Sunday, June 17, 2012

Night sky

Night sky observation:
What are the colors of the brightest stars? Why do you think that is?


  • The brightest stars are the blue-ish ones and I think that because they are the biggest and the hottest. 
What colors were the most difficult to find? Why do you think that is?


  • The reds and oranges were hardest and I think that's because they are much smaller stars and not as hot and therefore not as bright. 
What is the name of the least brightest star in which you detect a hint of color?


  • The least bright star I used that still had a little bit of color was Castor. 
My classifications: (star; color; date/time)


Polaris; blue-white; 6/17/12, 12:47am
Deneb; blue-white; 6/18/12, 12am
Capella; blue-white; 6/17/12, 10:30pm
Castor; yellow-white; 6/17/12, 10:30pm
Pollux; blue-white; 6/17/12, 10:30pm
Regulus; white; 6/18/12, 12am
Vega; white; 6/18/12, 12am
Altair; yellow-white; 6/18/12, 12am
Spica; blue; 6/17/12, 10pm
Arcturus; blue-white; 6/17/12, 10:37pm

2 comments:

  1. I have some problems with this one- Capella, Castor, Pollux, and Regulus had all set by the time of your observation. The sky was very hazy and cloudy (not a good combination for this lab)on the 18th. Your results don't match up with what you would expect to find performing this lab. Arcturus for example is very orange- red and bright.

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  2. It was 12am on the 18th so it was basically still the 17th, I could see the stars fine at my house and I was definitely looking at them but I guess I looked at the star map thing I was using wrong and wrote down the the stars I thought I was looking at when they weren't. It didn't have times on it and I didn't think to check...

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