During our Foundations of Science class on March 31, we will be producing reduced spectra. For this we will open each spectrum using a program called “RSPEC” and then within the program is the capability for opening image files and setting the width of the spectrum, and calibrating the spectrum using some known lines. This post is to help with this process, by providing a set of line lists, and comparison spectra for use.

Some of the main features you will be finding within the spectra are standard parts of the MK spectral classification system. The temperature and luminosity of stars are often plotted on what is known as an “HR Diagram.” You can explore how the temperature and radius of the star affect the locations on the HR diagram, and other aspects of spectral typing at the site: http://astro.unl.edu/naap/hr/hr_background1.html and http://astro.unl.edu/naap/hr/animations/hr.html.

With our spectra, we will open them with RSPEC with the lower left corner dialog (use “Image File” and select the image, after downloading the .jpg from the previous post). Then you will need to define the width of the spectrum using the yellow box on the side to just select the spectrum. This will produce a nice graph of wavelength and intensity for you to view.…
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During our Foundations of Science class in March 2015, we were able to use our Brackett Observatory at Pomona College in the afternoon class time to gather some amazing stellar spectra!  These spectra were taken using an Alpy stellar spectrograph, with help from Pomona’s Franklin Marsh (’17). The data will be analyzed by the class to study stars that could be hosting planetary systems. We will look at the absorption lines in the spectra to determine the “habitability” of a potential solar system around the star. Within the spectra are some from Jupiter and the Moon, and we will also look at those spectra to see if we can detect the presence of the atmosphere of Jupiter and to analyze a solar spectrum.…
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