How I see the World

Astronomy->

I have been involved in two seperate but related research projects in the field of astronomy. Both projects were under the tutelage of Dr. Jo Ann Eder (NAIC) at the Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico. Both projects dealt with dwarf galaxies, small, dim, low-mass galaxies.

The first project was an investigation into The Environments of Dwarf Irregular Galaxies wherein we looked for evidence of dwarf irregulars (dI's) being formed with a higher frequency near giant (normal galaxic) neighbors or interacting galaxies than off all alone in space. The theory that we were investigating was that perhaps dI's were formed in the tidal debris of interacting galaxies, where the two interacting galaxies would have disipated some of their mass due to the gravitational stresses of the interaction. Then, much later in the history of the Universe, the orphaned gas clouds would begin star formation of thier own, which we could then detect.

We found, however, that the dI's were more often located far enough away from their giant neighbors to rule out the possibility of interaction in the past.

The results were presented at the 189th AAS (American Astronomical Society) meeting in Toronto, Canada, in January of 1997. An abstract of the Poster can be seen by clicking here.

Meanwhile, back in '95 a new type of galaxy was classified: the dwarf spiral galaxy (dSp). This was the final galaxy type needed to complete the Hubble classification sequence for dwarf galaxies. The dSp candidates were also found from a sample of dwarf irregular galaxies.

For our second project, we used a sample supplied by Dr. Eder and searched ti for dSp galaxies as well. We observed at the MLO (Mount Laguna Observatory) for a total of five nights in October of 1996 during new moon, and gathered data on 29 dI galaxies that we suspected could be dSp galaxies.

The second project has become my senoir thesis. I will make the thesis available on this page in the near future. The thesis contains images of the first dSp galaxies which clearly show spiral arm structure.


Telescope->

A long term project that I have going is the completion of my "homemade" telescope. It is an 8" Cave Optics reflector that I bought for $50 as junk. I planned on using it as spare parts, but was delighted to discover that the optics were not only in perfect working order, but also of excellent quality. I replaced some parts and got it on it's feet again, so to speak. Now all I have to do is rewire the electric tracking motor, and I'll be done. However, recently one of the metal straps that holds the telescope on the mount broke off, followed very closely by the other strap breaking, so I'm not able to mount the scope. But, I'm planning to rig a seat belt for the scope that will hold it more securely and gently than the original straps did.

The COMET

The following are images of the comet Hyakutake taken at the Mount Laguna observatory by S. Streit on March 24, 1996. The one image is false color to show the different intensities of the comet's light. The PLOT is the light curve of the same image, which shows spikes where the background stars are located, and the gradual increase of the comet's luminosity up to it's peak spike which is the location of the nucleus.
False color comet image
Comet Hyakutake: 3-24-96

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