Date : April, 12th, 2007      Time : Thursday, 4-5pm      Place : New Science Building 127

Title : A Study of Old Open Clusters and a Report on Current Work

Speaker : Kent Montgomery and Sarah Muehlenbein, Texas A & M Commerce

Affiliation : 

Abstract :

This talk contains two parts. In the first part Dr. Montgomery will outline observational astronomy research on two old open clusters, M67 and NGC 6791. Both clusters were imaged using 1-meter telescopes equipped with CCD cameras and the standard UBVI filter system. M67 was chosen because it is of solar metallicity, solar age, is within 1 kpc of the sun and is not located directly in the plane of the galaxy. These properties make the cluster an ideal candidate for comparing with stellar evolution models. NGC 6791 was chosen because it is one of the oldest open clusters but has an unusually high metallicity and was not well studied. Both studies resulted in better defining the properties of the clusters such as distances, ages and stellar content. In addition, careful comparisons to theoretical stellar evolution models were made with both clusters. In the second part of the talk Sarah Muehlenbein will summarize research currently being done on the feasibility of astronomical imaging with current equipment owned by A&M Commerce.

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