Chapter 1

Discovering the Night Sky

Constellations
A constellation is a section in the sky that contains a group of stars
that form a pattern
The stars even in a constellation are not near each other, they only
appear that way from earth

Stars on average are about 30 trillion miles away from each other

Orion Constellation

Celestial Sphere
Is an imaginary sphere with the earth at the center. The poles and
equator align with those of the earth.

Angle of Right Ascension

Abbreviated RA, right ascension is a angular distance measured along
the celestial equator.
The units for RA are hours, minuets, and seconds.
RA goes from 0 to 24 hours in a easterly direction.
The starting point (0 h) is at the vernal equinox.

Vernal Equinox
The vernal equinox is a point where the path of the sun crosses the
celestial equator.
The sun is at the vernal equinox at sunrise on the first day of spring.

Angle of Declination
Abbreviated DEC, declination is measured north or south or the
celestial equator.
The units for DEC are degrees.
DEC goes from 0 to 90 degrees.
The starting point (0 ) is located at the celestial equator.

Ecliptic
The ecliptic is the path the Sun appears to take on the celestial
sphere.
The sun takes one year to complete a cycle around the ecliptic.

Earthly Cycles
The earth spins around an axis that is goes through its center, north,
and south pole.
The earth moves around the sun in an elliptical orbit.
There is an angle of 23.5 degrees between the earths axis and the
plane that it orbits the sun.

Daily Cycle
The earth takes 24 hours to complete one rotation around its axis.
It is this motion that causes the day and night cycles.
The earth is rotating very fast. A point on the earths equator is
moving about 1000 miles per hour.

Yearly Cycle
The earth takes one year to complete its orbit around the sun.
The earth is traveling about 67,000 miles per hour.

The Seasons
The seasons occur due to the tilt of the earths rotational axis.

Earths axis precession

The earths axis goes through precession.
This precession is due to the gravitational pull of the sun and moon.
One cycle of the precession takes 26,000 years.

The Phases of the Moon

The moon takes about 29.5 days to go around the earth and go
through its phases.

Eclipses
A lunar eclipse occurs when earths shadow blocks the suns light to
the moon.
A solar eclipse occurs when the moon blocks the suns light to the
earth.

Scales of the Universe

In our world there are things that vary greatly in size.
In order to talk about things that are very small or large we use
scientific notation.
For example a proton is about 10-15 meters while a galaxy is on the
order of 1020 meters.