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Glacierguy1 wrote:Was it about 25 DSO questions followed by 10 multiple choice followed by 5 short answer/FITB, and 2 math questions?

Yup, and one of the math questions was on the Hubble Law, and worded very badly I believe.

My test had no hubble law. The formulas used were Distance Modulus, Parallax distance formula, Small angle approximation, and modified Kepler's third law for binary mass.

Glacierguy1 wrote:I have been doing a bunch of old Astronomy tests and I have noticed some kind of discrepancy between the tests. Some of the tests when using the Luminosity to Absolute magnitude formula use the 4.83 number, others use 4.7, and others I can't even guess what number they used to get their answer. Which number is the generally accepted value for "Absolute Magnitude of the sun" at least when using that formula?

It doesn't really matter which you use. The difference between the values you get with 4.7 and 4.83 is about .02, and you really don't need that kind of accuracy. Even the most extreme event supervisor will not require you to have an answer perfect to within .02.

If the spirit matters to you more than the placing, the absolute magnitude of the sun is generally accepted as 4.83.

3 questions:

1) Rules clarification: we are allowed to bring a binder AND a laptop, correct?
2) Does anyone know where to find how to determine if an image is taken in radio, visible, infrared, or UV light? I can't find anything on this
3) How does one determine the age of a cluster from its H-R plot? We've missed a few points on this topic lately that the answer keys haven't explained well and I'd like to know.

sisomg11 wrote:3 questions:

1) Rules clarification: we are allowed to bring a binder AND a laptop, correct?
2) Does anyone know where to find how to determine if an image is taken in radio, visible, infrared, or UV light? I can't find anything on this
3) How does one determine the age of a cluster from its H-R plot? We've missed a few points on this topic lately that the answer keys haven't explained well and I'd like to know.

1) Yes, a binder and a laptop, or a binder and a binder, or a laptop and a laptop... any combination of the 2, as long as you only bring two resources.

2) I'll take a quick look and be back to you on this one.

3) It's turnoff point. You look at its main-sequence turnoff point, where stars literally turnoff and go into the giant branch. The age of the stars at the turnoff point is the age of the cluster. I know this is used for globular clusters, which are the type of clusters on the rules. Not sure about open cluster, but it is probably similar.

Hopefully this helps, and I'm sure someone on here can explain it better (I got the info up there, but I can't quite get it out hahaha)

Thanks for the tip, but as for point 3 - that basically is what the answer key said - I was more looking for how to determine the age of the stars at that turnoff point. Can anyone explain that?

sisomg11 wrote:Thanks for the tip, but as for point 3 - that basically is what the answer key said - I was more looking for how to determine the age of the stars at that turnoff point. Can anyone explain that?

That one I'm not quite sure about...

And about your second point here's some tips I found in my binder:

Optical: Look like optical images and should be easily recognizable
X-Ray: Show phenomena in the millions of degree range, so only the most energetic features are seen, such as single point sources like a central star and shockwave features of Eta Carinae (the most luminous star in the galaxy)
Infrared: Radiated by dust and shows area where dust is concentrated, such as materials ejected from stars, or areas of star formation. (As name implies will often look a reddish color- thermal radiation)
Radio: Associated with magnetic field lines.

For these, i would just look up pictures of different wavelengths.

The thing about globular clusters is that all of the stars formed at the same time, so you have to assum that the stars at the end of that cluster's truncated main sequence are ridculously close to the end of the Main sequence lifetime for their particular luminosity and Mass and stuff. So the age of the cluster would be the same as the main sequence age for those stars at the end, so for a globular cluster where the main sequence "ends" at where the sun is on the main sequence, the age would be about 10 billion years old.

Generally, star lifetime is proportional to the lifetime of the sun by the equation Lifetime of the star in solar lifetimes(ie 10 Gyr)= Mass in solar masses^-2.5

NB:Source for relation is wikipedia, may not be entirely reliable, but I know that the general relation of Increased mass to decreased lifetime by an exponent greater than (less than -) 2 is correct.

Maybe I'm missing something, but how can you tell what the mass is just from its H-R position?

The main sequence is also a mass sequence. Luminosity in solar luminosities= Mass in solar masses^3.5