Prac 3

Stellar Photometry and the Color-Magnitude Diagram

Due: 30 July 2014
Purpose: The color-magnitude (or Hertzsprung-Russell) diagram is the observational tool
that leads to understanding stellar properties, structure, and evolution. In this prac you
will determine the B and V magnitudes for stars in a star cluster. We will use these data to
construct a color magnitude diagram, determine the clusters distance, and estimate its age.
You will need to identify all (or as many as possible) of the stars in the image, perform
aperture photometry on them.
If you have any problems or questions about the prac, you can email Thuso at:
thuso@ast.uct.ac.za
Location of Data :
Images+darks+flats -> ftp://darkstar.ast.uct.ac.za/upload/April13/18042013/
The short darks can be used as biases and you shouldn't use the images that aren't V or B.
You can use wget to mirror the directory into your home by using
$wget -mnd ftp://userftp:trash9@darkstar.ast.uct.ac.za/upload/April13/18042013/

I. Data Reduction Transformation from Instrumental to Standard Magnitudes

To measure the distance and age of a cluster, the instrumental magnitudes and colors
must be transformed onto the standard system. This accounts for the efficiency of our
telescope, the sensitivity of the CCD camera, and the local atmospheric transmission at the
time of observation. See chapter 10 of the text for a full discussion of this procedure. The
relevant transformation equations are:
B V = bv + bv(b v)
V v = v + (B - V)

Here lowercase b and v are the measured instrumental magnitudes, uppercase B and V are the
transformed standard magnitudes, bv and v are the zero-points, and bv and are the
transformation coefficients.

1 . We can use stars in the field with known standard magnitudes to determine the
coefficients in the transformations. To identify stars with known magnitudes,
finding their astrometric coordinates by uploading a image to

http://nova.astrometry.net/ and matching the star to its Tycho-II catalog brightness

on SIMBAD http://simbad.u-strasbg.fr/simbad/sim-fcoo.
2. Extract the photometry information of each star from the images using photometry
tools in AstroimageJ and convert them to their V and B magnitudes. Note the
values AstroimageJ gives you are NOT magnitudes!!!
3 . Make plots of V v vs. B V and B V vs. b v for these stars. Fit a straight
line to each plot in order to determine the four coefficients.
4. Use your values the four coefficients and the above equations to correct the
instrumental magnitudes for all the stars to standard V and B V.
5. (Optional Step!) A further correction is needed to account for the interstellar
absorption along the line of sight to this cluster.
This absorption is
traditionally expressed as a color excess, E(B V). The extinctioncorrected magnitudes are then:
V0 = V 3.1E(B V)

(B V)0 = (B V) E(B V)
Here the quantities with a subscript 0 are the corrected magnitudes. The factor 3.1 is an
empirical quantity that characterizes the average absorbing properties of dust in our
Galaxy. There is some uncertainty in the color excess towards other objects, with values
ranging from 0.07 to 0.10 mag for E(B V). The most recent determinations use the
value of 0.10, so use that value and correct your data for interstellar absorption.
II. Data Analysis the H-R Diagram:
1. Plot your V0 magnitudes versus the (B - V)0 color for each of your stars. Be
sure to arrange the axes in the style of a standard H-R diagram (bright, blue stars in
the top left corner). Describe the features of the diagram that you see.
2. Import the data from /home/ph344/lab5/isochrones.xls to your spreadsheet. These
data are the absolute V magnitudes and B V colors for stellar models of various
masses at fixed ages, with ages ranging from 103 to 1010 years. Add a column
which is the V magnitude column of the 103 year old isochrone plus the contents
of a particular cell, which will contain the distance modulus (use the $c$r notation to
specify the cell at fixed column c and fixed row r). Plot this column and its
associated B-V on your H-R diagram. Then vary the contents of the distance
modulus cell until the shifted isochrone fits your data well. Calculate the distance
(in parsecs) to the cluster, and estimate its approximate uncertainty.
3. Modify your spreadsheet to plot isochrones of different ages, offset by your
distance modulus from step 2, and determine which isochrone fits the data best.
What is the age of the cluster and its approximate uncertainty?

III. Report Structure

Science like all fields requires you to be able to clearly and concisely share information
with your boss and other people. In science all reports are arguments in which you are
trying to prove your hypothesis and you must use logic and evidence to argue that it is
correct. The logic comes in the form of mathematical equations and the evidence
comes from your data.
Your reports MUST have the following sections:
1. Introduction
1. Gives background to your hypothesis
2. State the hypothesis of the project clearly and concisely
3. How you are going to prove your hypothesis is correct
2. Methods
1. How the data was collected, what instruments were used and other facts about
the data
2. How you calibrated the data and the steps
3. Equations that you will use to calculate the results, and a detailed explanation on
how you got the equations and what the parameters mean
3. Results
1. Plots and tables of data with units and labels with an explanation of each plot
and table
2. Show how you used the equations from the methods to calculate the results.
3. Error analysis
4. Discussion
1. Explanation of what the results mean and how they prove your hypothesis
2. Sources of errors and how they could affect your results
5. Conclusion
1. Explain what you did in the previous sections using different words from the
introduction
2. How could make the project work better
3. How could you extend this project
6. Bibliography
1. Use correct astronomy bibliography style
1. Author names (Last, First, initials.). Year of publish, journal, volume, issue.
2. Only include citations actually used in text
3. In text citations should have Author and Year e.g (van Heyden and Simon
2014): No numbers!!!
4. Put citations after facts, equations or concepts that are not generally known