Exam 1 Flashcards
How many constellations are there
88
How many stars can we see from earth with the naked eye
1,500 stars
Can you explain apparent motions of objects in the night sky
Our planet is tilted 23.5 degrees. The earth completes one revolution around the sun every 365.4 days. The sun is directly above the equator at the vernal equinox (March 21), above the Tropic of Cancer on the summer of solstice (June 21), above the equator on the autumnal equinox (September 23), and above the Tropic of Capricorn on the winter solstice (December 21)
Arbiter of all things astronomical
IAU
How many constellations are there in the zodiac
13 constellations of the zodiac
Who pursued who in Greek mythology that is present in the night sky
Orion pursued the 7 sisters (the Pleiades)
What happens in the Greek story when Orion sets
Orion is killed by a scorpion when Orion sets and Scorpio rises
Asterism is what?
A group of stars
The vernal equinox is also called
The first point of Aries ( actually we are in the epoch of Pisces)
In which neighborhood does the sun live in
The Orion spur
Who discovered that the Milky Way is full of stars
Galileo
What are the stars that point to Polaris
Merak and Dubhe
What is the distance from the earth to the sun
1 astronomical unit (1 AU)
What is the best place to view a star
The observers meridian
A light year is how many AUs
63,241 astronomical units
The sun and moon have the same _______ size in the sky
Angular
Hipparchus first did what?
Hipparchus first classified brightness’s on a magnitude scale
How old is the universe
13.7 billion years old
Human eye can see down to what magnitude
6th magnitude
5 magnitudes is equal to?
100 times in brightness
What magnitude is the sun
-26.7
The brightest star has a magnitude of what (what is the star)
-1.45 Sirius
Higher the magnitude,
Fainter the star
The path of the sun is the…
Ecliptic
Who is messier
A person who named 103 blobs in the night sky (andromeda)
Right ascension is the equivalent to…
The longitude
Declination is the equivalent to…
The latitude
How are stars measured
Through parallax
When planets appear closer in the sky, it is called…
A conjunction
Formula for the circumpolar sky
Declination greater than or equal to 90 - latitude
What is directly above the observer
The zenith
What is directly below the observer
The nadir
The winter sky includes which constellations
Orion, Taurus, Gemini, Canis Major, Canis Minor, Cancer
Summer constellations
Summer Triangle, Cygnus(Deneb) , Lyra(vega), Aquila(Altair) , Capricorn, Sagittarius, Scorpio
Autumn constellations
Pegasus, andromeda, Aquarius, Pisces, Aries, Cetus, Eridanus
Spring constellations
Leo, Virgo, bootes, ophiocus, Hercules, Corona Borealis, libra, Canes Venatici, Coma Berenices, Corvus
Summer Triangle includes which stars
Deneb, Altair, Vega
