The Hydrogen Clouds of M33

The GOLDHELOX Project is a student run project to construct a robotic solar telescope that will be used to take images of the sun in the soft X-ray region (171–181Å) of the spectrum. The optical system uses a microchannel plate (MCP) detector. We tested the MCP to familiarize ourselves with and verify that MCP's can be used to image soft X-rays. Soft X-rays were created by a Manson source attached to a proportional counter to determine the amount of emitted X-rays detected by the MCP. The voltages on the MCP were varied to observe responses of varying voltage differences. Most of the observations were visible observations along with images made by a 35 mm camera with a telephoto lens. We found the 1000 V difference to produce the strongest and clearest images.

NASA G-133, also known as the "GoldHelox Project", is a fully autonomous, soft X-ray, solar telescope designed for use on board the space shuttle. Conceived, designed and built by students at Brigham Young University, it will image the sun with a spatial resolution of 2.5 arc-seconds with a temporal resolution of one second. The instrument will image X-rays with wavelengths between 171Å and 181Å coming from highly ionized Fe lines in the sun's corona. Data will consist of several hundred high resolution photographs that will help in understanding the initial phases of solar flares, and the relationship between solar flares and the physics of the coronal-chromospheric transition region. This paper briefly outlines the project's goals, gives a brief overview of the construction and operation of the instrument and addresses the unique aspects of running a predominantly undergraduate research project. It summarizes the lessons learned to date, and the current project status.

H alpha on-line and off-line CCD images of M101 obtained with the Canada-France-Hawaii 3.6 m telescope show the presence of two H alpha bright, filled knots paired Linearly across the nucleus in a north-south orientation. The knots are centered 2.4 '' (85 pc, assuming a distance to M101 of 7.4 Mpc) from the nucleus and lie roughly perpendicular to an east-west molecular bar. Each knot in turn is connected to an elongated, photoionized ring lying parallel along the bar. The eastern ring, connected to the southern knot, reaches outward in a well-defined 500X200 pc oval. The 700X300 pc western ring, connected to the northern knot, is more broken and dissipated in the middle. An arc containing blue stars and/or significant H alpha absorption lies along the southern side of a dust lane extending from the nucleus westward along the bar. Hubble Space Telescope Planetary Camera image data show pockets of star-forming regions to the east and to the south of the nucleus which are associated with the knot and ring in that half. The imaging data, together with velocity data obtained with the Coude' feed spectrometer at Kitt Peak National Observatory show that the knots and rings are likely a bipolar outflow originating from a velocity <100 km s(-1) ''geyser'' which has a period of approximately 22 million years and is located in the nucleus. The geyser may be caused by a mass <10(6) M(.) black hole orbiting within the nucleus, sweeping material from the molecular bar. (C) 1995 American Astronomical Society.

We present CCD imaging and spectroscopic data for 176 blue and/or emission-line galaxies from Lists I and II of the Case Northern Sky Survey. Our sample consists of all Case galaxies which lie in the region which overlaps the original Slice of the Universe survey. We use the observational data to investigate the physical properties of the galaxies selected by the survey, to compare with various parameters published in the survey lists, and to investigate the selection characteristics and completeness limit of the survey. The majority of the Case galaxies are energized by regions of active star formation; only 5% of the sample are Seyfert galaxies. The dual selection techniques used (both UV-excess and emission lines) allow the survey to detect star-forming galaxies with a wide range of properties and evolutionary states. In particular, the Case survey selects galaxies with lower levels of activity than most previous surveys. The survey also includes a larger fraction of intermediate and low-luminosity galaxies than would be present in a purely magnitude- limited sample. Although galaxies as faint as m_B_ = 19 are present in the sample, the completeness limit of the UV-excess selected portion of the survey is closer to m_B_ = 16. The luminosity function of the Case galaxies is derived and compared with that of the "normal" field galaxies in the same volume of space. The shape of the Case luminosity function is similar to that for the field sample. A surprising result is that 31% of the field galaxy population can be accounted for by galaxies of the type selected in the Case survey.