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Partphys wrote:Where can I find online Astronomy Notes??

I believe that was answered above at least in part. You'll certainly have to do work to find all the info required. If you have any specific questions, they are welcome.

bookluvr-yoyo39 wrote:Does anyone know how to interpret light curves that give you orbital phase and visual magnitude in order to determine orbital period?

Do you have an example of a question or light curve you were thinking of for this? I'd imagine you could just either get a velocity graph, be given the period, or if it was an eclipsing binary and you saw the same dip twice, then that should give the period, right? Hope that helps.

I'm new to this event and division, and I'm pretty confused. Are we allowed to use a laptop during the event test? Thanks.

To all new participants in the event, welcome! I recommend reading the rules highly just as with any scioly event. They clearly state under 2 (Event Parameters) that:
"Each team may bring either two laptop computers or two 3-ring binders (any size) containing information in any form from any source, or one binder and one laptop."
Basically, you can either have one binder OR one laptop and your partner can either have one binder OR one laptop.

Hi everybody,

Just so you know, there are flash cards, webinars, and practice tests for the event on http://www.aavso.org/science-olympiad-2014.

I hope they help!

Tad

bookluvr-yoyo39 wrote:Does anyone know how to interpret light curves that give you orbital phase and visual magnitude in order to determine orbital period?

Do you have an example of a question or light curve you were thinking of for this? I'd imagine you could just either get a velocity graph, be given the period, or if it was an eclipsing binary and you saw the same dip twice, then that should give the period, right? Hope that helps.

Yes. I am attaching the the image of the light curve that provoked my question. The period is known for the eclipsing binary shown. However, if the period wasn't known, how could you determine it from the graph?

[img]/Users/student/Downloads/photo.JPG[/img]

Um, I can't see the image. But also, if you're dealing with some sort of variable star wouldn't you be able to somehow find its period? Unless this is some weird, completely theoretical question...do you mean what is period for an eclipsing binary? I mean, for any light curve it's basically from one trough/peak to another (which is basically a cycle of variation). Right? I guess again, get up the image, so we can all see it better.

Does anyone know at what the minimum mass the progenitor star of a neutron star and a black hole must be?

I think a star must be at least 8 solar masses to go supernova (from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Type_II_supernova - A star must have at least 8 times, and no more than 40–50 times, the mass of the Sun for this type of explosion)...

So a star needs to have at least 8 sol masses in order to leave behind a neutron star; what's the lower limit for a black hole? etc. etc. (just in case my question wasn't clear)

@Crazy Puny Man: The real answer is, nobody knows. We also don't have a good idea at this point how supernovae actually evolve. Maybe you can help solve the problem!

Ok, a piece of advice for anyone in CO, our tests are never posted. The instructor told me that last year. Anything written in bold on the rules, go very in-depth. He had a field-day with the tracks of stellar evolution last year. The objects? Get a pic, a location, and know some basic facts.

So just out of curiosity, is there a difference between the names "optical" and "visible" for the part of the electromagnetic spectrum that our eyes can detect? In all the science classes that I've taken, it's been called the "visible" part of the spectrum, but some astronomy things that I've read seem to prefer "optical." I'm currently in the process of making the DSO part of my binder for this year, and I don't want to end up labeling things in a wrong/unpopular way. Thanks .