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Author Archives: davidvblack
Turning Infrared Images into Representative Color Photos
During fall semester, 2014, I taught the first half of a year-long astronomy course. This semester focused on constellations, cosmology, galaxies, and stars, whereas winter semester will focus on planetary science and the solar system. Because of my work … Continue reading
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Tagged astronomy education, astronomy lesson plan, color channels, false color images, infrared data, infrared processing and analysis center, infrared search archive, ipac, irsa finder chart, making infrared data visible, representative color image, rgb images, wise data
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BYU-RET Final Weeks
Upon completion of my trip to Caltech with my NITARP students, I resumed my studies at Brigham Young University for the remaining two weeks of my Research Experiences for Teachers (RET) program. Before the Caltech trip, as documented previously, … Continue reading
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Tagged aavso, american association of variable star observers, astroimagej, astrophysics, be star, Brigham Young University, cmd, color magnitude diagram, flux density, high mass x-ray binary, hmxb, hydrogen alpha index, research experiences for teachers, sed, spectral energy distribution, v831 cas, variable stars, wise data
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NITARP Days 5-6: What We’ve Learned
For our final day at Caltech for the NASA/IPAC Teacher Archive Research Program (NITARP) we drew conclusions from our research and evaluated how much we’ve learned from the process. Our main goal, besides learning how to use the IPAC … Continue reading
NITARP Day 4: Digging Into Data
On Thursday, July 31, 2014 my students and I continued our NITARP (NASA/IPAC Teacher Archive Research Program) experience at Caltech. Today we dug deeply into the K-giant data and converted the magnitude data at various wavelengths for our target stars … Continue reading
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Tagged astronomy data, astrophysics data, caltech, color-color diagrams, color-magnitude diagrams, excel spreadsheet, flux density, infrared processing and analysis center, k-giant stars, nitarp, signal to noise, spectral energy distribution, using authentic data in classrooms, wise data
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NITARP Day 3: Return to JPL, Wien’s Law, and Griffith Observatory
On Wednesday, July 30, 2014, our second day at the NITARP workshop at Caltech, we accomplished three major things. First, we traveled to the Jet Propulsion Laboratory for a tour. Second, we began to wrap our brains around the calculations … Continue reading
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Tagged caltech, curiosity rover, flux density, griffith observatory, in-situ instruments lab, insight probe, jet propulsion laboratory, k-giant star, nitarp, sed, smap probe, soil moisture active passive probe, spacecraft assembly building, spectral energy distribution, von karman auditorium, voyager probe, wise data
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NITARP Workshop at Caltech: Days 1-2
I haven’t written a post for this blog for a long time, and much has happened. Over the next two months I hope to write at least three posts per week and bring everything up to date. It’s been quite … Continue reading
A Showing of Stars: BYU-RET Weeks 6-7
While working on my analyses of the data from open star clusters M67, NGC 752, NGC 663, and NGC 459 as part of my experience at Brigham Young University this summer, I am also preparing a group of students from … Continue reading
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Analyzing Open Clusters: BYU-RET Weeks 5-7
During Week 4 of my Research Experience for Teachers at Brigham Young University I began to see the results of the photometry analyses I’ve done for M67, an open star cluster in Cancer. This is the fun part: I finally … Continue reading
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Tagged a0 star, absolute magnitude, age of open clusters, apparent magnitude, balmer series, be stars, blue stragglers, distance modulus, hydrogen alpha, m67, ngc 659, ngc 663, ngc 752, open star cluster, parsec, red giant branch, stellar evolution, turnoff point
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Getting Results: BYU-RET Week 4
With my ability to use the IRAF and DAOphot software improving, I am finally ready to analyze the data I’m getting out. This was my fourth week at BYU; almost halfway done and just getting to where I feel competent … Continue reading
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Counting Stars: BYU-RET Week 3
For my first two weeks at BYU, I have essentially been in background research mode between preparing my Prospectus and learning how to use IRAF. I hope to eventually work through the process of applying the calibration frames (zeros, darks, … Continue reading
The Spaced-Out Classroom 