Use images from the Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) to measure the rotation period of the Sun.
Find a time period of time where the Sun has many sunspots (use the plot of the sunspot number at the
space weather website. https://www.spaceweatherlive.com/en/solar-activity/solar-cycle/historical-solarcycles (Links to an external site.)).
For a period of 30 days get one image a day from the SDO
archive: https://sdo.gsfc.nasa.gov/data/aiahmi/ (Links to an external site.) . Use the following
settings: Telescopes / Wavelengths: HMI Intensitygram Flat (orange)
Browser Display
Use either 1024×1024 or 512×512 for the resolution
Display one image per nth (optional): 96
Sketch the sunspots for each day on a single diagram of the Sun. Label each spot with the date for the
image it is from.
For this project submit your sketch of the sunspot positions on different days and your estimate for the
rotation period for the Sun and your reasoning for choosing that number
Your photo, cropped, scaled, and/or compressed appropriately so that it DOES NOT EXCEED 5 MB IN
SIZE. All files must be in either JPG or PNG format. Photos in other formats will receive grades of zero.
Your answers to the reflection questions, given below. Answers must total no more than 500 wordsWe will grade you on three factors:The quality of your image (4 points).
The accuracy and thoughtfulness of your answers to the reflection questions (3 points).
The clarity of your writing and the level of polish of your project (2 point).
Reflection Questions
Regardless of which project you choose, your submission must include the answers to the following
questions, for full marks. Your answers must not exceed 500 words in total.
What equipment did you use, from what location did you take your photo, on what date and at what time?
What do the difficulties you faced during this project tell you about the kinds of difficulties professional
astronomers face in trying to make similar observations? How do they overcome them? (That is, what
specific strategies do they use in terms of using specialized equipment, observing from specific locations or
at specific time?)
What did you learn about your target object that you didn’t know before?
If you were tasked with doing this project again next year, how would you improve your results?
Grading Scheme
Your projects will be graded according to the following scheme out of 9 points. Detailed Marking Scheme.
Academic Integrity
All of the work that you hand in for this project must be your own original work. It is your responsibility to
understand and follow the university’s rules about academic integrity. We definitely encourage you to work
with classmates, but your work must demonstrate your own, unique, personal effort and understanding. To
clarify, here are some examples of acceptable and unacceptable forms of collaboration.
Acceptable Collaboration
You and a friend decide to do the same project–the one about moon phases. You work together to figure
out which moon phases occur when. You go out to the park together on the same days/nights but take
photos using your own cameras and produce your own write-ups.
You and a friend are doing different projects. Your friend is an expert photographer. She gives you a lot of
tips on how to get the best photos using the camera you own. You take the photos by yourself.
A friend of yours previously took the course and showed you their project. You may look at their project for
inspiration, but you take all your own photos and write your own answers to the reflection questions.
Unacceptable Collaboration or Academic Dishonesty
These are all forms of collaboration for which students have been prosecuted in this course in the last few
years. In general, students who did these things lost all of the marks for the project, but were required to
complete the course.
You download images made by someone else and pass them off as your own.
You take some images on your own, but you mix them together with images from the internet or those
taken by friends.
You and a group of friends go out together and take all of your images for the same project using the same
camera on the same evening. Later, you share the photos among the group. In the end, it is not clear who
took which photos. There is no evidence of individual effort.