Harvard University Astronomy Lab and Clay Telescope

Day Labs | Evening Labs | Cloudy Day Labs | MaximDL Help

Daytime Labs

Pinhole Experiment - Measure the diameter of the Sun using a pinhole

Timing the Motion of the Sun Experiment - Measuring the size of the Sun by timing its motion

The Changing Declination of the Sun - Make sundial measurements to determine the Sun's daily change in elevation and the obliquity of the Earth

Sun's Rotational Period - Use sunspots to measure the Sun's rotational period

Luminosity and Temperature of the Sun - Measure how much energy the Sun puts out with a very simple photometer made of paraffin

The Solar Spectrum - Visually explore the Solar Spectrum

The Measurement of the Astronomical Unit - Measure the distance from the Sun to the Earth, the AU!

Evening Labs

How and Why do Stars "Move"? - Observe how stars appear to move from hour to hour and week to week

Visual Observations of Albireo - Determine the color and separation of the double star Albireo

CCD Field of View - Using the known separation of the double star, Albireo, determine the CCD field of view

CCD Photometry of Albireo - Do simple aperture photometry on the double star, Albireo, using Vega as a standard star

CCD Observations of the Central Bulge of the Andromeda Galaxy - Measure the color (B-V) of the Bulge and estimate the total mass

H-R Diagram of M39 - Create and H-R Diagram of M39 and use it to determine the distance to the cluster, the age of the cluster and the cluster density

Cloudy Day Labs

Why is the sky blue? Why are sunsets (and dusty stars) red? - Use a fish tank and some milk to learn about the color of the sky and sunsets

Exploring Kirchoff's Laws - Learn about absortion and emission lines, while determining the temperature of an alcohol lamp flame

CLEA Star Clusters - Supplementary observations and data to add to your HR Diagram of M39

MaximDL Help

Taking Images - How to take single images and set up a sequence of images

Color Combine Images - Step-by-step instructions on how to align and make a color image

Photometry - Learn how to do photometry on single or multiple images and export the data to an Excel format