Data Analysis of LDN425 and LND981

Getting Set Up

Which of the following software do you have installed on your computers? Spot, Leopard, Mopex, MaxIm DL, DS-9, etc. ?

Each school should make comments in the discussion section of this page as to what software you have installed and working on your computers.

What Data Have You Downloaded

Each school should use Leopard to download the LDN425 and LND981, and comment in the discussion page once you have successfully downloaded the data.

Visual Inspection of the Images

Each school and/or student should comment in the discussion section of this page and provide the RA, DEC, and a description of what you are seeing. You could even upload thumbnail images of what you are seeing.

Making Color Composite Images

Using the software you are most familiar with (Leopard/Spot, Mopex, MaxIm DL, DS-9) each school and/or student should post images they have created. Be sure to note what images you have used and which color you assigned each image. and provide the RA, DEC, and a description of what you are seeing. You could even upload thumbnail images of what you are seeing.

What Targets were Previously Identified in LDN425 and LDN981?

In the discussion section, each school and/or student should comment on previously known potential YSO's in LDN425 and LDN981. What is the source of your information, what is the location of each object?

Finding previously known objects – From Luisa Rebull

Option (1): Go to the wiki, click on "research tools" (on the main page or on the left navigation bar), and go to "5. How can I find out what scientists already know about a particular astronomy topic or object?" Click on the header to go to that page. There's a simple intro there, with some questions, and at the bottom of the page is a link for more advanced information and discussion. Both of these pages have descriptions and links to the tools that real astronomers use to find papers in the literature, also known as finding previously known objects. If you want to get a feel for this with some example searches, there are some things to try at the bottom of both pages.

Option (2): Go to the wiki, click on "current research" (on the main page or on the left navigation bar). Scroll down until you find the Lynds cloud entry. Click on the "current research activities" link for this project. Scroll down to "Working with L1688" -- this is the main summary page which we used in June (which I hope you remember once you see it! ;) ). For finding previously known objects, go down to "previously identified sources." This has some information specifically about finding previously identified sources in the literature, and links back to the pages I listed in Option (1) above.

Option (3): This is the stuff that would have been hardest for anyone new to the project to find, since you weren't working on the project this long ago. I find that when I start working on the data analysis for any project, or if I join a project after someone else has proposed it (like you did), it helps a lot to go back to the material I (or someone else) assembled for the proposal, and/or the proposal itself. So, go to the wiki, click on "current research" (on the main page or on the left navigation bar). Scroll down until you find the Lynds cloud entry. Click on the "current research activities" link for this project. There are two links here of interest: "Lynds Target Selection" and "Lynds Proposal." If you go to the proposal page, scroll all the way down to the bottom to find the final proposal version we submitted. There you will find, among other many things, a discussion of why we picked both of the clouds we picked, along with references to the literature. Much of the information in the proposal is also found in the "Lynds Target Selection" page. If you scroll down to the section entitled "Luisa's favorites", you will find a table with information on each of the targets we were considering, including of course the ones we settled on. There are references to the literature in the table. I can't remember if we linked in some of the papers, or just put in the whole reference such that you can find the paper in ADS (or, often, astro-ph). (If you don't know what ADS or astro-ph are, see links referenced in option 1 above.)

NOW, having said all of that, if you find a paper that you need a copy of, and you can't get to it from your school or library, THAT is a different question. In that case, first you should check with your friends and teachers in case they have the paper, but if you still can't find it, you should mail me the specifics of which paper you need -- just send me the entire citation, e.g., Wu et al., 2004, A&A, 426, 503. I myself can't get to the journal version of the papers either, unless I'm at work. I go back to work in the office next Monday (Nov 3), so if you send me a reference, I can send you back the paper then.

Photometry

More to come soon in this area