Beginning Astronomy: Start a
Data-driven journey
2-4 Feb, MCNS, MAHE, Manipal
Lecture 1: Introducing some basic concepts in astronomy
Souradeep Bhattacharya
What do you see in the picture?
• Outline of a man
• Stars – bright and faint
• Clumps of stars
• Dust
• Galaxies, comets, asteroids, solar system planets?
You really only see sources of light!
The electromagnetic spectrum
Observing the EM spectrum
Why do these sources have differing
brightness?
• Intrinsic difference in light produced
• The same intrinsic brightness but at different distances
Units of astronomical distances
• Light year (ly): Distance light travels in 1 year
• Astronomical unit (au): Distance of Earth from Sun (radius of its orbit)
• Parsec (pc): Distance at which earth’s orbit subtends 1 arcsec
Intrinsic light produced
• Luminosity is the total amount of electromagnetic energy emitted per
unit of time by a source.
• Flux is the total amount of energy that crosses a unit area per unit
time.
The magnitude system
• For historical reasons, fluxes are measured in the magnitude system
The magnitude system
• If there are two sources on the sky, we compare their relative fluxes
with their relative magnitudes
• A difference of 5 magnitudes is equal to a factor of 100 in brightness
The magnitude system
• A source's observed magnitude is called its apparent magnitude (m),
since is not a true measure of a fundamental property of the source.
• A source’s true brightness is given by its Absolute magnitude (M),
which we define as the brightness the star would have if it were 10
parsecs away from us.
𝐹 102
𝑚 − 𝑀 = −2.5𝑙𝑜𝑔10 = −2.5𝑙𝑜𝑔10 2
= 5𝑙𝑜𝑔10 𝑑 − 5
𝐹10 d
• Since m-M is a measure of distance, it is called the distance modulus.
Bandpasses
• If F is the total flux emitted by a source, then mbol is its bolometric
magnitude.
• However, we generally measure flux over a finite bandpass.
The flux is integrated
over a particular
wavelength range
Photometric system
• A photometric system is based around a well-defined set of
bandpasses/filters with well-characterized sensitivities
Gaia G SDSS
BP
RP
Colour
• The color index of a star is
the difference between the
magnitude of the star in one
filter and the magnitude of
the same star in another
filter.
• Any filters can be used for
color indices
Celestial sphere
• The celestial sphere is an
imaginary sphere of arbitrarily
large radius, concentric with
Earth.
• All objects in the observer’s
sky can be thought of as
projected upon the inside
surface of the celestial sphere
• It is a practical tool for
spherical astronomy, allowing
observers to plot positions of
objects in the sky
Equatorial coordinates
• The Equatorial Coordinate System uses
two measurements, right ascension (RA)
and declination (DEC).
• RA is similar to longitude and is measured
in hours, minutes and seconds eastward
along the celestial equator. The distance
around the celestial equator is equal to
24 hours.
• DEC is similar to latitude and is measured
in degrees, arcminutes and arcseconds,
north (positive) or south (negative) of the
celestial equator.
• The advantage of this system is that it
expresses the position of a source in a
way that is independent of the observer's
position on Earth.
Proper motion
• Proper motion refers to the angular
velocity across the sky exhibited by a
source
• Expressed in milliarcseconds per year
• A star exhibiting proper motion will
move uniformly in one direction across
the sky
• Often broken down into the
components of right ascension (μRA)
and declination (μDec)
Trigonometric Parallax
If the parallax angle, p, is measured in arcsec, then the distance to the
star, d in parsecs (pc) is given by: 𝑑 = 1/𝑝
Radial velocity
• The component of velocity along
the line of sight to the observer.
• Objects with a negative radial
velocity are travelling towards the
observer whereas those with a
positive radial velocity are moving
away.
Blackbody radiation
• A blackbody is a theoretical
body which absorbs all radiation
falling on it, reflecting or
transmitting none. It is a
hypothetical object which is a
“perfect” absorber and a
“perfect” emitter of radiation
over all wavelengths.
• The spectral distribution of the
thermal energy radiated by a
blackbody depends only on its
temperature
Stars as BB radiation
• Astronomers consider stars
to be approximate black
bodies
• Spectral classification based
on temperature
Star formation
Star clusters
Life cycle of a star- HR diagram
CMDs
• Astronomers commonly use
colors as a proxy for
temperatures
• CMD is an observational
variant of a HR diagram
• The stellar initial mass
function (IMF) is defined as
the distribution of stellar
masses that form in a given
region in one starburst event.
Summary
• We see sources of light on the sky at different distances and having
different luminosities, projected on the celestial sphere with positions
given in equatorial coordinates
• We can measure their flux in different filters in the magnitude system
• For relatively nearby objects, we can measure their proper motions
and parallax
• Stars can be approximated as black bodies
• Stars form in clusters from condensation of gas clouds and evolve
along the HR-diagram (observationally CMDs)
