Please note that in the past, approximately half of the teams have been high school teams and they completed their research projects in a timely manner. There are no prerequisites or advanced knowledge required for this Research Seminar. There are always enough diverse talents on the teams that by working together (with generous outside support) the research teams can complete the research in the allotted time.
Detailed seminar instructions, videos, reference material, quizzes, etc., are all contained in the easy-to-use, totally online Canvas Learning Management System.
#Definition of astrometry registration#
The Seminar’s textbook, the 217-page Small Telescope Astronomical Research Handbook, was specifically written for the Astronomy Research Seminars, and is included as part of the registration (choice of e-book, softcover, or hardcover). This InStAR Research Seminar is totally online and features weekly, synchronous staff meetings (Zoom online conferencing) every Wednesday evening between the research supervisors and the research teams. Each team will then write, revise, and submit a manuscript for publication in the Journal of Double Star Observations, and summarize their research results in an online PowerPoint presentation. Analysis will, hopefully, suggest whether or not the components are gravitationally bound binaries, common proper motion pairs born near each other, or just chance optical doubles that appear close together but are actually far apart. Based on their observations, each research team will determine the position angle and separation distances between the two components of the double star. In this Institute for Student Astronomical Research (InStAR) Seminar, Double Star Astrometry, researchers will use a remote robotic telescope to obtain observations of a close double star that might be gravitationally bound.
Whether it is observationally determining the position angles and separations of close double stars (which may be binary stars orbiting about a common center-of-gravity), or the positions of fast-moving asteroids with respect to fixed background stars, determining the positions of objects-astrometry-is a fundamental task of observational astronomy and makes an ideal entry point into the world of astronomical research. Astrometry (not to be confused with astronomy) is the “branch of astronomy concerned with the measurement of the positions and apparent motions of celestial objects in the sky and the factors that can affect them” ( Cambridge Dictionary of Astronomy, J.
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