You will have to make important decisions regarding your observations once you have decided on a project. How many pictures will you request? What filters should the camera use and how long of an exposure time? You must take special care when choosing what object you will actually observe. Is it an object that will be above the horizon during the night at this time of year? Is it actually bright enough to see with the Rigel telescope? If it is a large object, will it fit in the field of view of the camera?
Fill out the Research Proposal Form with your team once you have made these considerations. Make sure you have a fairly clear idea of how you will analyze your data once you have your images. Planning at this stage can save you a lot of time later, and can prevent you from ending up with data you can't use or, worse, a project you can't complete. Your instructor will check over your proposal. Once he or she has approved it, request your observations!
Sample Project Ideas
- Make a tri-color image of a galaxy, determine its distance and the speed at which it is moving away from us
- Make a hydrogen-alpha image of a galaxy and calculate the size, mass, and location of star-forming regions
- Search for supernovae in other galaxies by taking images on multiple nights and comparing
- Determine the size, volume, and mass of a nebula by making a tri-color image
- Measure the chemical abundances in a star-forming region with hydrogen-alpha and oxygen-III images
- Calculate the size, age or expansion speed of a supernova or planetary nebula from a tri-color image
- Find the age and distance of a stellar cluster by performing BV photometry
- Measure the semi-major axis and period of a planet's moons to find its mass
- Observe an eclipsing binary star on multiple nights and determine the period and masses of the stars
Choosing a Topic
Your team should decide on a science question or questions that you want to try to answer about an astronomical object. You may choose to do something similar to what you have done in one of the lab exercises in this course, but look at a different object and taking more precise measurements to obtain a better result, or answer more questions about the object. You might choose to answer a completely new question, and/or look at a type of object you have not observed in the lab. Several sample ideas are listed at the bottom of this page, but there are infinite possibilities that a creative student could come up with.
Your team should brainstorm to come up with several attractive project ideas, and then discuss the pros and cons of each. You should also try to make a short list of possible observation targets for each project using your knowledge from class or by doing some quick research on the internet. Your instructor can help you to determine what is and isn't feasible with the equipment available, what projects would involve an appropriate amount of work.