Your last deliverable in this class is to be a small group project in which you apply what we have learned and discussed over the course of the semester to investigate a topic of interest to you using novel data. While you are entirely free to choose any topic in astronomy that may interest you, it is also perfectly acceptable to choose one of the units that we covered this semester which piqued your interest and extend what was done there with new data, techniques, or questions. Maybe a particular problem didn’t end up as accurate as you’d have thought, and you want to try to extend it with new data or techniques to get a better result? You have lots of options here!
1 Expectations
A strong project should:
- Answer a clear question:
- Your project should revolve around answering a clearly articulated question. While the exact nature of the question you are trying to answer may be contingent on what data you are able to find, you should decide on a clear question before diving into the deeper data analysis. Your project should seek to answer this question and support your findings with as much rigor and insight as your data allows.
- Demonstrate technical competency:
- We have discussed a variety of analytical techniques over the course of the semester, and your project needs to showcase at least some of these techniques. Other techniques can be used alongside the techniques we have discussed, but part of this project is showcasing that you can utilize at least a subset of what we have learned this semester to support your conclusions or to investigate your question of interest. Which techniques you utilize should be clearly articulated in the final presentation.
- Incorporate new data:
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Astronomers are fortunate in having some of the most expansive and freely available datasets for public use. While you can support your project with data we have used in class or on various homework assignments, your project also must bring in data from outside sources. If it comes from one of the direct astronomical sources below, then only one outside source is required. If you are pulling data from other, precompiled sources (such as Kaggle) then 2-3 outside data sources should be utilized. Direct astronomic sources, which I have utilized over the semester to construct your homework problems, include, but are not limited to:
- Simbad serves as a quick source of information about various objects as it collects (and cites) published data. If you ever need to look up common values for known astronomical objects, this is probably the place to go.
- Vizier is an access point for the raw data from many different astronomical surveys. It can be queried to return mostly images or spectroscopic data. This is where I got the stellar spectra from for HW2.
- SDSS, or the Sloan Digital Sky Survey, was essentially the first of the massive attempts to map/image the night sky in as much detail as possible. The survey contains images and spectra for huge swathes of the night sky. You can query specific information from its systems, or you can explore its data in a more interactive way here at the SkyServer.
- If you need information about the location of objects in the Solar System, JPL’s Horizons system is the tool for the job. You can specify what objects you want information about, include a date range, and then get a detailed breakdown of where that object will be throughout the requested range. If you want to do similar for multiple objects, you’ll have to use their system to submit a batch request (or do it manually).
- The Gaia mission represents our latest (and greatest) efforts to map the observable cosmos. GAIA includes brightness and parallax information for a massive number of nearby stars, as well as other bright objects.
- If you are looking for specific data from various NASA telescopes, then the MAST webpage, or the Mikulski Archive for Space Telescopes, has links to individual pages relating to the Hubble, TESS, and now Webb observational satellites.
- Communicate clearly:
- Communication has been an emphasis throughout the semester, and the projects should be no different. Groups need to both have clear communication with each other, but also need to formulate a plan for how to best present to their peers the work and results of their project. This should include a well polished set of slides to aid them in their presentation, along with strong visuals and practiced explanations.
2 Deliverables
You will be making a 12-minute presentation during our final’s slot on May 6th about your project, which will then be followed by 2-3 minutes of questions. You should plan to cover within your presentation such topics as:
- What question/topic were you investigating?
- Why was this question/topic of interest to you and your group?
- Where did you get your data from?
- What, if any, preprocessing did you need to do to get the data ready for analysis?
- How did you go about doing your analysis?
- What conclusions did you draw?
- What hurdles did you encounter along the way? What would you do differently if you had a chance to repeat this project next month?
In addition to the presentation itself, I will ask you to submit a copy or link to your slides. I will not ask for a notebook of your analysis or for your raw data. Your presentation should present those ideas well enough to be understood.
3 Scoring
Projects will be scored on the following rough rubric, so make sure you provide evidence of the following:
- (10%) Clear statement of the specific question being investigated
- (20%) Strong data source(s)
- Necessary number
- Properly attributed
- Clearly described preprocessing/cleaning
- (35%) Analysis
- Science holds up
- Analysis logical and robust
- Clear reference to techniques learned this semester
- (25%) Presentation
- Slides well crafted and not just full of text
- Supporting visuals clear, visible, well labeled, and applicable to the question
- Oral explanations practiced, articulate, and shared
- Data or other techniques from outside of class clearly cited
- (10%) Peer feedback
- Feedback given to all other presenting groups in the form of the provided questionnaire
- Overall class opinion about the presentation