Astronomy 1212/1312 Laboratory

Resources for laboratory use


Some of the objects observed in Kennon or at the Dark Site.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Regular lab material:

1 Introduction and Syllabus

2 Visit Kennon Observatory

3a Sizes in the Solar System:

   - the report; the worksheet

3b A Scale Model of the Solar System

   - the report; the worksheet

4 Find Objects with SkyGazer

5 Orientation with SkyGazer:

   - the EquatorialGrid.vgr, the Orientation.vgr settings files

   - the reports:  Aug.-Sept., Jan.-Feb., May-June.

6 Gravitational Acceleration:
    - the report; the HammerAndFeather.mov file.

7 Spherical Astronomy

8 The Density of Various Materials

11 Rotation of the Sun:
    - the report; Sunspots.pdf

12 Mass of Jupiter

13a Distance to the Moon (Time Delay):
   -  the report; the TroubleSequence.mp3 file.

13b Distance to the Moon (Lunar Parallax)
   - the report; the laminate

13c1 Distance to the Moon (Apparent Size 1)
13c2
Distance to the Moon (Apparent Size 2)

14 Introduction to Spectroscopy

15 Magnitudes, the HRD, and Distances

17a Phases of Venus (Crescent)
17b Phases of Venus (Gibbous)

18 Hubble's Law:
   - the report; the graph

19 Cepheids and the Distance Ladder:
   - the report; the log graph paper

35 The HRD and Spectroscopic Parallax

50 Pleiades

51 Size of the Moon

52a How to use a telescope (Refractor)

54 Features of the Moon

55 The Height of Polaris

57 Saturn's Ring and the Roche limit (under review, unavailable)


---------------------------------------------------------------------------

Additional material:

Draw a planet preparation lab:
Jupiter with the Great Red Spot, magnification 150 x, 600 x

Jupiter with moon shadows, magnification 150 x,
600 x
Saturn with Titan, magnification 150 x, 600 x

Mars, magnification 150 x, 600 x


The Visit Kennon lab:
* The MS_Road_Telescope video clip in m4v format.


The Hubble's Law lab:

* Pictures and spectra of galaxies used for measurements:

COSMOS3127341; Arp148; NGC4911; NGC3434; NGC5584; 3C273.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------

The labs for Honors projects:

* The CCD booklet for the semester projects.

* The Image Reduction/Processing Lab writeups, the first one, the advanced one.

* The Paramount Lab writeup, and the needed TheSky 6 settings file.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------

The laboratory instructors' manual.





Last updated: Aug. 20, 2026 by T. Torma.