2/15/24

Messier 79 & NGC2818

Joe Corrigan & Brandon Christmas

Hampden Sydney College

                         Image of Messier 79                                                Image of NGC2818

In the last module of the class we observed both Globular and Open Clusters. On the left you will see our image of Messier 79, a globular cluster. We used the Prompt 5 telescope in Chile using the I, B, V, and R filters. The actual cluster is the bright spot in the middle which comprises about 57% of the stars in the photo with a metallicity of -0.6 they are about 2.5 billion years old.

The photo on the right is NGC2818 which is an open cluster. We used the same telescope and filters. The cluster is the brighter spot in the middle left section of the photo which comprises 56% of the stars in the photo with a metallicity of -2.2 making them around 2 billion years old.

Globular and Open clusters are important for astronomy studies due to their formation. Clusters are born from the explosion of a star and they are all formed at the same time, they are made of the same matter, but they have different amounts of that matter. This allows astronomers to study the aging process of stars knowing that the age of them all is the same. From these clusters astronomers will observe the metallicity of these stars which is important for knowing how far along a star is in its life.

The observation data for NGC2818 was as follows:

Exposures: 20

Filters: B (50.0 seconds), V (35.0 seconds), R (40.0 seconds), I (45.0 seconds)

The Observation data for Messier 79 was as follows:

Exposures: 20

Filters: B (48.39 seconds), V (48.39 seconds), R (48.39 seconds), I (48.39)

Here is the sonification for PSR 1133+16.

For this observation I used pulsar mode to save me time with analysis and Sky net gave me this useful Jpeg of different charts and information. The period of this pulsar was 1168.4 ms. A typical Neutron star has a radius of about 12 km and a mass of 1.4 solar masses. With this information we can calculate our moment of inertia, once we know the inertia we can use that to then solve for the Kinetic Energy.  I got an Kinetic Energy approximatley equal to 4.33×10^38.

Here is an image I took of NGC 6302 otherwise known as the Bug Nebula or Butterfly nebula. This is a planetary nebula that has a very hot central star within it. To take this image I used the Prompt 5 telescope in La Serena Chile. I used the following filters; Lum, Halpha, OIII, and SII. The total observing time per filter was three hundred seconds or five minutes.

To achieve the coloring and final look of the photo i aligned and stacked all of the images from each filter using afterglow. Then also in afterglow I assigned colors to each filters and played around with the saturation and background percent levels until my aligned and stacked photo looked half way decent. For OIII I used the OIII color map, for Halpha I used the Balmer color map, for SII I used the red color map, and for the Lum filter I used the gray color map however I had Lum selected in blend mode.

From the image we can quite clearly see the central star is radiating quite the amount of heat and we can see how the stellar winds are pushing the excessive amounts material around the central star. What is actually happening here is that there are hydrocarbon molecules being formed within an oxygen rich environment which I think is quite interesting. (Thank you wikipedia for the fun fact)

Our observation of Carina Nebula (NGC 3372) was taken with a Prompt 5 telescope in Chile, South America. We used Halpha, OIII, SII, B, V, R, and Lum filters. These observations came out a lot more transparent and had a lot more detail. We believe the higher definition is because of the weather and humidity at night. We have had clear skies the past few nights, which have been perfect for observing. The exposure time for Halpha, OIII, and S2 is 300.0s. The exposure for filter B was 80.0s. The exposure time for filter V was 60.0s. The exposure time for filter R was 40.0s. The exposure time for Lum is 20.0s. These different exposure times helped us get better photos due to the color filters used.

Once all of the photos have been stacked, aligned, grouped, and assigned colors, we end up with this.

This image is great but we knew that it could be better. We took observations from the Wide Field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) and the Two Micron Infrared Science Archive to achieve a greater wavelength band. This allowed us to see through more dust. We used SkyView to download these Fit files to add them to our original photo.

This was what the image turned into after we included the archived images.

To determine the size of our star forming region we needed to implement the small angle formula. S=r*Theta. Using the plotter tool we were able to determine a theta of 8.5 arcmins and using Wikipedia we determined our r value was 2600pc or 2.6Kpc. We ended up with a R_s value equal to 6.4pc. Obviously this only relates to the small portion of the region we sampled in our picture. After adding most of all of the spectral classes ionizing fluxes we got a total of R_*=1.35×10^50. We then plugged R_s and R_* into our equation to achieve the number density of ionized hydrogen within the region. Our numer equated to N_h+=122.54 cm^-3.

The light coming from the central star of this region is doing all of the ionization that is exciting the hydrogen enough to ionize it until it becomes a ionized hydrogen. A good way to think of a star forming region is almost like a giant e/m experiment that is thousands of light years away. Pretty Cool!

M 35 graph fits

This observation know as M 35 is also on the younger side. It was chosen because it was easily visible and the HSC telescope was able to get nice picture of it. We got 22 different pictures and there were not many problems with stacking and aligning them. Then the pictures were grouped and colored and I think the pictures came out really good. The fit on the graph came out pretty good as well. The estimated age of M 35 was 100 million years. The actual age of M 35 is 110 million years old (Real data). This was a 10% margin of error.

Messier 35 graph data

Messier 35

M45 Optical Image

M45 Data

M45 HR Diagram

For one of our younger open cluster we decided to choose the Pleiades since it is visible in the northern hemisphere and easy to spot. We set fifteen observations that for M45 that took various time lengths in their respective filters but made sure to do exposures in gprime, rprime, and uprime. Thereafter we archived stars in the image and stacked with the respective filters. Unfortunately, u prime did not want to work so data was restricted to just r and g prime. After it was stacked and stars were marked, we exported it as a csv file and plugged it into astromancer. In astromancer we cleaned up background stars as best we could but we think that several background stars still made it on the graph given that it does not follow it exactly. The line of best fit was adjusted as best we could and we got an estimated age of a 100(myr), which is accurate to the actual age of Pleiades which is between 90 and 115(myr).

Messier 92

Messier 92 graph data

Messier 92 graph fits

For an older observation we have M 92. This was chosen because it was easily visible and the PROMPT telescope was able to take it. 3 images were taken and were overlapped and colored. The images came out ok but I think if we got more pictures they would have come out clearer. The Fit on the graph above came out pretty well. I tried to fiddle with the bottom but this was the best I could get. The estimated age of this cluster is 13.4 billion years old. This was very cole to the real value which came out to 13.8 billion years old (Real data). This is only a 3% margin of error!