Scioly.org

salcedam wrote:

Infinity Flat wrote:

salcedam wrote:What are some good textbooks to use to study over the summer?

For some basic stuff, http://www.astronomynotes.com

For more advanced, Carrol & Ostlie's Introduction to Modern Astrophysics.

Thanks! Do you have any tips for studying the DSO's (once the list comes out)?

Honestly, I just start with a good old Google search. Usually Chandra and APOD have the best pages and information on them. A lot of the question for the DSO don't necessarily test your knowledge on the object itself, but the class of objects it belongs to.

For example, a question might ask, "Which DSO is a galaxy that has very strong, narrow spectral lines?" Now, I don't know the answer to this off the top of my head.I do know, however, that type 2 Seyfert galaxies have spectra like this, so I would check to see which DSO is a type 2 Seyfert galaxy. (The answer is NGC 1068)

Ah...okay.

Is there a topic rotation in Astronomy? I know this year and last year was about galaxies and two years ago, it was about variable stars. (Sorry for asking so many questions...) >_<

Personally, I also like to do an image search on each DSO. I've seen a lot of questions on ID'ing DSOs from their pictures, and there's usually a follow-up question that asks what wavelengths the image was taken in (UV, radio, visible, etc).

Also, make sure to study things related to the DSOs, even if you don't think it's particularly important. For example, one question (I believe it was the first question) on PA States Astro test was "What does MACS (as in MACSJ0717.5) stand for?" My partner and I were caught completely off-guard...later we googled it and found out it stood for "MAssive Cluster Survey". Oops.

Edit: Astro does change topic every year, but it's tough to predict what it will change to.

AlphaTauri wrote: Edit: Astro does change topic every year, but it's tough to predict what it will change to.

I'm pretty sure it stays the same for 3 years. It was galaxies last year, and will probably be galaxies again next year. After that, I'm not sure. Maybe stellar evolution?

Infinity Flat wrote:

AlphaTauri wrote: Edit: Astro does change topic every year, but it's tough to predict what it will change to.

I'm pretty sure it stays the same for 3 years. It was galaxies last year, and will probably be galaxies again next year. After that, I'm not sure. Maybe stellar evolution?

Well It did slightly change this year. While it was still galaxies, last year was focused on Normal and Starburst Galaxies, while this year was focused on Active Galaxies and Galaxy Clusters and Groups.

JCicc wrote:I think the astronomy topic rotates back to stellar evolution next year.

That would be awesome, but I think there will be another year of galaxies first....

rfscoach wrote:

JCicc wrote:I think the astronomy topic rotates back to stellar evolution next year.

That would be awesome, but I think there will be another year of galaxies first....

I've heard rumors of both so I guess we won't find out which is true until the official rules come out...gah...I wish we didn't have to wait so long...

I would love stellar evolution... but I would love another year with galaxies too!

JCicc wrote:I think the astronomy topic rotates back to stellar evolution next year.

Stellar evolution would be cool, but in my opinion there's not as much you can do with stellar evolution rather than galaxies.

JCicc, what school are you from? I notice you have PA C listed in your profile.