Other Astrophysics and Astronomy Commons^™

Stories Of The Stars: The History And Folklore Of Tibetan Ethnoastronomy, Mara Johnson-Groh

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

Traditionally, the night sky played an important role in the lives of Tibetans. Stars and constellations were used in navigation and in telling time. Folklore and proverbs surround these constellations and there are myths about the moon and planets as well. However, many of the stories that can be found today either originate in or are influenced by Indian culture. With the introduction of Buddhism to Tibet, came Vedic texts on astrology, which had a profound impact on the culture of ethnoastronomy in the region. Adapted Vedic astrology, merged with practices from China, eventually replaced traditional ethnoastronomy. Because of the …

Relativity Lite: A Pictorial Translation Of Einstein’S Theories Of Motion And Gravity, Jack Straton

PDXOpen: Open Educational Resources

Relativity Lite is designed for the General Astronomy sequence (PH 361-2U, SCI 315-6U) whose primary book glosses over Special Relativity and General Relativity while trying to explain the Cosmology that is based on those subjects. Relativity Lite translates the mathematical equations conventional relativity texts rely upon into pictures that are readily understood and contain within them the mathematical essentials. This book provides the comprehensive coverage needed to understand, in sufficient depth, these three linked areas of our reality.

Readers seeking this knowledge on their own, and those in other courses for nonscientists, may also find it helpful.

Adopt/Adapt
If you …

Evaluating The Effectiveness Of Current Atmospheric Refraction Models In Predicting Sunrise And Sunset Times, Teresa Wilson

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports

The standard value for atmospheric refraction on the horizon of 34', used in all publicly available sunrise and sunset calculators, is found to be inadequate. The assumptions behind atmospheric models that predict this value fail to account for real meteorological conditions. The result is an uncertainty of one to five minutes in sunrise and sunset predictions at mid-latitudes (0° - 55° N/S). A sunrise/set calculator that interchanges the refraction component by varying the refraction model was developed. Two atmospheric refraction models of increasing complexity were tested along with the standard value. The predictions were compared with data sets of observed …

Coordinates, Time, And The Sky, John Thorstensen

Other Faculty Materials

This monograph explains celestial coordinates and their basis in the motion and orientation of the earth.  It was written for use in undergraduate classes in basic astronomy and observational techniques.

The Meaning Of Dark, Light And Shadows: Inferences In Art, Materiality And Cultural Practices, Frank Prendergast

Book/Book Chapter

Our visual awareness relies on light acting on the eye to perceive materiality and colour. Medieval thought wrestled to articulate and comprehend its nature. The notebooks of Leonardo Da Vinci, for example, included his descriptions to define light and make comparisons so as to differentiate between light and shadow. His focus was on the illumination of surfaces from the perspective of a painter, seeing shadows as ‘the diminution of light by the intervention of an opaque body’ and ‘the counterpart of luminous rays’. In his mind, a shadow ‘stood between light and darkness’, with darkness being ‘the absence of light’. …

Basic Astronomy Labs

Physics Faculty Publications

Providing the tools and know-how to apply the principles of astronomy first-hand, these 43 laboratory exercises each contain an introduction that clearly shows budding astronomers why the particular topic of that lab is of interest and relevant to astronomy. About one-third of the exercises are devoted solely to observation, and no mathematics is required beyond simple high school algebra and trigonometry.Organizes exercises into six major topics—sky, optics and spectroscopy, celestial mechanics, solar system, stellar properties, and exploration and other topics—providing clear outlines of what is involved in the exercise, its purpose, and what procedures and apparatus are to be used. …

Toward Deep Learning Emulators For Modeling The Large-Scale Structure Of The Universe, Neerav Kaushal

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports

Multi-billion dollar cosmological surveys are being conducted almost every decade in today’s era of precision cosmology. These surveys scan vast swaths of sky and generate tons of observational data. In order to extract meaningful information from this data and test these observations against theory, rigorous theoretical predictions are needed. In the absence of an analytic method, cosmological simulations become the most widely used tool to provide these predictions in order to test against the observations. They can be used to study covariance matrices, generate mock galaxy catalogs and provide ready-to-use snapshots for detailed redshift analyses. But cosmological simulations of matter …

Refining Orbits And Revealing Origins: A Study Of Giant Exoplanets Around Low-Mass Stars, Angeli Sandoval

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

The study of gas giants around low-mass stars offers important insight into planet formation. Core accretion models predict that these planets should have a low likelihood of forming due to the limited disk masses of their host low-mass stars. However, NASA space missions such as Kepler and TESS have revealed an emerging population of Saturn- and Jupiter-like planets around M-dwarfs (referred to as giant exoplanets orbiting M-dwarfs or GEMS) that challenge these expectations. This thesis investigates the detection, confirmation, and analysis of GEMS through pipeline development and a detailed analysis of two systems.

In Chapter 1, I provide background information …

Unh Observatory Exoplanet Transit Depth Limit, Nicholas Larose

Honors Theses and Capstones

Using the University of New Hampshire Observatory, we performed multiple exoplanet transits observations on a variety of systems. Of these transits, those performed with ideal weather conditions were chosen to do extensive analysis on. The transit chosen for initial analysis was HAT-P-56b. We then used Z-Score values, along with the average mean and standard deviation collected from multiple transits to determine a minimum possible transit depth of 7.4 +/- 0.6 mmag. This value will allow UNH to access exoplanet transit observation and / or confirm potential exoplanets, thus making the UNH Observatory more research capable. A follow up threshold transit …

Astrophysics, Cosmology And Particle Phenomenology At The Energy Frontier, Jorge Fernandez Soriano

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This dissertation consists of two parts, treating significantly separated fields. Each part consists on several chapters, each treating a somewhat isolated topic from the rest. In each chapter, I present some of the work developed during my passage through the graduate program, which has mostly been published elsewhere.

Part I – Cosmic Rays and Particle Physics

• Chapter 1: In this chapter we present an introduction to the topic of cosmic ray physics, with an special focus on the so-called ultra high energy cosmic rays: their potential origins, effects during their propagation between their sources and Earth, the different techniques used …