Astronomy 205: Stars and Stellar Populations (Spring 2019)

Instructor: Professor Harvey Richer Office: Hennings 306 Phone: 604-822-4134 email: richer@astro.ubc.ca

Contents

Course messages from Dr. Richer

Textbooks & Resources

Contacting the Lecturer and Teaching Assistant

Marks

Course Syllabus

Exams

Assignments

Course Notes

Course Messages

2 January 2019 Welcome to Astronomy 205 for the Spring Term 2019. You should read the contents of this web site carefully. All course information appears on this site, which is updated almost daily. The first set of slides are now available on the web. Note that these slides are NOT meant to be course notes but are mainly an indication of what we will be covering and should be used to guide your reading. For this week, review these slides together with the associated readings from the text: Chapter 1 pages 1 - 26. You should also start a detailed reading of Chapter 13. The material in this chapter is critical for almost everything we will be doing in this course.

4 January 2019 The problem with the access to the course notes has been fixed. You can now view and/or download these.

7 January 2019 The slides for the second section of the course on distances and luminosities of stars are now available.

8 January 2019 The first assignment is now available below. You should see a .PDF file containing the assignment itself and two data files.

11 January 2019 I have posted below the class assignment that you worked on today as well as the solutions.
There is a total lunar eclipse on Sunday January 20 that is well placed for seeing from Vancouver.
Here is a complete timetable detailing the various stages of the eclipse as seen from Vancouver.
Moon enters penumbra 6:36 p.m.
Moon enters umbra 7:34 p.m.
Total eclipse begins 8:41 p.m.
Middle of eclipse 9:13 p.m.
Total eclipse ends 9:43 p.m.
Moon leaves umbra 10:51 p.m.
Moon leaves penumbra 11:48 p.m.

14 January 2019 The slides for the third section of the course on colours, spectra and chemical abundances of stars are now available. This is quite a long section of the course and it will take us to about the end of January to cover all the material.

19 January 2019 The second class assignment together with solutions is posted below.

25 January 2019 The third class assignment together with solutions is posted below. As well I have posted the second take home assignment. It is due February 4.

31 January 2019 The slides for the fourth and fifth sections of the course (stellar radii and stellar masses) are now posted. We will cover the material on radii on Monday February 4th and start on stellar masses on February 6. Remember that the midterm is February 8. No questions on stellar masses will be on the first midterm. I have also posted the midterm exam with solutions from 2017. This will give you a sense of what the midterm will be like.

8 February 2019 The third take home assignment is posted below. It is due February 15. As well I have posted the first midterm togetherv with solutions.

15 February 2019 I have posted the class assignment from today (Feb 15) together with solutions. Additionally the next 2 sets of slides are also posted. This material covers the HR diagram and the fundamentals of stellar structure. Have a great midterm break.

8 March 2019 The fourth take home assignment is posted below. It is due March 18. It is a different type of assignment. It is not a data reduction problem but more of a theoretical one.

11 March 2019 The notes for the section on Energy Sources in Stars are now posted.

12 March 2019 The solutions for the second midterm are now posted below.

22 March 2019 The fifth and final take home assignment is posted below. It is due April 1 (no joke). I have also posted the notes for the final section of the course on stellar evolution as well as the class assigment plus solutions from March 22.

29 March 2019 Some people have had problems reading the gaia_isochrones.dat file. I have uploaded a similar file called gaia_isochrones_2.dat which fixed a few things in the file. You should be able to read it wth the command: numpy.genfromtxt('gaia_isochrones_2.dat'). Let me know if this works.

4 April 2019 I have attached the final exam from 2017 so you can see what is expected. Also note the date time and location of the final: Friday April 12 2019 8:30 AM in Angus 235.

Textbooks and Resources

Astronomy 205 uses Foundations of Astrophysics by Ryder and Peterson. This is the same book you used in ASTR 200 last term.

A website that is worth visitng often is the Astronomy Picture of the Day. Here are posted daily fantastic astronomy-related photos There are also several magazines, available in campus libraries and on-line, which regularly contain articles about recent astronomical discoveries: Sky & Telescope, Astronomy, New Scientist,print xxx '%f %f %f\n' {day mag err} Scientific American, Mercury.numpy.genfromtxt('gaia_isochrones_2.dat') The Sky and Telescope site is particularly useful as it includes celestial events for each week.

Contacting the Lecturer and Teaching Assistant

Marks

Your grade for the course is assigned through a final exam (45% - during the regular April exam period), two midterms (total 25% - likely dates are February 8 and March 8), assignments (25%) and class participation 5%. The assignments will be available for download from this web site on Fridays and are then generally due 10 days later on the following Monday. Note carefully that your assignments are to be done on your own - you can certainly discuss the questions with others in the class but when it comes to the writeup you must maintain your independence. Homework assignmemts that appear to be copied will result in a grade of zero for both students. There will generally be no lectures given on Fridays. During class on Fridays students will do problems in small groups. These are not for credit and are not to be handed in. Ronan (TA) and I will be available in class to discuss these wuth you. Solutions will be posted right after class. These sessions are an important part of the course - YOU SHOULD NOT PLAN ON GOING SKIING ON THESE DAYS! You can be assured that an important fraction of the midterm and final exams will be drawn from problems very similar to those worked in class on Fridays.

Course Syllabus

Below is the course syllabus. It is preliminary and will almost certainly evolve as the course progresses.
1. Jan 2-7 Introduction, Celestial Sphere, Coordinate Systems (Chapter 1)
2. Jan 9-14 Stellar Distances and Luminosities (Chapter 13)
3. Jan 16-Jan 30 Photometric Systems, Stellar Spectra and Chemical Composition of the Stars (Chapter 13)
4. Feb 4 Stellar Radii (Chapter 13)
5. Feb 6-Feb 15 Stellar Masses and the Mass-Luminosity Relation (Chapter 13)
6. Feb 8 First Midterm
7. Feb 25 HR Diagram (Chapter 14)
8. Feb 27-March 6 Stellar Structure (Chapter 15)
9. March 11 Second Midterm
10. March 13-20 Energy Souces in Stars (Chapter 15)
11. Mar 22-April 3 Stellar Evolution (Chapters 17 18)

Exams

There will be two midterm - Feb 8 and March 8 2019. These will be held during class. Combined, they are worth 25% of your grade. You must write both midterms. The final is worth 45% of your grade and will be held during the regular exam period in April. Do not make any travel plans before you know when the exam is scheduled. I will NOT entertain requests for early exams.

Assignment 1

Here is a PDF file containing the first assignment. It is due on January 21. It should be handed in before noon in the ASTR 205 box outside Hennings 312.

Assignment 1

Data for Assignment 1

Here is the data file you will need for the first part of Assignment 1.

First Data Set for Assignment 1

Here is the data file you will need for the second part of Assignment 1.

Second Data Set for Assignment 1

Assignment 2

Here is a PDF file containing the second assignment. It is due on February 4. It should be handed in before noon in the ASTR 205 box outside Hennings 312.

Assignment 2

Data for Assignment 2

Here is the data file you will need for Assignment 2.

Data Set for Assignment 2

Assignment 3

Here is a PDF file containing the third assignment. It is due on February 15. This is less time than usual but the assignment is shorter than previous ones. It should be handed in before noon in the ASTR 205 box outside Hennings 312.

Assignment 3

Data for Assignment 3

Here is the photometry data file you will need for Assignment 3.

Photometry data Set for Assignment 3

Here is the radial velocity data file you will need for Assignment 3.

Radial velocity data Set for Assignment 3

Assignment 4

Here is a PDF file containing the fourth assignment. It is due on March 18. It should be handed in before noon in the ASTR 205 box outside Hennings 312.

Assignment 4

Assignment 5

Here is a PDF file containing the fifth and last assignment. It is due April 1 and should be handed in before noon in the ASTR 205 box outside Hennings 312.

Assignment 5

Isochrones in the Gaia filters

Isochrones in the Gaia filters

Classwork January 11

Here is the PDF file containing the classwork for January 11.

Classwork January 11

Here is the PDF file containing the solutions.

Classwork January 18

Here is the PDF file containing the classwork for January 18.

Classwork January 18

Here is the PDF file containing the solutions.

Classwork January 25

Here is the PDF file containing the classwork together with solutions for January 25.

Classwork February 15

Here is the PDF file containing the classwork together with solutions for February 15.

Classwork March 22

Here is the PDF file containing the classwork together with solutions for March 22.

2017 Midterm with Solutions

2019 First Midterm with Solutions

2019 Second Midterm with Solutions

2017 Final Exam

Course Notes

Below are the notes from the A205 lectures, available in PDF format. These notes are simply the slides shown in class and should not be considered an excuse to miss lectures - they are very brief and should be used solely to ascertain what material was covered. The notes for any particular section will generally be available about 24 hours before that section is started in class.