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Useful ALFALFA links

• Back to the Fall 2010 page
• Undergrad ALFALFA Getting Started page
• ALFALFA science links
• Intro to IDL for ALFALFA

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Introductory exercises

You will need to become familiar with Arecibo, the ALFA (the Arecibo L-band Feed Array) and ALFALFA (our survey) as well as the Sloan Digital Sky Survey and the GALEX satellite. So here are some links to other pages with some exercises that can help you get started. You don't have to do them all by tomorrow, but you should experiment with them over the next weeks.

• Questions about celestial coordinates, time and using Arecibo for ALFALFA
• Read about using ALFA for ALFALFA and do the exercises highlighted in red
• Read about the various online galaxy surveys and databases and try the Scavenger Hunt questions on that page
• Using SDSS, DSS2 and NED to find images/info of some interesting objects
• Check out our very own Cornell EGG HI digital archive
• Using NED to find the members of a rich cluster
• Using SDSS to find active galaxies in the cluster A1238
• Running a SDSS SQL query to find quasars with z > 5

The Local Group

Here are some links of relevance to your understanding of the Local Group.

• SEDS page: The Local Group of Galaxies
• Annual Review article by Mateo 1998 on Dwarf Galaxies of the Local Group
• Mike Irwin's LG links
• Mike Irwin's list of Local Group members

The Virgo Cluster

The main focus of your project this semester is the Virgo cluster of galaxies, so the more you learn about it the better!

• Check out some of Martha's favorite Virgo cluster objects

Specific questions for Jenn to consider

• What is the physics behind the 21 cm line emission that we detect with ALFALFA? What sources emit it? What is the temperature of the hydrogen?
• Read about the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS), the telescope that it uses and its separate imaging and spectroscopic components. What wavelength bands does the SDSS image? Why doesn't it get spectra for every object? Which objects does it get spectra of?
• Remind me and yourself what you know about the H-R diagram and stellar evolution, because it's relevant to our study of galaxies.
• Read about the GALEX satellite and its imaging camera. What wavelength bands does it image?

• Learn about the ds9 image interface. We'll check it out when you come by next.

• Practice running our program "skyd".

• Investigate the SAO/NASA ADS Astronomy Abstract Service and learn how to use it.

• Learn about the GALEX Ultraviolet Atlas of Nearby Galaxies. Here is the ADS link.

• Start up IDL and try to run PLOTALFA.

• Check out Carl H's IDL tutorials and experiment with the basics.

• Experiment with the quick intro to compiling IDL programs.

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Last modified: Mon Oct 4 17:47:09 EDT 2010 by martha