Lecture 1: Star types: a guided tour

Further reading

For the whole course

• For astronomical images, you can't do better than the "Astronomy Picture of the Day" website, http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/astropix.html. Not only does this have a fabulous archive of the most amazing pictures (and a new one every day), each image also has links to many other interesting sites where you can follow up the topic. I've used APOD as the source for many of the images here, mostly because it's so convenient. If you prefer to have your pictures in a form you can hold (and show off to friends), a selection has been published as a book, in "Universe: 365 Days" by R. J. Nemiroff and J. T. Bonnell (Harry N. Abrams, 2003), with a follow-up volume called "Astronomy: 365 Days" (2006). There's even an APOD iPhone app!

For tonight's lecture

• James Kaler has a website called "Stars: Portraits of Stars and their Constellations" ("dedicated to showing that all stars are not the same") at http://www.astro.uiuc.edu/~kaler/sow/sow.html, which has a host of interesting information about the various types of stars.
• If you'd like to look at the spectra of stars in detail, check out "The FAST Stellar Spectral Atlas" by Perry Berlind, at http://cfa-www.harvard.edu/~pberlind/atlas/atframes.html. He has examples of the spectra of all kinds of stars, normal and peculiar.
• The American Association of Variable Star Observers has a page on Eta Carinae at http://www.aavso.org/vstar/vsots/0400.shtml. If you'd like to try looking at it for yourself, there's a nice chart showing where to find it at the European Southern Observatory "Catch a Star" site, http://www.eso.org/outreach/eduoff/edu-prog/catchastar/CAS2002/cas-projects/italy_etacar_1/carina.htm
• The evidence for Proxima Centauri being bound to α Cen is in "Are Proxima and α Centauri Gravitationally Bound?" by Wertheimer & Laughlin (2006), AJ 132, p. 1995 http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2006AJ....132.1995W

Sources for images used:

• Title image: NGC 602 from HST http://hubblesite.org/newscenter/archive/releases/star-cluster/2007/04/
• Stars in Scorpius: from APOD 2012 September 12, http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap120912.html
• The Hubble Ultra-Deep Field: from http://www.hubblesite.org/newscenter/archive/releases/2004/07/
• NGC 3982: from HubbleSite http://www.hubblesite.org/newscenter/archive/releases/galaxy/2010/36/
• Overview of Galaxy: from A. Finkbeiner, “Galaxy formation: The new Milky Way”, Nature 490 News Feature
• Orion in gas, dust and stars: image by Rogelio Bernal Andreo (Deep Sky Colors), from APOD 2009 Sep 29 http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap090929.html
• Black hole binary animation: http://imagine.gsfc.nasa.gov/Videos/BlkHoleIntro.mov
• Southern cross: image by Yuri Beletsky, from APOD 2007 May 17 http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap070517.html
• Distances of stars in the Southern Cross: from "Distances" by Peter Caldwell, http://users.netconnect.com.au/~astronet/dist.html. Used with permission.
• I made the Hipparcos H-R diagram using data from the Hipparcos web site at http://astro.estec.esa.nl/Hipparcos/
• Spectral types as coloured bars: adapted from "Spectral Classes" by Michael Lemke and C. S. Jefferey http://www.sternwarte.uni-erlangen.de/www/tot/spek/SPEK_E.HTML
• Spectral types as intensity plots: from "The Properties of Stars", http://www.jb.man.ac.uk/distance/life/sample/stars/
• The comparison between the brightnesses of stars on the main sequence is from James Kaler, "Extreme Stars", p. 20
• The α Centauri triple system: from ESO Press Release 05/03 http://www.eso.org/outreach/press-rel/pr-2003/pr-05-03.html
• Size of Proxima Cen: from Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Proxima_Centauri
• Barnard's Star: from Stars, Galaxies, and the Universe http://csep10.phys.utk.edu/astr162/lect/motion/proper.html
• Gliese 1214b: from APOD 2013 September 10 http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap130910.html
• M and A star spectra: from "The FAST Stellar Spectral Atlas" by Perry Berlind, http://cfa-www.harvard.edu/~pberlind/atlas/atframes.html
• Red dwarf interior: from "Introduction to Stars, Galaxies and the Universe" by Richard Pogge, http://www-astronomy.mps.ohio-state.edu/~pogge/Ast162/Unit2/mainseq.html
• Solar flare: from "SOHO: Exploring the Sun", http://sohowww.nascom.nasa.gov/gallery/top10/
• 61 Cygni: from Windows to the Universe, http://www.windows.ucar.edu/tour/link=/the_universe/61CygniAB.html
• Gliese 710: from Astronomy Picture of the Day, 2001 July 7 http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap010707.html
• Starspots on AB Doradus: from "Mapping starspots and magnetic fields on cool stars: The AB Dor Picture Gallery" by Andrew Collier Cameron, http://star-www.st-and.ac.uk/~acc4/coolpages/imaging.html
• Scorpius: image by Akira Fujii, http://www.davidmalin.com/fujii/source/af4-10_72.html; after a drawing by James Kaler, "Stars and their Spectra", Figure 9.2
• Pleiades: picture from Mt Wilson Observatory, from Astronomy Picture of the Day June 20, 1995, http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap950620.html
• Artist's impression of a Be star: from "Astronomer Studies the Flashy, Complex 'Be Star' ", http://www.usc.edu/dept/engineering/TTC/newsarchives/feb99_bestar.html
• The Rosette Nebula: from Astronomy Picture of the Day, 2000 Jan 11, http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap000111.html
• Main sequence star properties: from Nick Strobel's Astronomy Notes, http://www.astronomynotes.com/starprop/s12.htm, and "Extreme Stars" by James Kaler, p. 19.
• Line profiles in giants and dwarfs: from Astronomy 62: Introduction to Astrophysics by Ann Esin, http://www.physics.hmc.edu/faculty/esin/a062/lectures/lumclasses.gif
• SUSI: from the SUSI Home Page, http://ftp.nofs.navy.mil/projects/npoi/science/diam.htm
• Interferometer fringes: after diagram in "A Sharper View of the Stars" by Arsen R. Hajian and J. Thomas Armstrong, in Scientific American, March 2001.
• Sizes of stars: from "The Optical Interferometer: Completing the Work of Galileo" by Tyler Nordgren http://ftp.nofs.navy.mil/projects/npoi/science/diam.htm
• Carbon star IRAS 06088+1909: false-colour infrared JHK Atlas image mosaic courtesy of 2MASS/UMass/IPAC/IPAC-Caltech/NASA/NSF, http://www.ipac.caltech.edu/2mass/gallery/index.html
• Eta Carinae nebula: from the NOAO Image Gallery, courtesy NOAO/AURA/NSF, http://www.noao.edu/image_gallery/html/im0044.html
• Eta Carinae and the Keyhole Nebula: by Brad Moore, from Astronomy Picture of the Day, 2006 March 16 http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap060316.html
• Eta Carinae light-curve: from "Optical monitoring of Eta Carinae", http://etacar.fcaglp.unlp.edu.ar/
• HST and Chandra images of Eta Carinae: from Chandra X-ray Observatory Photo Album, http://chandra.harvard.edu/photo/0099/index.html
• The Pistol Star: from the Hubble Site, press release October 8, 1997, http://hubblesite.org/newscenter/newsdesk/archive/releases/1997/33/
• WR 124: from the Hubble Site, press release November 5, 1998, http://hubblesite.org/newscenter/newsdesk/archive/releases/1998/38/
• NGC 2359, "Thor's Helmet", NOAO/AURA/NSF, from Astronomy Picture of the Day 2002 December 5, http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap021205.html
• Bubble Nebula: image by Russell Croman, from Astronomy Picture of the Day 2005 November 7, http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap051107.html. HST infrared image of the Bubble nebula: from the Hubble Site Archive, http://hubblesite.org/newscenter/newsdesk/archive/releases/2000/04/
• Orion: image by Matthew Spinelli, from Astronomy Picture of the Day 2003 February 7, http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap030207.html. Used with permission.
• mu Cephei: image by Matt BenDaniel, http://starmatt.com/gallery/astro/ic1396.html. Used with permission.
• Light curve for VV Cephei: from Saito et al., "Photometric Study of VV Cephei during the 1976-78 Eclipse", PASJ 32, 163 (1980), available at http://adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-bib_query?bibcode=1980PASJ...32..163S&db_key=AST&high=3f37788bff17499
• Image of Sirius and Sirius B: Lick 3m image, from "The 10 Brightest Stars" by Pedro Braganca, http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/brightest_stars_030715-1.html. Wobble of Sirius: from "Astronomy 162: Stars, Galaxies and Cosmology", Astrometric Binaries, http://csep10.phys.utk.edu/astr162/lect/binaries/astrometric.html
• White dwarf spectra: from "An Atlas of optical spectra of white-dwarf stars" by Wesemael et al. 1993, PASP 105, 761
• T Tauri spectra: from "T Tauri stars in blue" by Valenti et al. 1993, AJ 106, 2024
• HST images of jets from young stars: from the Hubble Site Archive, , News Release STSci-1995-24 http://hubblesite.org/newscenter/newsdesk/archive/releases/1995/24/
• HST infrared images of disks around young stars: from the Hubble Site Archive, News Release STSci-1999-05 http://hubblesite.org/newscenter/newsdesk/archive/releases/1999/05/
• Brown dwarf around 15 Sge: Gemini press release http://www.gemini.edu/project/announcements/press/2002-1.html
• Quantum image: from http://z-a-n-i-a-n.deviantart.com/art/Quantum-411038259">

Last updated 18 October 2016