If you are completing honors project work, you need to begin getting work done in your chosen field. Please see the list below and talk to me if you have questions.

Astrophotography

For those of you in the astrophotography group you need to do the following over the next few days and weeks.

• With your astrophotography group (up to three people) complete a photography hit list of objects in the night sky. You must photograph as many objects as there are people in your group.
  • Start by researching the Messier and NCG objects in the night sky. We have the capability of photographing objects brighter than magnitude 8 or 9.
  • Go to the planetarium page at the neave website and use our location (San Diego) and the date (March 10th) to find what constellations will be up. You will be able to cross reference the deep sky objects from the catalogs above by constellation. This will give your group an idea of what objects we can photograph.
  • Have your finalized hit list approved.
• Research the difference between planetary astrophotography, deep field astrophotography and wide field astrophotography. You will have to do the second two at the very least. Learn about techniques for all three types.
• Learn about objects in the night sky. What is a nebula? What is a galaxy? How do we know how far away they are? What objects are in the Milky way? What objects are outside of it? What is a star cluster?
• Research how the Deep Sky Stacker software works.

Forrest Tanaka’s YouTube channel has a plethora of information. Good luck!

Weather Balloon Science

The weather balloon science group needs to the the following soon:

• Test the GPS trackers and make sure they are functioning properly
• Test the GoPro camera batteries and discern which of them are working best
• Research and complete a design for the Weather Balloon itself including the attached package and a recovery/safety system
• Go to the University of Wyoming Weather Balloon Tracking Site to determine a launch window and trajectory
• Design and create an additional experiment for the weather balloon. You have to have at least one high altitude experiment on the package

Rocketry

• Design the rocket for one of several engineering tasks: keeping a payload safe, height, etc
• Test all component parts including a prototype motor
• Get a list of materials necessary for final build
• Build the final rocket