Imaging Complex Astronomical
Objects
Starts November 6, 2012
Due December 4, 2012
Lab 5 Instructions
Important
note:
We will be observing on the Leuschner Observatory 1m telescope
throughout this lab. This will be done
remotely from the Undergraduate Lab. Each group will sign up in advance
for a night (although you may only observe for part of the night in
practice).
The telescope is reserved for use
by SFSU students on Mondays, Tuesday and Thursday up to 11pm. If
you observe after that time, make sure to double check that there is no
activity in the dome (using the webcam) before you start your own
observing.
Equipment:
The CCD camera on the Leuschner Observatory 1m telescope.
Leuschner
Observatory webpage (includes some weather links and a webcam)
Weather links:
West
Coast
satellite
animation
(visible)
West
Coast
satellite
animation
(infrared)
West
Coast
satellite
animation
(water
vapor)
7-day
forecast
from
the
National
Weather
Service
Resources:
Introduction
to
3-color
imaging (pdf)
Displaying
and annotating images (pdf)
Useful Links:
Colors of Main Sequence
stars
Wavelength dependence of extinction
Landolt
Bright
Photometric
Standards
Catalog (watch out for the fact
that the coordinates are given in B1950.0 epoch!)
Landolt
Faint
Photometric
Standards
Catalog (watch out for the fact
that the coordinates are given in J2000.0 epoch!)
Oja's
Northern
Photometric
Standards
(only some of them have RI observation, unfortunately)
Aladin (a
sky atlas software with links to many catalogs)
SIMBAD
(where all astronomers learn basic facts about astronomical objects)
Observability
tool (a tool to determine the observability of an
object over a certain period - use Lick Observatory as a proxy for
Leuschner)
Airmass
calculator (a tool to determine the observability of an
object on an hour per hour basis - use Lick Observatory as a proxy for
Leuschner)
2MASS
Near-Infrared
Image
Catalog
A Handy Finding Chart Generator