Expert: Tom Whiting - 9/10/2005

Question
Dear Tom Whiting,
I want to work on an astronomical project and I'm looking for a subject,
and is better if the project contains observational , theoretical and
computational parts all. It might be useful for you to know that  I have
a Newtonian telescope (6") and a 30*70 binacular and have some good
experience in deep sky observing and also astrophotography.I'm also
expert in some programming and computational softwares. I'm also
interested in astrophysics and astrophysics.(Dont think that I'm proud
of myself or want to show off ; this is because I asked lots of people
to give me a project subject and they objected and said thet they didn't
know my capabilities !). You'll help me a lot if yuo give me a subject.
thanks a lot
Yours sincerely
Golshan Ejlali
Tehran
Iran

Answer
Hi Golshan,
 Gee....with all that experience, and even a 6 inch Newt.
scope, it sounds like you don't need my help in picking a
subject. ;-)

But I can make a few suggestions....the first of which that comes to mind is close double stars, like 61 Cygni or Porrima (Gamma Virginis).  Over half the stars are doubles and multiples, so there is a lot of them to pick from.  With double stars, currently a very neglected field in astronomy, you have the observational part, the computational part from the distance and position angle that you see in your scope, and you have the theory of gravity, and how they move around a common baricenter.  The purpose of your study would be to
increase the accuracy of the period of revolution, and the exact date of periastron, which aren't well known with most double stars.

Another subject that comes to mind is variable stars...you
have the observation of their change in brightness, then
you have those numbers to compute a light curve, and
then there is the theory behind the various types of variable stars.

Also, I picked these two projects over dim galaxies and
dim deep sky objects because you said you were from
Tehran....a major city with all sorts of heavy light pollution,
so I try to make it easy because you can see doubles and
variables even through heavy light pollution.
Hope all this helps,
Clear Skies,
Tom Whiting
Erie, Pennsylvania..  USA