With all the other involvements that I have, you may be wondering why on Earth I got involved with yet another research project! The answer is: this astrophysics research was done for class credit. It was more than just a class, however. It showed me the inner workings of astrophysics, how astrophysicists got their results, gave me another research lab to go work in, pushed me to stay on class later than preferred many days, and more!
This showed me what a true astrophysicist has to work on, pushing aside the notion of someone like Neil Degrasse Tyson, and his many pop-culture ventures for the general public. Working on this project gave me a new understanding of astrophysics and the math and computer skills needed to complete their job. It also helped me realize which aspects I would enjoy, or not enjoy in a future job. As of right now, I am aiming on going into space engineering in grad school, so a mixture of astrophysics and engineering would be ideal!
Part 1 of the project was analyzing data photometrically from a star called RW Aur A. I also utilized a calibration star named TYC 2359-105-1 to compare its relative brightness. This was done with ATV, a package of IDL. Part 2 of the project was observing the star once again, and then fully analyzing the spectrum, using various tasks in IDL to clean spectra, merge them, look at the arcs and flats of the stars, and get final flux ratio spectra.
The document that I used for reference was a Spex manual created by Dr. Sitko, my professor for this project, and it is linked here:
Mike's SpeX Data Reduction Manual (v2)
I've created a journal below that details what I did in this project. Although it was mostly done after the project was completed, it reflects the steps taken to complete the project, and everything that was done to do so.
This showed me what a true astrophysicist has to work on, pushing aside the notion of someone like Neil Degrasse Tyson, and his many pop-culture ventures for the general public. Working on this project gave me a new understanding of astrophysics and the math and computer skills needed to complete their job. It also helped me realize which aspects I would enjoy, or not enjoy in a future job. As of right now, I am aiming on going into space engineering in grad school, so a mixture of astrophysics and engineering would be ideal!
Part 1 of the project was analyzing data photometrically from a star called RW Aur A. I also utilized a calibration star named TYC 2359-105-1 to compare its relative brightness. This was done with ATV, a package of IDL. Part 2 of the project was observing the star once again, and then fully analyzing the spectrum, using various tasks in IDL to clean spectra, merge them, look at the arcs and flats of the stars, and get final flux ratio spectra.
The document that I used for reference was a Spex manual created by Dr. Sitko, my professor for this project, and it is linked here:
Mike's SpeX Data Reduction Manual (v2)
I've created a journal below that details what I did in this project. Although it was mostly done after the project was completed, it reflects the steps taken to complete the project, and everything that was done to do so.