Introduction - Measuring Spiral Galaxies

Back to all Galaxy Projects

Project Leader: Dr Richard Beare (University of Warwick)
Principal Scientific Advisor: Professor Michael Merrifield (University of Nottingham)

Summary

In this project you image some galaxies and then comment on the features visible in them. You will then make various quantitative measurements including the pitch angles of the spiral arms and how large the central bulge is relative to the whole visible galaxy. Finally you will classify your galaxies according to the Hubble galaxy classification.

The resources you will require for this project are indicated below:

	WWW	File	Word	PDF
Required Resources
Outline of project
Instructions for project
Instructions for JPEG Viewer (web link has sample exercises on using JPEG Viewer for scales in the universe and life cycles of stars)
JPEG Viewer spreadsheet (right-click to download)

Additional Resources	WWW	File	Word	PDF
Selections of suitable galaxies to image
Observation planner for galaxies (spreadsheet showing which galaxies are visible when - right-click to download)
Information on Hubble Classification of Galaxies (the web version is interactive and shows large images)