Sky Journel #5

October 18
Time: 5:45PM
Location: Eagle Drive, Burlington, WA

            The weather was too bad this week to be able to see anything so I made it a point to watch the sunset instead. There isn’t much to say about it. It was pretty orange and pink in color and was at about 290⁰ West.

Sky Journel #4

Date: October 12, 2010
Time: 1:30 AM
Location: Arbor street, Mount Vernon, WA

The picture below is a  replica I made of the sky as I saw it a couple nights ago (note that East is on the top, West the bottom, etc. because I was not facing North and this way is less confusing for me). The points have been drawn fairly large so that they’re able to be seen.
            One constellation I think I saw was Auriga (labeled a on the “map”). Auriga has a really bright star as one of the points of its circle-like head which I was able to make out but I didn’t see any parts of the tail. The azimuth was about 40⁰ (northeast) and the altitude 15⁰.
            Secondly, I thought I was looking at Cassiopeia (labeled b) but I often get it the larger W-shaped constellation confused with it. The azimuth was 350⁰ (northwest) and the altitude was 40⁰.
            There were other stars out obviously but they were all pretty small and not very identifiable for me.

Sky Journel #3

Date: October 7, 2010
Time: 12:15 AM
Location: Arbor Street, Mount Vernon, WA

The picture below is a  replica I made of the sky as I saw it last night (note that East is on the top, West the bottom, etc. because I was not facing North and this way is less confusing for me). The points have been drawn fairly large so that they’re able to be seen.
            The most predominant constellation I could see was Ursa Major (labeled a) though I was not able to see all points of the constellation due to Washington’s infamous weather. The azimuth of Ursa Major from my location was about 350 ⁰ (north) and the altitude was about 40⁰.
            The only other constellation that I was able to make out was what looked to be pieces of Cetus (labeled b). I was able to see most of the points of the smaller pentagon, the connecting star and the tip of the large pentagon-like shape. The azimuth of Cetus from my location was 180⁰ (south) and the altitude was about 40⁰.
            In addition to constellations, I was able to see a fairly bright star which I though could possibly be the bright point on the constellation Cygnus (labeled c) which had an azimuth of 280⁰ (northwest) and an altitude of 65⁰.
            Lastly, I saw another bright star close to Cygnus but I think it was too bright to be part of Cygnus and I determined it was a bright point of the constellation Lyra. This star had an azimuth of 285⁰ (northwest) and an altitude of 65⁰.

Properties of the Sun Lab Write-Up

Problem: Use images of the Sun to find the rotation period of the Sun, and to find the velocity of matter leaving the Sun through a coronal mass ejection.

Hypothesis: It was my guess that we could determine the velocity of a coronal mass ejection because we had a way to determine distance and had photos that were representational of time but I figured our method would not give us the most accurate measurement as there is a fair amount of room for error.

Procedure #1: The following are the steps used for our first procedure: 1) we determined the diameter in pixels using the image of the sun. 2) We looked up the actual diameter and divided the actual diameter in km by the measured diameter in pixels and determined a km/pixel image scale. 3) We measured the distance in pixels that the coronal mass ejection moved and multiplied that number by our scale factor to determine the distance the mass ejection moved. 4) We used our calculations to determine the period of the sun in days.

Procedure #2: The following are the steps used for our second procedure: 1) we determined a new image scale by measuring the diameter of the sun in pixels and dividing the actual diameter of the sun in km by the pixel diameter. 2) We pinpointed both of the minimum heights in pixels of the mass ejections, used the distance formula to determine the pixel distance moved and then converted that number to km using our scale factor. 3) We pinpointed both of the maximum heights in pixels of the mass ejections, used the distance formula to determine the pixel distance moved and then converted that number to km using our scale factor. 4) We used our calculated distances to determine the change in height in km. 5) We used the times recorded below each picture to determine the time change. 6) We divided our calculated distance covered by the time it took for the mass ejection to move that distance and found the velocity of the material in km/h. 7) We converted our velocity to mi/hr.

Data & Calculations: Can be seen on the hardcopy of the lab which will be turned in on the day of the test.

Conclusion: We were able to determine the velocity of the coronal mass ejection using simple pictures, pixel measurements and formulas which was interesting.  We determined that the material left the sun at an extremely fast velocity when compared to the velocity of things we are familiar with like cars and airplanes which is kind of mindboggling to think about. As with all labs there was some error in our calculations. This error came from unsteady hands used to determine pixel location as well as small photos that do not allow for very precise measurements.

Weekly Reflection: 10/18-10/22

Most of my time spent this week was spent filling in missing holes on all my labs, filling out the write-ups and working through the different assignments, projects and worksheets. I found my solar research and listening to the solar research of others to be interesting and informative because I have never really thought about what the sun looks like or is composed of which is why I also found the lectures to be interesting. My aha moment was realizing how much there actually is going on in the sun and on the surface of the sun. Another aha moment was when I did my solar research and learned how coronal holes on our sun that is so far away can actually affect our communication. Finally, I enjoyed the different APODs because I think pictures of the solar system are always really pretty as they are so colorful and something that is fairly unfamiliar to me.

Identifying Lines in the Solar Spectrum Lab Write-Up

Problem: The purpose of the lab was to identify lines of the solar system using Fraunhofer lines.

Hypothesis: As this lab was primarily data collection there was not much to hypothesize.

Procedure: We used a picture we were provided with to pinpoint the pixel location of two separate lines and found the pixel distance between the two. From there we used the table we were provided with to find the distance in nanometers and used nm/pixels to establish a scale factor. Our next step was to identify unknown lines along the same spectrum. We first chose one line to serve as our reference point and determined the pixel location and the given wavelength in nanometers. We then found the pixel location of each line and determined the distance between that line and the reference point. Next, we multiplied the pixel distance by our previously calculated scale factor to get the wavelength in nanometers of each element. From this point we were able to use the wavelength to determine the element name of each unknown line.

Data: Can be seen on the hardcopy of the lab that will be turned in on the day of the test.

Calculations: Can be seen on the hardcopy of the lab that will be turned in on the day of the test.

Conclusions: We were able to determine some of the different elements in the solar spectrum however our calculations could not be entirely accurate. Because we were using unsteady hands and trying to pinpoint small lines there is some error in our pixel determination which is the foundation on which all other questions and calculations are based. We saw this error come into play when we used the calculated wavelength to determine the name of the element but it was obvious that our calculations were off a bit because none of the elements had the exact wavelength that we calculated so we had to round our numbers to the element with the closest wavelength. Error aside, it was interesting to see how we could use something as simple as a picture on a computer screen to determine different elements and wavelengths.

Solar Research: Question #6

In 1973 the United States launched its first space station, Skylab. Skylab was in the Earth’s orbit for about six years (from 1973-1979) and was equipped with x-ray telescopes to reveal the structure of the sun, specifically the corona of the sun. These x-ray images taken from both the Skylab and other satellites revealed the sun to have darker, colder spots on its corona that can be as large as the earth’s diameter and have plasma with lower density than average. We have since learned that coronal holes occur when the magnetic field of the sun is open to interplanetary space and there are regions on the sun where solar magnetic fields loop back to the sun forming arches which are depicted on x-rays as brighter areas than the rest of the corona.
            We should care about coronal holes because open configuration of the magnetic field allow particles to escape into space and research has found that coronal holes are the source of high speed solar wind streams which, when coming in contact with the Earth, can cause geomagnetic storms. Periods of high amounts of solar activity eject mass from the coronal holes and periods of low solar activity geomagnetic storms are created. From our perspective, it is important to monitor solar activity in and from coronal holes because these holes can last for several months and following them gives us the ability to predict geomagnetic disturbances

Image: http://sprg.ssl.berkeley.edu/~hhudson/drafts/sw10/sch.pdf

Darling, David. "Coronal Hole." The Worlds of David Darling. 1999. Web. 21 Oct. 2010. <http://www.daviddarling.info/encyclopedia/C/coronal_hole.html>.