AIM AND OBJECTIVE

The aim of this practical experiment is to independently plan the observation of two galaxies of different Hubble types, execute the observations and interpret the obtained data.

As part of the experiment we derive the radial decrease in surface brightness and the mean age of the stellar population as function of radius. By analyzing the color gradients within the galaxy we can also get some insight into the formation history of the galaxy.

OBSERVATIONS

Since the observation of diffuse extended objects is complicated by the scattered light from the surrounding city,some important things to be considered during the subsequent reduction of the raw data. For this reason we developed Mr. Miller, a special data reduction software that partially automates and hence simplifies the data reduction process as much as possible.

Because of the weather-dependence of the observations you have to be flexible. The important steps (selection of objects, etc. ..) should be done in advance, so you can get started right away once the weather conditions are sufficiently good.

INSTRUCTIONS AND MATERIALS

• Project instructions: German – English (Google translated)
• How-to Guide to controling the telescope and CCD camera: German – English (Google translated)
• Short reference manual for the Mr. Miller data reduction pipeline: German – English (Google translated)
• Data Reduction with Mr. Miller – Step by Step: German – English (Google translated)