Astronomy 12 - Laboratory manual

This website last updated Thursday, January 8, 2009, at 4pm.

This page has been modified to help the astronomy department update the lab manual. Any and all suggestions are welcome, including those from our students. Please download the Word documents from this page, open the document WITH TRACKING MODE ACTIVATED, type in your suggestions, and email them back to David Vakil. I will post updates on this page as they become available. Please update the acknowledgements and cover pages to reflect your work on this project.

Here are links to every page that appears in the lab manual last updated January 7, 2005. The document is available in Word (link is the title of the handout) or in PDF.

There are quirks with some of the documents. There may be a blank and/or mis-labeled first page.

  1. Acknowledgements . PDF.
  2. Cover page . PDF.

Handouts - not related to lab reports

  1. Angular measurements from drawings . PDF.
  2. Brightest stars . PDF.
  3. Distance and Size from angles . PDF.
  4. Drift timing . PDF.
  5. Equipment introduction . PDF.
  6. Greek alphabet . PDF.
  7. Observation sheet . PDF.
  8. Polar alignment and RA calibration . PDF.
  9. Rounding, ratios, and percents . PDF.
  10. Telescope C8 picture . PDF.
  11. Telescope safety . PDF.
  12. Using the planisphere . PDF.
  13. Using the Star Atlas . PDF.
  14. Using the Telescope . PDF.
  15. Vocabulary. PDF.

Handouts - related to lab reports

  1. Evaluating lab reports . PDF.
  2. Instructions for writing lab reports . PDF.
  3. Sample lab report. PDF.

Labs

  1. Binary stars . PDF.
  2. Clusters . PDF.
  3. Constellations . PDF.
  4. Expanding Universe . (CLEA computer lab) PDF.
  5. Field of View . PDF.
  6. Impact craters . PDF.
  7. Jupiter - indoors (CLEA computer lab) . PDF.
  8. Jupiter - outdoors . PDF.
  9. Lenses and telescopes - part 1 . PDF.
  10. Lenses and telescopes - part 2 . PDF.
  11. Moon lab - one night long . PDF.
  12. Moon lab - two nights long . PDF.
  13. Moon lab observation template . PDF.
  14. Sun . PDF.
  15. Visual Photometry. PDF.

That's all of them!

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