Lecture 21: Testing Stellar Evolution

What are our observational tests of Stellar Evolution? This lecture discusses how we use Hertzsprung-Russell Diagrams of star clusters to test stellar evolution theory, and some of the conclusions we have drawn. In particular, we will see how the age of a star cluster can be estimated from the Main-Sequence Turn-Off for the cluster. We also introduce Open and Globular Clusters, and show how we apply stellar evolution theory to their H-R diagrams. Recorded 2006 February 2 in 1008 Evans Laboratory on the Columbus campus of The Ohio State University.