CAUP Cookie Seminar - Determination of temperature and spectral classification of stars - 5 fevereiro 2014

Determination of temperature and spectral classification of stars: an experiment in astrophysics

Ana S. Lopes 

Universidade do Minho

Resumo

The main objective of our project was to determine temperature and spectral classification of stars using small aperture telescopes, CCD detectors for astronomical purposes and low cost spectroscopes (equipment from our school).
Our research work aims to concretely prove that students of Secondary Education are able to carry out experimental work in the field of stellar spectroscopy, make spectra acquisition performing the right calibration and its scientific and astrophysicist treatment. This project also intended to be an encouragement to other colleagues in secondary education to perform the same tasks, and, based on this work, be able to do their own determinations of temperature and spectral classification of stars. To reach the stars' temperature, we applied Wien's law, taking into account the wavelength at which the spectrum has a maximum flux. We could make it automatically or both manual and automatically, whether the star has its spectrum emission peak out or in of "visible" region.

This work was done together with Sofia Fernandes, Pedro Oliveira and João Paulo Vieira. In the processing, analysis and capture spectra we use the following software: TheSky6, MaximDL5, Registax6, PhotoshopCS3 and Vspec 4.13.

5 de fevereiro de 2014 | 13:30

Local

Centro de Astrofísica da U.P.
Rua das Estrelas
4150-762 Porto