Study Guide for 2ND Astronomy Exam
The successful student will be able to…
Unit 6: The Year
· Describe in words and using the Whole Sky Map, developed in class, the annual motion of the Sun eastward through the stars along the ecliptic defining and identifying the special points on the ecliptic (solstices and equinoxes),
· Correctly characterize the maximum and minimum declination of the Sun with the tilt of the Earth’s axis,
· Define precession,
· Identify precession as the cause for Polaris not always being the “North Star”,
· Describe quantitatively the apparent daily motion of the Sun on an equinox or solstice from any latitude (where sun rise occurs, maximum altitude of the Sun, where sun set occurs, and the length of daylight) using the simplified celestial sphere diagram,
Unit 7: The Day
· Describe the location of sunrise and sunset along the horizon for any given day of the year. (Figure 7.1)
· Describe how the maximum altitude of the Sun depends on day of the year. Fig 7.1)
· Explain why the solar day is different from the sidereal day. (Fig 7.2)
· Describe how day length varies depending on whether the Sun is above, on, or below the celestial equator.
Unit 8: The Lunar Cycles
· Describe the daily and monthly apparent motion of the Moon and its relationship to the Zodiac.
Unit 10: Geometry of the Earth Sun and Moon
· Use the angular size relation to estimate the distance or true size of an astronomical object form a photograph.
Unit 11: Planets the Wandering Stars
· Describe the characteristics of the inferior and superior planets as regards their apparent motion in the sky. (Motion, elongation, configuration while retrograde…)
· Work with and identify planetary configurations of opposition, conjunction, quadrature and maximum elongation.
o Practice with the Planetary Configuration Simulator
· Describe the basic ideas of the Copernican model of the Universe.
o Location and Motion of the Earth
o Location of the planets and the observational basis for that ordering. (See Figure 11.10)
· Describe the cause of retrograde motion in our modern Copernican Model.
· Describe why inferior planets demonstrate a maximum elongation in their motion.
· Describe how Copernicus determined the relative distances of the planets from the Sun.
Unit 12: The beginnings of modern astronomy
· Discuss Galileo’s observations of the Sun. Moon, Jupiter and Venus and state how they contradicted the previously held Aristotelian model of the Universe.
· Describe Kepler’s three laws of planetary motion and state how the first two laws were contrary to the previously held ideas of Aristotle and Ptolemy.
· Use Kepler’s 3rd Law to solve problems
Plus…
o Use ratios to compare sizes of astronomical objects
o Use the t=d/v relation to determine the time required for light to travel between two objects
o Use a proportion to calculate a scale model of an astronomical object