Brian's Astronomy Page

This page contains Brian's student projects and essays for Swinburne Astronomy Online units and other astronomy links

When I Heard the Learn'd Astronomer When I heard the learn'd astronomer, When the proofs, the figures, were ranged in columns before me, When I was shown the charts and diagrams, to add, divide, and measure them, When I sitting heard the astronomer where he lectured with much applause in the lecture-room, How soon unaccountable I became tired and sick, Till rising and gliding out I wander'd off by myself, In the mystical moist night-air, and from time to time, Look'd up in perfect silence at the stars.  Walt Whitman / 1865

Semester 1, 1999
HET 603: Exploring the Stars and the Milky Way

• A Good Long Run
  An essay on stellar evolution with an emphasis on the future fate of our solar system and the implications for life.
• Atlas of Nearby Stars: Experiments in Virtual Astronomy
  An interactive applet enabling internet bound astronomers to conduct virtual experiments in which they measure the distance to nearby stars. An interactive Hertzsprung-Russell diagram for stars in the neighborhood of the sun is included. Contains necessary background information and a list of suggested experiments.

Semester 2, 1999
HET 604: Exploring the Galaxies and the Cosmos

• It Pays to Know Where You Are: The Distance to the Galactic centre
  An essay on estimating the distance to the Galactic Centre.
• Are Spiral Galaxies Round?
  A computer simulation and internet survey to demonstrate that spiral galaxies are round disks. It is shown that the elliptical shape observed in some spiral galaxies is due to their orientation with respect to the observer.

Semester 1, 2000
HET 607: The History of Astronomy

• Spectroscopy: Information Concealed in Starlight
  A short essay on the importance of spectroscopy to astronomy from an historical perspective. Discusses what has been learned through spectroscopy, and hints at what might yet be revealed.
• Serendipity In Astronomy: Hard Work or Just Plain Luck?
  Throughout history, numerous advances in science have been achieved through seemingly accidental discoveries. Astronomy is no exception. Are these accidental discoveries the result of plain luck or are they the result of hard work that paid off in an unexpected way?
  

Semester 2, 2000
HET 608: Radio Astronomy and SETI

• Radio Leakage: Is anybody listening?
  With the advent of powerful television broadcasts in the middle of the 20th century, Earth's TV signals have been leaking into space at the speed of light.. This essay examines this phenomenon in the context of the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence.
  A postscript version of the essay for easy printing is in a zip archive available here.[132 KB]
  A PDF version is here. [68 KB]
  Spreadsheets associated with the essay are in a zip archive are available here.[8 KB]
• A Search for SiO Masers in Globular Clusters
  The Very Large Array (VLA) was used to observe 30 globular clusters at a frequency of 43 GHz in an attempt to detect SiO Masers. Data from the observation was divided amongst 10 Swinburne Astronomy Online students for analysis. This paper presents the analysis of data for NGC 4147, NGC 5272 (M3), and NGC 6838 (M71). In those clusters, no SiO Maser emission was detected. Possible reasons for a null detection are discussed, along with suggestions for potential future research. Project data is available in a zip archive available here. [324 KB]
  A related project paper by classmate Wil Milan and other material by Colleen Gino is also available on their web sites.

Semester 1, 2001
HET 609: Astrophotography and CCD Imaging

• Remote Observing: Pros and Cons
  Discusses the present-day role played by remote observing in professional astronomy and comments upon the areas that are particularly amenable to it. Speculates upon the roles that remote observing might play in future generations of telescopes.
  

Semester 2, 2001
HET 602: Exploring the Solar Ststem

• My Favorite Martian: Excerpts from the diary of a young colonist on a terraformed Mars PDF Fomrat [732 KB]
  Fictional Johnny Jones is twelve years old and was born on Earth, but recently immigrated with his family to Mars. This paper uses excerpts from Johnny's diary to illustrate the physical, biological, political, and social challenges faced by Johnny and his family as colonists on a terraformed Mars. Diary entries are interspersed with commentary for the benefit of readers in the opening decade of the twenty-first century, over four hundred years before Johnny's birth.
• The Numerical and Physical Stability of Planetary Systems PDF Format [1.1 MB]
  Examines issues leading to numerical instability and physical stability in simulated planetary systems. A Microsoft Excel spreadsheet that allows position errors to be calculated for various integrator time-step sizes is available in a zip archive here [436 KB].A Java applet simulating planetary dynamics ,developed in conjunction with this project, is available at here. The applet requires Java 1.1 or greater, and will not work on a Macintosh computer running Netscape. Macintosh users should use Internet Explorer. Both the applet and extensively are described n the project report [PDF Format, 1.1 MB]. Detailed results from the Swinburne Solar System Dyanmics program are also presented.

Other Original Astronomy Links

• The Outer Space Book
  Written for Mrs Fujimoto's third grade class, Noddin Elementary School. Space. Think about it, OK?
• Incan Astronomy
  Photo's from mom's trip to Machu Picchu, showing an ancient Incan solar clock and observatory.
• Drake Equation Calculator
  A Java applet that uses the Drake Equation to estimate the number of technologically advanced civilizations in the galaxy, with whom we might be able to communicate.
• Eclipse Photos
  Digital photos of the Partial Annular Solar Eclipse as seen from Perth, Western Australia on 16 February, 1999.
• Virtual Telescope
  A Virtual Reality Telescope. Requires your browser to be configured with a VRML 97 Plug-in. I use FreeWRL. For other choices see the at the Karmanaut Web Site.
• A Newbie's First Attempts at Lunar Imaging
  No hall of fame images here. There's clearly going to be a steep learning curve...

Links to Other Astronomy Sites

• Astronomy Picture of the Day
• The Astronomy and Astrophysics abstract service of the NASA Astrophysics Data System.
• Perth satellite predictions from www.heavens-above.com
• Recent Perth Radar and Australian satellite images in infrared and visible wavelengths.
• Current Western Australian weather forecasts.
• Deep Sky Images and 360-Degree Milky Way Panorama by Axel Mellinger
• Amateur spectroscopy and CCD imaging at Worcester Park Observatory by Maurice Gavin
• NASA's Astronomical Data Center Search Engine.
• Martin V. Zombeck's Handbook of Space Astronomy & Astrophysics
• Brian's Work Unit statistics for SETI@home
• The list of the top 200 University Teams in the SETI@home universe
• Work Unit Statistics for the Swinburne Astronomy On-line SETI@home Team.
• The Team Web Page for the Swinburne Astronomy On-Line team
• SETI@home FAQ

  

See Brian von Konsky's official home page