Astronomy 1021 Lecture : Stars

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coppergoat35

18 Jan 2012

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Things we want to know about every star: Because we cannot get close enough to stars to really measure the above we have to just work with what we can see from earth. Our snapshot of the stars in the milky way galaxy is based on what we can actually observe right now which are points of light which can be faint or bright. We see that measuring two quantities is enough for now and those are the luminosity (total energy output of stars) and the surface temperature of the stars. As we have seen for the sun the total energy (power) output is called luminosity which we abbreviate to l . For what follows generally energy output will be compared to the sun s (we use the unit solar luminosity (lsun)) Therefore two stars that have the same luminosity have the same total energy output and thus are producing the same amount of energy.

Related Questions

Astronomy Parallax Lab

SCENARIO: Your lab group is planning an expedition to measure the distance to Mars by carefully measuring its position in the sky from two locations simultaneously when it is next at “opposition” (that is, when it is exactly opposite from the sun in the sky) on October 13, 2020. For the best, and most straightforward distance determination with the parallax method, Mars should be high in the sky (as near to your zenith as possible). This can be done by observing Mars: (a) from locations whose LATITUDES are similar to the DECLINATION of Mars at the date of measurement and (b) at the time of night when Mars is highest in the sky.

1a). Determine the Sky Coordinates of Mars on the date of opposition. The relevant coordinate is the Declination (RA/DE J2000 coordinates should be used) – this is the sky coordinate analogous to Latitude on the Earth’s surface. (Note, it is ok to determine these coordinates for Mars from anywhere on Earth for this initial measurement)

Mars DECLINATION on October 13, 2020: ___________________________

Your lab team needs to send observers to two cities that:

(a) have latitudes that are similar to the declination of Mars on that date (within 20 degrees); and

(b) have nearly the same longitude (that is, are nearly due North-South from each other (hint, you will need to go close to the equator!).

1b). Choose two of the cities below and use google maps, google earth or another online resource to record their names and Latitudes.

Melbourne, Australia	Kampala, Uganda	Tokyo, Japan
Omaha, NE, USA	Mumbai, Italy	Khartoum, Soudan

1c). At what time should you measure the sky coordinates (right ascension and declination) to get the most accurate possible parallax distance?

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Astronomy 1021 Lecture : Stars

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