This is the less perhaps asthetically pleasing work that i do. This is what the spectrum of a star looks like.
We all know stars are seen as points of light when you take photos of them, however this only tells us a part of the story. We see the colour of them which tells us how hot they are. Brighter coloured stars (white or blue) are hot young stars. Cooler yellow through to red are older stars (our Sun is middle aged)
The graph below is what we call a spectrum (taken by splitting the light from a star by passing it through a prism (like Issac Newton first did).
We dont use a prism, we use what we call a diffraction grating.
The below shows us some of what the star, Betelgeuse is made of. Its what we call a red supergiant (which like our Sun will) is coming to the end of its life).
The below shows what the star is made of. we can tell this as when you see the rainbow coloured spectrum, you see dark lines running down it (almost like wavelengths are missing). These dark lines are signature for these elements.
For those who want to see the star, as i say its in the consellation of Orion (rises earlier now, looks like a bow tie standing on its end).
Anyhow, i hope you find this of interest, some of you
I know you probably prefer the pictures i take though. Still taking them but due to bad weather not had the chance
