Capstone projects with Michael Richmond

I'm the Director of the RIT Observatory, which I use frequently for outreach and for my own research. My specialty involves taking optical images of the sky in order to measure the position or brightness of transient objects: asteroids, comets, and variable stars.

• Asteroid light curves: Determine the period of rotation of an asteroid by measuring its brightness over several nights.

  
  Figure 1 taken from Brincat et al., Minor Planet Bulletin 52, 4 (2025)

• Eclipsing binary stars: Careful measurements of the changes in brightness through several filters -- plus radial velocity measurements made by other astronomers -- can reveal the sizes and masses of the stars.

  
  Figure 1 taken from Abby VonPlinsky's capstone II paper (2023)

• Exoplanet transits: Very precise measurements of the brightness of a star as a planet passes in front of it can tell us about the size of the planet.

  
  Figure taken from Myrra Small's independent study project (2024)

I've also helped students to carry out computational projects, avoiding late nights out in the cold.

• Kozai effect: an isolated planet orbiting a star has a simple orbit. What happens if we add a second planet to the same system?

  
  Figure 1 taken from Myrra Small's Capstone I paper (2024)