Author: karsenk

Written and recorded by Karsen Kitchen, Ishaan Balakrishnan, Jacob Blizzard, James Bowling, and Rianne Eccleston. Video on Physical Processes: https://vimeo.com/824847838?share=copy

Written by Karsen Kitchen, Ishaan Balakrishnan, Jacob Blizzard, James Bowling, and Rianne Eccleston. Module 3 centered on the exploration of star birth regions, with our particular emphasis on the Tarantula Nebula, where we investigated the physical mechanisms involved in the formation of new stars. In contrast, Module 5A is dedicated to the study of regions… Continue reading Module 5A: Low and High Mass Star Death

Written by Karsen Kitchen, Ishaan Balakrishnan, Jacob Blizzard, James Bowling, and Rianne Eccleston. The Tarantula Nebula, one of the several star forming regions in space. It’s a large region, but due to its distance it gets easier to take pictures of. There’s several stars in this region, not to mention the clouds of dust, that… Continue reading Module 3: Star Birth

Written by Karsen Kitchen, Ishaan Balakrishnan, Jacob Blizzard, James Bowling, and Rianne Eccleston. Pulsars, pulsating stars. Forming from supernova remnants, these are stars that emit energy from their magnetic fields that are on a different axis than the polar axis, causing these stars to spin when “hot”. The speed at which these pulsars spin is… Continue reading Module 5B: pulsars and polarization

Written by Karsen Kitchen, Ishaan Balakrishnan, Jacob Blizzard, James Bowling, and Rianne Eccleston. In module 2, we studied star clusters which consist of groups of stars that are born together. We learned how to measure the brightness and apparent colors of stars, which in turn can help us determine their distance and age. We examined… Continue reading Module 2: Stellar Evolution

In this module, we captured the planets within our solar system with optical planetary imaging. The goal of this module was to try to capture the authentic color of the planet, as if we were seeing it from space ourselves. We don’t have enough time or resources to make a high-definition, professional optical telescopic picture… Continue reading Module 1C: Optical Planetary Imaging.

In module 1A, we observed the Moon using optical imaging, observing it’s surface features. In module 1B, we tested radio imaging to find the temperature of the Moon. We used the 20 meter telescope at the Green Bank Observatory in West Virginia. Radio Imaging is much cleaner, as you can take pictures during the day,… Continue reading Module 1B: Radio Lunar Imaging.

The Earth is a beautiful place. White sand beaches, rolling hills, deep canyons. Even with all of these beautiful features, nothing beats the view of the Moon. In Module 1A of Astro 110, we spent a couple of weeks learning how to use Skynet, a software that allows us to access telescopes around the world.… Continue reading Module 1A: Optical Lunar Imaging

Welcome to The Kitchen Cabinet. In this blog, I will be taking you along my journey in Astro 110. In this class, we will be taking radio and optical telescopic images. With each new photograph that I take, I will update all of you with a step-by-step description of what I did to achieve the… Continue reading Hello world!