it were still winter. Standing around in the springtime can get chilly because you are not moving Allow your eyes to adapt to what you are seeing Learn not to stare into the eyepiece but let your eye relax and allow the peripheral vision to see things too Use a red flashlight to consult charts if you are trying to hunt something down Keep an observing Log! and record observations even if you’re tired “If you don’t keep a logbook you’ll always be a beginner.”

Celestial Sphere Earth Centered Universe Computed for our location
Given our geographical position and time on the earth: our latitude, our time zone and our Time of Day, ECU displays an accurate description of our celestial sphere for our position on the earth. We can use a manual planisphere, set it for our time of year and day for our location to determine whether the object is above our horizon, what our L.S.T is, to place it on our meridian, etc We are ready to plan our observing session and view not only stars, but star clusters, galaxies,etc. But everything, stars, asterisms, constellations, galaxies have a time and a season… according to sidereal time. M65, M65 Galaxies

Constellations: Area of sky identifiable by star pattern
Ursa Major Constellations and asterisms are not necessarily close to each other in space. Everything is at a nearly ‘infinite’ distance on our celestial sphere within our Milky Way. This is to assign proper oordinates to them. Historically, the brightest stars on were grouped together into constellations and asterisms and the brightest stars gained proper names. Extensive catalogues of stars have been assembled by astronomers, which provide standardized star designations. Greek Letters (Bayer Catalogue) order by relative brightness so that Alpha Leonis is brighter than Gamma. Their absolute positions in RA and DEC were recorded at special Meridional telescopes fixed to watch stars culminating on the meridian. The ancients grouped those constellations that traveled along the ecliptic (the path of the planets) into the Zodiac There are 4 zodiacal constellations here… Gemini, Cancer, Leo, Virgo 12 Zodiacal Constellations out of 88 modern ones (including Southern Hemisphere). Looking South then pan east or west of our meridian Click to see the major constellations Bootes Gemini Leo Cancer ecliptic Mars Virgo Saturn Corvus Hydra Exercise 1: Go out and observe these constellations. How many bright stars can you see in them. Number them… Optional – DVD Chapters 4,5,6,7,8,9,11,12

When we observe stars naked eye … Starlight and Spectra (some clues)
What visual clues tell us? Brightness Colour Brightness doesn’t really tell us the distance (parsecs or light years) because we need to know their intrinsic brightness Colour – will tell us something about their temperature Other Properties luminosity (intrinsic brightness) and spectra (relative abundance of spectral lines in the light from the star), Tell us about -the age (> millions of years) - the distance to the object -chemical composition of the stellar object. Without its spectral type a star is a meaningless dot. Add a few letters and numbers like "G2V“ and the star suddenly gains personality and character

WHAT is a star… The Sun is a Star
Sun is below our horizon at 10 pm along the path of the plane of the ecliptic A star is a massive, luminous sphere of plasma held together by gravity At the end of its lifetime, a star can also contain a proportion of degenerate matter. The nearest star to Earth is the Sun, which is the source of most of the energy on Earth. In a plasma gas, a certain portion of the particles are ionized. This is because the gas is heated to high temperatures at which point a gas may ionize its molecules or atoms (reduce or increase the number of electrons in them), thus turning it into a plasma, which contains charged particles: positive ions and negative electrons or ions. This figure shows some of the more complex phenomena of a plasma. The colors are a result of relaxation of electrons in excited states to lower energy states after they have recombined with ions. These processes emit light in a spectrum characteristic of the gas being excited.

Visual Star Colour and Star Spectra using Spectroscope
When a star is brought into the field of view and the spectroscope is properly focused and adjusted, you will see a beautiful spectrum with the colors of the rainbow spread out along its length. Depending on the spectral type and luminosity class of the star, and your particular setup, you may see hydrogen lines cutting perpendicular across the spectrum, or many fine lines of metals, or wide absorption bands of molecules. These lines and bands in stellar spectra have been called the "fingerprints of the stars" because their patterns identify the elements in a star's atmosphere and indicate a star's temperature. These spectral features are easy to see in some classes of stars and more difficult to see in others. The image below was taken with the Visual / Photo / CCD Star Spectroscope: How are spectral lines formed? By electrons jumping between different energy levels in the atoms in the star's outer layers. Bound electrons can absorb and emit energy only in certain discrete amounts. When an electron absorbs a photon of light with just the right amount of energy, it jumps to a higher energy level. When the electron spontaneously jumps back to a lower energy level, a photon is emitted. Enough electrons jumping between any two given energy levels of a given element will result in a spectral emission or absorption line at a characteristic wavelength. For example, the strongest spectral line in a hot main-sequence star like Vega lies in the blue-green part of the spectrum. It is a dark or absorption line resulting from electron jumps from the second to the fourth energy level of the neutral hydrogen atom, and is known as hydrogen beta (in the Balmer series).

Color Star Atlas or Color Stars in ECU
The main reason why stars are differently coloured is that some are hotter than others. Deep in their interior all stars are enormously hot (measured in millions of degrees), but their temperature lessens towards their outer layers, and the coolest star pours out most of their visible radiation in the red part of the spectrum. Hotter stars like the Sun appear yellow, still hotter stars appear white, and the hottest appear blue. The spectral type of a star is not the same thing as its intrinsic colour although the two are closely related. When starlight passes through a spectograph ( a prism or glass grating) it is split into the colors of the rainbow, a spectrum. Most importantly there are spectral absorption lines that give a clue to the temperature and the chemical composition of that star Almost all starlight spectra can be assigned to one of seven main types (OBAFGKM). A great deal about the nature of the star can be inferred from its spectrum : how bright it really is, how massive it is, whether it is a compact main sequence star (see next slide) or a swollen giant. Broadly speaking, we can tell how old it is, and what is happening to it with respect to its hydrogen, helium or heavier element combustion process. Coma Star Cloud – and star colours!

Stars and their Spectra
Hertsprung-Russell Diagram to classify Stars according to their Spectral Class Stars and their Spectra Most stars gather in certain narrow regions of the H-R diagram according to their masses and ages. Stars arrive on what's called the main sequencesoon after they are born, and this evolutionary track is where they spend most of their lives. Massive stars blaze brightly on the hot, blue end of the main sequence. They burn up their nuclear fuel in only millions or tens of millions of years. Stars with lower masses comprise the yellow, orange, and red dwarfs on the lower-right part of the main sequence, where they remain for billions of years. As a star begins to exhaust the hydrogen fuel in its core, it evolves away from the main sequence toward the upper right and becomes a red giant or supergiant. Stars that began with more than eight times the Sun's mass then evolve left and right through complicated loops on the H-R diagram as if in a frenzy to keep up their energy production. Then they finally explode assupernovae. Less massive giants evolve to the left and then down to becomewhite dwarfs; this is the track the Sun will trace through the H-R diagram

Class Temperature[8] (kelvins) Conventional color Apparent color[9][10][11] Mass[8] (solar masses) Radius[8] (solar radii) Luminosity[8] (bolometric) Hydrogen lines Fraction of all main sequence stars[12] O ≥ 33,000 K blue ≥ 16 M☉ ≥ 6.6 R☉ ≥ 30,000 L☉ Weak ~ % B 10,000–33,000 K blue to blue white blue white 2.1–16 M☉ 1.8–6.6R☉ 25–30,000 L☉ Medium 0.13% A 7,500–10,000 K white white to blue white 1.4–2.1M☉ 1.4–1.8R☉ 5–25 L☉ Strong 0.6% F 6,000–7,500 K yellowish white 1.04–1.4M☉ 1.15–1.4R☉ 1.5–5 L☉ 3% G 5,200–6,000 K yellow 0.8–1.04M☉ 0.96–1.15R☉ 0.6–1.5 L☉ 7.6% K 3,700–5,200 K orange yellow orange 0.45–0.8M☉ 0.7–0.96R☉ 0.08–0.6 L☉ Very weak 12.1% M ≤ 3,700 K red orange red ≤ 0.45 M☉ ≤ 0.7 R☉ ≤ 0.08 L☉ 76.45% Stellar classification is a classification of stars based on their spectral characteristics. The spectral classof a star is a designated class of a star describing the ionization of its chromosphere, what atomic excitations are most prominent in the light, giving an objective measure of the temperature in this chromosphere. Light from the star is analyzed by splitting it up by a diffraction grating, subdividing the incoming photons into a spectrum exhibiting a rainbow of colors interspersed by absorption lines, each line indicating a certain ion of a certain chemical element. The presence of a certain chemical element in such an absorption spectrum primarily indicates that the temperature conditions are suitable for a certain excitation of this element. If the star temperature has been determined by a majority of absorption lines, unusual absences or strengths of lines for a certain element may indicate an unusual chemical composition of the chromosphere. Most stars are currently classified using the letters O, B, A, F, G, K, and M (usually memorized by astrophysicists as "Oh, be a fine girl, kiss me"), where O stars are the hottest and the letter sequence indicates successively cooler stars up to the coolest M class. According to informal tradition, O stars are called "blue", B "blue-white", A stars "white", F stars "yellow-white", G stars "yellow", K stars "orange", and M stars "red", even though the actual star colors perceived by an observer may deviate from these colors depending on visual conditions and individual stars observed

We can show this in the lab:
Stellar Spectra tells us surface temperature, chemical composition atmospheric pressure and surface gravity, total luminousity (energy pouring out) Whether in a star's atmosphere or in a laboratory, absorption lines are produced when a continuous rainbow of light from a hot, dense object (top left) passes through a cooler, more rarefied gas (top center). Emission lines, by contrast, come from an energized, rarefied gas such as in a neon light or a glowing nebula. When I look at a star, why do I see dark absorption lines rather than bright emission lines? Gas under high pressure produces a continuous spectrum, a rainbow of colors. Continuous radiation viewed through a low density gas results in an absorption-line spectrum. What's happening here is that radiation emitted by gas under high pressure deep within the star is being absorbed by low density gas in the star's outer layers. We can show this in the lab: Using a slit and prism, physicists discovered that when a solid, liquid, or dense gas is heated to glow, it emits a smooth spectrum of light with no lines: a continuum. A rarefied hot gas, on the other hand, glows only in certain colors, or wavelengths: bright, narrow emission lines instead of a rainbow band. If a cooler sample of the same gas is placed in front of a glowing object emitting a continuum, dark absorption lines appear at the wavelengths where the emission lines would be if the gas were hot. What kinds of deep sky objects have emission-line spectra? A low density gas shows an emission-line spectrum, when not observed against a background of continuous radiation. Thus emission lines are found in the spectra of planetary and diffuse nebulae, and in some stars. In the latter case the lines often arise from gas clouds ejected from the star by strong stellar winds.

Harvard College Observatory Astronomer
Annie Cannon 1863 –1941 Harvard College Observatory Astronomer applied her own scheme which resulted in the famous OBAFGKM classification which is still used today The Sun's spectrum was marked by many narrow, black lines of various intensities. These dark lines stayed at exactly the same places in the colorful band from day to day and year to year. This solar spectrum — a 'rainbow' of sunlight with thin, dark absorption lines at numerous discrete wavelengths. Each chemical element creates its own unique set of spectral lines. Similar spectral lines showed up in laboratory The sun is a G2 star representing 7.2% of the statistical population within 10 pcs. The (much abused) Copernican Principle In its modern form, the Copernican Principle has become something that would have entirely horrified Copernicus. This shift in interpretation aside, the Copernican Principle is generally expressed in a form that asserts the non-favoured location and non-special viewpoint of humanity5 within the Universe. That is, we are not privileged or even unique observers of the cosmos. The idea behind the principle is of general importance in the practice of science, and, for example, in the field of cosmology, appears to be demonstrably true: the Universe, on the large scale, is isotropic and homogeneous, and our general viewing circumstances are no different from those of any other potential observer in the Universe. Be all this as it may—the point is, we would argue, that an unguarded devotion to the Copernican Principle in the modern era has resulted in wrong conclusions being drawn about the Sun. The argument apparently runs along the lines that since, by the Copernican Principle, humanity, as observers of the Universe, is not specially located, so the star (the Sun) about which the Earth orbits, and from which humans observe, cannot be special, and therefore it must be an average sort of stellar object in a non-special, “nondescript” location within the Milky Way Galaxy. Such conclusions, as far as the Sun goes, are not logically propagated and, more to the point, are demonstrably wrong. Class Temperature[8] (kelvins) Conventional color Apparent color[9][10][11] Mass[8] (solar masses) Radius[8] (solar radii) Luminosity[8] (bolometric) Hydrogen lines Fraction of all main sequence stars[12] O ≥ 33,000 K blue ≥ 16 M☉ ≥ 6.6 R☉ ≥ 30,000 L☉ Weak ~ % B 10,000–33,000 K blue to blue white blue white 2.1–16 M☉ 1.8–6.6R☉ 25–30,000 L☉ Medium 0.13% A 7,500–10,000 K white white to blue white 1.4–2.1M☉ 1.4–1.8R☉ 5–25 L☉ Strong 0.6% F 6,000–7,500 K yellowish white 1.04–1.4M☉ 1.15–1.4R☉ 1.5–5 L☉ 3% G 5,200–6,000 K yellow 0.8–1.04M☉ 0.96–1.15R☉ 0.6–1.5 L☉ 7.6% K 3,700–5,200 K orange yellow orange 0.45–0.8M☉ 0.7–0.96R☉ 0.08–0.6 L☉ Very weak 12.1% M ≤ 3,700 K red orange red ≤ 0.45 M☉ ≤ 0.7 R☉ ≤ 0.08 L☉ 76.45%

Stellar Spectra Summary
surface temperature chemical composition atmospheric pressure and surface gravity total luminousity (energy pouring out) *The temperature sets the star's color and determines its surface brightness: how much light comes from each square meter of its surface. The atmospheric pressure depends on the star's surface gravity and therefore, roughly, on its size — telling whether it is a giant, dwarf, or something in between. The size and surface brightness in turn yield the star's luminosity (its total light output, or absolute magnitude and often its evolutionary status (young, middle-aged, or nearing death).) The luminosity (when compared to the star's apparent brightness in our sky) also gives a good idea of the star's distance T=5500 Note also that the colour of the star is related to the corresponding peak wavelength emitted of the continuous radiation: λmax = b/ T where λmax is the peak wavelength, T is the absolute temperature of the black body, and b is a constant of proportionality called Wien's displacement constant, value). Knowing the suns temperature, we infer a particular colour expressed as a wavelength in the visible … T = 5000 λ = λ max

Stellar Classification - Who
Annie J. Cannon discovered that nearly all stars' spectra can be fit into one smooth, continuous sequence. The sequence matched the stars' color temperatures, from the hottest, blue-white stars at one end to relatively cool, orange-red ones at the cool end . The basic sequence ran O B A F G K M from hot to cool.

Planning your Observations
Get a book from the library or a magazine that features a particular selection of objects visible from your location at the current date You can use ipod type devices but plan what you are doing beforehand so that you don’t just stare at the ipod Better to plan indoors first . Use a planetarium program like ECU. We can do a lab showing how to set the time, place, information detail, catalogues… Make sure you are comfortable at the eyepiece You can sit down when you get tired. Plan your session. Choose an area to work on and pick from a list of different things: stars with colour/ colour contrast star clusters star nebulae and nursuries galaxies supernovae remnants clusters of galaxies ECU Earth Centered Universe

Looking up – Spring Night Sky exploration
What binary stars can you see – pick some famous ones What color contrasts can you observe? Blue and yellow?? 1. How do you use stellar ‘landmarks’ to hop to non- stellar objects such as the Virgo Cluster of Galaxies (hint – Find Epsilon Virgo and Beta Leonis) … or the cluster of galaxies in 2. Leo, M65,M66? 3What does the M stand for… when we talk about Messier objects? 4.What kinds of M objects are there? 5.What kind of object is M44? (The Beehive cluster)

Star- Hopping to find Star Clusters and Clusters of Galaxies
To find the Markarian Chain of Galaxies in the Virgo cluster, locate Epsilon Virginis and Beta Leo . They lie half-way along the line To find M65, M65 drop down from Theta Leonis To find M3 (Globular Cluster) locate Arcturus (Alpha Bootes) and Alpha Canes Venatici (not shown) . M3 is 1/3 of the way from Alpha Bootes See ObservingGalaxies.ppt on the Millstone Website for more information Alpha Bootes

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