Unit 2 – Starlight – Brightness, Color and Position (total days: 29, pages: 251): $30

Unit 2 is comprised of sections A, B and C.  Unit 2A introduces the concept of Starlight Brightness.  These lessons deal with collecting brightness data, converting it into magnitudes, interpreting brightness data in light curves and introduces the concept of the magnitude scale at a conceptual level.  In a less mathematically oriented course these might be skipped, but they are used in later units for plotting formal light curves. Unit 2B studies Starlight Color which is the richest source of information about stars. Included is an overview of the electromagnetic spectrum and the characteristics of light waves, spectra, the collection and interpretation of color data, including identification of elements, measurement of stellar temperature, interpretation of the Doppler effect, and analysis of actual star spectra in determining these values.  Unit 2C studies Star Position and Light Curves as they apply brightness measurements to reach actual conclusions regarding pattern recognition with some graph reading involved, and the second uses an actual light curve of an exoplanets to determine the planet’s orbital period and other information including the position of a star in a photo, even more interesting if the position moves.

Topics include Starlight Brightness, Brightness and Distance, Magnitudes and Brightness, Detecting Exoplanets, Light Curves, Starlight – Color and Light, Atomic Theory and Spectra, Extracting Information from Color, Blackbody Radiation and Wien’s Law, Doppler Effect and Doppler Wobble, Angles and Parallax, Seconds, Parallax of Stars Starlight – Position, techniques for collecting and analyzing color, overview of the electromagnetic spectrum and the characteristics of light waves, observing and interpreting the various kinds of spectra, collection and interpretation of color data, including identification of elements and measurement of stellar temperature.

Whole course with all units or more individual units available at https://www.teaching-point.net.