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Astronomical works with students
Irina GUSEVA
St Petersburg
- Central (Pulkovo) Astronomical Observatory
of the Russian Academy of Sciences
- St Petersburg State University,
Faculty of Mathematics and Mechanics,
Department of Astronomy
Instrument
Double Short Focus Astrograph
D = 100 mm
F = 712 mm
Objective prism
UBVRI filters
CCD ST-8 (SBIG)
1020 x 1530, 9 x 9 mkm
Field Of View - 44' x 67‘
Scale - 2.6"/pixel
Works with students
of St Petersburg State University (astronomers)
Short time practice (summer) of CCD-observations:
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Short lecture on CCDs
How to work with telescope (coordinates, sidereal time)
How to work with CCDOPS computer program
How to direct telescope to the necessary object on the sky
Taking images
a) moving object (asteroid, comet, satellite…) - astrometry
b) extensional object (galaxy, nebula,…) – photometry
c) spectrum with objective prism (star, comet…)
Data processing (astrometric reduction, color images of
galaxies, etc)
Works with students
of St Petersburg State University (astronomers)
One semester lectures and practice of astrometrists:
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Course of lectures on CCD-astrometry
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Practical work on CCD-astrometry
a) observations (asteroids, comets, satellites…)
b) images processing, astrometric and photometric reduction
c) programming (language on choice) of different investigations
concerning CCDs properties (for example, probability and energy
distribution of cosmic rays events, different kind mathematician
filtering of frames, investigation of different sources of noise, etc)
Sample (Pulkovo, Tracker)
Results of the frame processing:
Works with students
of St Petersburg State University (astronomers)
Diploma works of students – astronomers
(Russia, Moldavia, Ukraine, Argentina, Bolivia)
Investigations of open clusters on the base of own
CCD observations
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How to resolve very close (overlapping) star images on the CCD
frame to obtain the most correct astrometry and photometry
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Precise astrometric and photometric investigation (catalogues
of clusters)
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Determination of proper motions and investigation of open
cluster kinematics
Comparison with Tycho-2 catalogue
Comparison with GSC catalogue
Works with students
of St Petersburg State University (astronomers)
Diploma works of students – astronomers
(Russia, Moldavia, Ukraine, Argentina, Bolivia)
Investigations of comets kinematics and non-gravitational effects
on the base of own CCD observations
Disturbances in the comet motion may be caused by different reasons:
comet lose mass when approaching the Sun, comet is affected by solar
wind and its variation because of the huge size of the comet halo,
comet motion is affected by irregular ejection (evaporation and
explosion) of the nucleus mass.
This is very complicated but interesting problem that need extremely
precise observations to detect small irregularities in the comet motion.
On the other side it is very difficult to determine the true coordinates
of the comet nucleus because of bright halo of the comet.
The problem is complicated by phase effect of illumination.
Works with students
of St Petersburg State University (astronomers)
Diploma works of students – astronomers
(Russia, Moldavia, Ukraine, Argentina, Bolivia)
Investigations of comets kinematics and non-gravitational effects
on the base of own CCD observations
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How to detect the true position of the comets nucleus, to obtain
the most correct astrometry and photometry
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Series of precise astrometric and photometric measurements,
detection of deviations from the predicted (or mean) orbit.
Looking for reasons of these deviations
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Photometric investigation of the comet tale density by the background
stars observations through the comet tale (task for future students)
Works with high/secondary scholars
14 – 16 years old
Works that were awarded in local
(St Petersburg) and Russian competitions
 Synthesis of color images of different objects from the CCD
observations with BVR filters
 Looking for variable stars (short periods) in the open clusters
χ and h Persei
 Investigation of PL dependence of Cepheids on the base
of Hipparcos data and catalogue of variable stars
 Statistics of the IRAS stars classification
 Statistics of galaxies morphological types on the base of
Deep fields HST images
Works with high/secondary scholars
14 – 16 years old
Works that were awarded in ESO
“Catch a star!” competitions
 The Moon (2003 – 3d prize)
 The Pleiades (2004 – special prize)
The idea of Pulkovo HOU center We would like to create the center and tools
that will help young men
- to start with real work on astronomy
in the high/secondary school,
- to continue this work at the University
- and become the professional astronomers.
Thanks!