rao Universe

UofC Research

Research performed by the Faculty and Students at the Rothney Astrophysical Observatory

Spectra Studies With the RAO Echelle Spectrograph

Spectra Studies With the RAO Echelle Spectrograph

By: Arianna Mamer, Kyle Goodbrand, Manpreet Kaur, Mubin Manasia

Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Calgary

Spectroscopy is widely used in studying the cosmos, aiding in studying the chemical composition, mass, temperature and radial velocities of stars. This paper focuses on utilizing the RAO Echelle Spectrograph to study the stellar composition of the sun as well as the radial velocity of the Orion Nebula (M42)


 Estimation of Physical Properties of Globular Cluster NGC 7006 using BVR Filter Photometric Analysis

Estimation of Physical Properties of Globular Cluster NGC 7006 using BVR Filter Photometric Analysis

By: Courtney Bashnick, Hugo Cheung, Sean Habermiller, Blake Ledger and Kyle Paltzat 

Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Calgary

 

Using the 0.4 meter Clarke-Milone CCD Telescope we imaged the Globular Cluster NGC 7006 in the UBVRI Johnson-cousins Photometric anaylsis system.  This was done to determined significant physical properties of the globular cluster such as its integrated magnitude for the BVR Filters, the total absolute magnitude in the R filter, the total number of stars with their assumed main spectral type, the total mass of the cluster, and lastly the interior mass in conjunction with the critical radius.


 Properties of Potential Asteroids through Pixels

Properties of Potential Asteroids through Pixels

By: Amit Khan, Daniela Lapada, Nadeem Latif and Kelly Ma

Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Calgary

Our Solar System is occupied by eight planets, hundreds of moons, and thousands of asteroids. The first two are relatively easy to spot with telescopes, however the study of asteroids is quite different. Using the Baker-Nunn telescope at the RAO, we study the asteroids by looking for fast moving objects in our images. With this data we can determine the velocities of the asteroids, they're size and shape and their composition.