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A STUDENT'S HANDBOOK OF LABORATORY EXERCISES IN ASTRONOMY Laboratory Manual for Astronomy 201 Search For Life in the Universe Second Edition 2010 i CONTENTS ii Contents 1 Introduction and Lab Outline 1 2 Visual Observations 5 3 Spectra and Remote Sensing 9 4 Mission to Mars 17 5 Extrasolar planets: Detection and Habitability 25 6 Search for Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence 36 CONTENTS iii 1 INTRODUCTION AND LAB OUTLINE 1 1 Introduction and Lab Outline General Guidelines Lab Preparation • Read the lab ahead of time to be prepared. • Always bring your notebook and a pen / pencil. During the Lab • Be on time! Outlines with essential information are given at the start of a lab. • Talk to your TA about problems and/or questions as soon as they come up - so you don't fall behind. • Discuss the lab with the students around you, but do your work independently! • Complete as much of the lab write-up as you can while in the lab session. That way the information is fresh in your mind and you have the TA to answer questions. • Check with your TA before you leave the lab to make sure you have performed all the require- ments of the lab and have adequate notes to complete the assignment. After the Lab • Reports are due 48 hours after the end of the lab. • Reports are to be dropped off in the boxes outside our lab room. • Extensions for extenuating circumstances must be requested before the 48 hours deadline • Late marks are deducted at a rate of one point per week. • If you need help, call, email, or visit your TA; they exist to assist! Lab Reports • In a black physics notebook (from Bookstore) or typed on the computer (in Word / etc). • Do not plagiarize - we can tell! This is a serious offense, and you will get a 0 on the lab. • Cite all your sources (full URL and date accessed for any web pages). • Follow the lab report template (Section 3) and our \Tips and Tricks" (Section 2). 1 INTRODUCTION AND LAB OUTLINE 2 Tips and Tricks for Writing Successful Lab Reports in Astronomy If you are using a black physics notebook: • Write neatly in ink on the lined pages of your notebook. • Underline titles and section headings for clarity. • Use pencils, coloured pencils and rulers to make clear, large diagrams on the blank pages of your notebook. • Number your pages and list labs in a \Table of Contents" at the start of your notebook. • Fold and secure (tape) loose pages so the edges do not protrude. If you are typing up your report on the computer: • Keep your labs in a folder after they are returned for future reference. • Use your spell checker! • Make sure equations and calculations are formatted so they are clear to the reader. • It is OK to include diagrams, tables of data, graphs, and calculations done by hand. In general, remember to: • Label tables, graphs, and figures so you can refer to them from your text. • Remember to always include units! • Label the axes of your graphs: what are you plotting, and on what scale? • Label the rows and columns of your tables. • Write in full sentences in the third person, past tense. • Write a short evaluation of the lab content to give your TA immediate feedback on the lab and their teaching. • If you are confused, just ask to see our sample lab reports or for extra details. • Read the comments written by your TA on your returned labs for advice on how to improve. 1 INTRODUCTION AND LAB OUTLINE 3 Astronomy 201 Lab Report Template Keep in mind that another student should be able to reproduce the experiment from your report alone (ie. without the lab manual). A good lab report should convince your TA that you fully un- derstand the concepts and how they relate to the lab's purpose; that you competently performed the entire experiment and made your own observations; and that you have properly made calculations and graphs to represent and interpret your data. Sections of the Lab Report: Objective: (2 to 3 sentences) • State the main goals of the lab. • What will be measured and/or learned, and why? Introduction: (2 to 3 paragraphs) • Provide a context for the lab: why is it important? • Introduce all background ideas, theories, and formulae used in the lab, with appropriate diagrams. Equipment: (1 paragraph) • Describe the equipment and setup you used for each experiment. • Include things like telescopes, cameras, lenses, thermometers, etc. • Don't worry about things like computers, pens, pencils, brains, etc... Procedure: (1 paragraph, optional) • A brief outline of the major steps of the experiment and how its goals are achieved. Experiment: (2 to 5 pages written, plus graphs, tables, diagrams, calculations) This section can be split up into sub-sections with the same section headings as the major com- ponents of the lab manual. Basically, this section allows you to write your lab in \chronological order", combining detailed procedure with results, calculations, graphs, and analysis for each major step of the lab. Present and discuss: • Experimental steps performed. • Data gathered or measurements made. • Graphs made based on observed and/or calculated data. • Answers to any questions posed in this section of the lab manual. 1 INTRODUCTION AND LAB OUTLINE 4 Conclusions: (1 paragraph) • Rephrase your major results • Relate your results to the main objective of the lab and their importance to the search for life in the Universe. Evaluation: (2 to 3 sentences, optional) • Comment on the pitfalls/highlights of the lab • General feedback to your TA (ie. spoke too quietly, introduction felt rushed, etc) 2 VISUAL OBSERVATIONS 5 2 Visual Observations OBJECTIVE The objective of this laboratory exercise is to introduce the student to the essentials of astronomy { planets, stars, galaxies, nebulae, and telescopes { through the observation of the night sky. EQUIPMENT Telescopes At night the brightness of the faintest star which you can see is limited by the size of the pupils of your eyes. Your pupils dilate in the dark so that more photons (bits of light) can get into you eye. In the dark your pupil is about 1 cm in diameter (0.5 cm radius) and has an area (πr2) of 0.79 cm2. If the pupil of your eye were three centimetres in diameter (1.5 cm in radius) you could see stars nine times fainter. For this lab we will give you a telescope, which concentrates all the light which falls on a mirror 10 cm in radius into a beam small enough to fit in your eye. These telescopes also magnify about 45 times and have a field of view of 1 degree. Your instructor will show you the parts of the telescope and explain their function. You will be shown how to use the telescope. Make sure you understand the use of the instrument before you use it in the dark. • Draw a diagram of the telescope showing the essential parts: primary mirror, secondary mirror, eyepiece, focuser, mount and finder. • In a sentence or two describe and explain the function of these parts. • Draw on your diagram the path followed by the incoming light. • How much brighter will your telescope make the stars appear relative to your unaided eye? Our telescopes can moved under computer control. The telescopes must be told the accurate time and properly aligned on two stars at the beginning of the night and from then on they will point to any object in the sky. If you turn the power off or bump them then the telescope will need to be realigned by the instructor. The telescope has a hand control that lets you move the telescope up, down, left and right with the arrow keys. Above the arrow keys are: [Align] never push it, [Enter] to accept an answer, [undo] to not accept an answer or to answer no. Below the arrow keys is the number pad and each number is a command/list of objects. Use the [6=Up] & [9=down] keys to scroll through a list of objects. The [5=planet] key to scroll through the planets and the [8=list] key to see lists of named stars and named objects. The [1=M] key is for a famous list of objects compiled by Charles Messier. The [info] key will give you information about the object you are looking at. There is a list of interesting objects at the end of this lab. Observations The Moon We will start with the Moon since it is the brightest and most easily found object in the sky. To get the moon in the telescope push [undo] a few times; then push [5=planet]; then push [6=Up] 2 VISUAL OBSERVATIONS 6 until the display says \Moon" and then push [Enter] and the telescope will move to the Moon. Then look into the small finder telescope and centre the image of the moon on the cross hairs by pushing the arrow keys. The moon should now appear in the main eyepiece. Centre the moon in the field of view by pushing on the arrow keys. DO NOT pull or push on the little FINDER telescope. • Sketch the moon as seen with your eye. Include the time and the location of the horizon. • Sketch the moon as seen through the telescope. The Planets People have looked at the night sky with their unaided eye for centuries and have made some interesting observations. The most obvious is that everything in the sky other than the Sun and the Moon seems to be a tiny pin-prick of light.

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