A/Prof. Quentin Parker: Honours Projects in Astronomy
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Project 1) Exploiting the AAO/UKST H-alpha
survey
The AAO UK Schmidt Telescope (UKST) H-alpha survey of the Southern Galactic
Plane uses a single-element interference filter of exceptional size and quality
in combination with fine grained Tech Pan film as detector to produce a survey
with an unprecedented combination of coverage, resolution and sensitivity,
superior to any other survey of optical line emission in our Galaxy. Direct
community access is now available for an initial 54 fields of the survey based
on SuperCOSMOS data from original film scans (SuperCOSMOS is a high speed,
highly accurate microdensitometer in Edinburgh, used to digitise astronomical
photographs).
Both H-alpha and matching contemporaneous short-red `SR' films have been scanned
and the resultant imaging is providing a wealth of discoveries. Several honours
projects are available and others can be devised to exploit this new survey
data. Potential projects include:
i) An investigation into the detection, isolation and properties of
true H-alpha point-sources using H-alpha, SR and I-band imaging.
ii) In collaboration with people at the university of Bristol (UK) assisting in
the crucial calibration issues associated with the survey data so that realistic
flux estimates and flux levels can be determined from integrated regions of
nubulosity in selected survey regions.
Project 2) Exploiting and following-up
discoveries from the Macquarie/AAO/Strasbourg catalogue of Planetary Nebula
An unprecedented source of Planetary Nebulae (PN) has been discovered from AAO/UKST
H-alpha survey images of the Southern Galactic Plane. A pristine region of PN
discovery space is being sampled due to the excellent depth, coverage,
resolution and uniformity of the H-alpha survey. Large numbers of new PN are
being found (about 1000 so far). They are typically more evolved, obscured
and of lower surface brightness than in most other surveys. The doubling of
known PN collected over the past 75 years in just 3 years will have a
significant impact on many aspects of PN research offering substantial scope for
several honours projects to exploit this unique new sample. PN studies are
essential for improving our understanding of the later evolution of low mass
stars. They provide vital probes for nucleosynthesis processes, abundance
gradients and ISM chemical enrichment, acting as powerful indicators of our
Galaxy's star formation history. A few possible projects include:
i) Reduction and analysis of follow-up PN spectroscopy to yield
clues to PN physical parameters, evolutionary state etc
ii) Morphological PN classification and relation to environment and
spectral properties
iii) Statistical study and intercomparison of the new PNe catalogue with
previous studies
iv) Multi-wavelength comparisons with MSX, 2MASS, MOST and H-alpha.
Project 3) Deep narrow-band imaging of the Large
Magellanic Cloud
Computational techniques have shown it is possible to gain a magnitude or more
in depth by obtaining equivalent multiple UKST exposures of a single area and
combining their SuperCOSMOS pixels maps. This project will use a deep
multi-exposure stack of 6 or more fields taken on the central bar of the Large
Magellanic Cloud (LMC) in H-alpha light.
This is expected to reveal a substantial population of faint emission line
objects and diffuse structures which can be compared with the deepest images
obtained elsewhere. Previously known areas of nebulosity such as 'normal' HII
regions, giant bubbles and superbubbles, and SNRs will be investigated and
revealed to their full extents because the outer parts are often below the
limits of single exposures and previous surveys. This is important for studies
of the star formation systems that are being carried out using star counts and
colour distributions in that the full extent of the relationship between the
H-alpha emission and the large-scale stellar structures is not at all well
known.
It is expected that significant numbers of new H-alpha emitting point sources
will be discovered, including those with very weak continua such as planetary
nebulae. This pilot study will be undertaken over an initial sub-region and by
comparison with contemporaneous short red exposures that will match the H-alpha
films in depth and resolution. Follow-up observing proposals to identify any new
candidates will be expected. Additional collaboration with Dr.Miroslav
Fillipovic at ATNF and Dr.David Morgan at the ROE (Edinburgh) will be
encouraged.
Project 4) The AAO/UKST 6dF Galaxy redshift
survey
6dF is an automated fibre positioner for the AAO Schmidt Telescope. The
positioner, unlike 2dF on the AAT, operates off-telescope. The positioner uses
an r-theta robot with a curved radial arm to place magnetic fibre-buttons on the
curved field plates needed to match the Schmidt focal plane. The 150 fibres on
each field plate are housed around the perimeter of the field plate assembly.
The fibres have a 6.7 arcsec core diameter and can be positioned on target
objects to a precision of better than 1 arcsec. Positioning all 150 fibres will
take less than 1 hour. The field accessible to the fibres is a 6o diameter
circle. There are two field plate assemblies, so that one can be configured
while the other is on the telescope. The science driver for 6dF was to undertake
a full hemisphere redshift and peculiar velocity survey of 100,000 galaxies
based on near Infrared selection from the 2MASS K-band data. The K-band is
closely related to the old stellar population luminosity and hence galaxy mass
whilst minimising both internal and external extinction. It is also un-biased
wrt recent star formation. Up to 75% of UKST time has been allocated to the 6dF
redshift survey which began in earnest over a year ago. Several honours projects
are possible based on assessing subsets of the preliminary data already
obtained. A trip to see 6dF in action at the telescope would be expected.
Project 5) Instrumentation projects in
collaboration with the AAO.
This would be a jointly supervised project between an AAO instrumentation
scientist and Macquarie.
Other honours projects are offered in
collaboration with AAO research astronomers from within their areas of
speciality (see links below). Interested students can check out the following
www pages for related material or come and see
me:
www-wfau.roe.ac.uk/sss/halpha
www.roe.ac.uk/wfau/halpha/halpha.html
www.roe.ac.uk/wfau/6df/6df.html
msowww.anu.edu.au/~colless/6dF/
www.aao.gov.au/allstudents/studentsgrad.html
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