Hello, Dana, Merlin66, TerryB, and other "spectro-people",
The spectral evolution of supernovae is described in the following review paper from the Annual Review of Astronomy and Astrophysics:
http://ned.ipac.caltech.edu/level5/M...ko/frames.html
Cheers,
Robert
P.S.
Those spectra look good to me, Terry. Do you collaborate with any professional astronomers on this spectroscopy fascination of yours? From experience, I find that, because of the sheer number of possible objects of observation, and because of the very large number of research "specialties within specialties within specialties" in our grand & magisterial science, amateur astronomers are often surprised by
how few professional astronomers are working on a specific problem within astronomy......so it would not surprise me if the spectral evolution of Supernovae was only understood in a "rough and ready manner".
I do agree with Dana that you are a most persistent bloke, and an inspiration to us all.
Because it is all too typical for an amateur astronomer to have plenty of non-astronomical distractions that interfere with their play/work in astronomy, it is always good to hear of success stories about people who "keep on working at it" and who thereby achieve worthwile things.
Line formation and the physics of the materials in space and their emission/absorption of radiation, are described in detail in "Atomic Astrophysics and Spectroscopy" by Anil Pradhan and Sultana Nahar (Cambridge University Press)(2011)(ISBN: 9780521825368). However, this is a "very heavy" book.....I am glad I do have a copy, but this book is more about the atomic astrophysics than the observables (spectra), and a good part of it requires a good graduate-level knowledge of physics.
However, it is not necessary to actually know all of the physics to do worthwile spectroscopy e.g. the spectral classification of stars progressed perfectly well even
before people knew how the spectral lines were produced.
Doing classification of objects or spectra is possible and useful work for amateur astronomers; for instance one could learn to classify stellar or nebular spectra every bit as well as a professional astronomer does it.
Indeed, I am very envious of those people who "really know spectra", as there is always the possibility of finding a spectrum that is unusual or weird.
I do know (from personal experience) that it is possible to learn Astronomical classification schemes perfectly, because I have learnt to classify galaxies every bit as well as any professional astronomer, and I am not a PhD in astrophysics!
