ASTRO Q2

From horizon to opposite horizon, the sky takes up how much angular distance?

180 degrees

Suppose you, as an astronaut, used Erastothenes' method to determine the circumference of a new planet you visited. You found that when the sun was overhead at noon at point A it was at a 10 degree angle from the vertical at point B. You know points A and B are 800 km apart. What would you get (approximately) for the circumference of that planet?

29,000 km

Halfway between the celestial poles lies the

celestial equator

The 88 sectors into which astronomers today divide the celestial sphere (the whole sky) are called:

constellations

Which of the following was NOT done by Hipparchus, the great ancient astronomer?

explained retrograde motion

When it comes to our place in the solar system today, which model do we accept?

heliocentric

Some Canadian troops are sent (as part of a U.N. peacekeeping force) to a country located on the Earth's equator. At night, when homesickness makes them gaze sleeplessly at the stars, which of the following will be familiar to them (the same at the equator as in Canada):

none of the above are the same on the equator as in Canada

The slow tipping of the Earth's axis in a circle with a period of about 26,000 years is called:

precession

The Sun's apparent path around the celestial sphere is called

retrograde motion

If the Earth goes around the Sun, why is the ecliptic not lined up with the celestial equator?

the Earth's axis is tilted by about 23 degrees from the vertical

Which of the following is NOT a result of the Earth's precession?

the Earth's axis will no longer be tilted in several thousand years

Every celestial object appears to go around the Earth once a day. In addition to this motion, which celestial object has the fastest apparent motion in the sky?

the Moon

Which of the following is NOT an argument for showing that the Earth must be round?

the Sun is seen blocking different constellations in the course of a year

The celestial sphere turns once around each day because

the planet on which we live is rotating

In Ptolemy's system the planets orbit the Earth and not the Sun. How did the system explain the retrograde motion of planets like Jupiter?

the planets moved on a small circle whose center in turn circled a point near the Earth

Someone who observes the sky every clear night in Boston for many years will NEVER get to see:

the south circumpolar zone

Let's say we find a star that is located on the following points or circles in the sky. Then, on the same night we move to a location on Earth that is some significant distance from our first location. There will now be a different star at or on:

the zenith

The strip of the sky through which the Sun, the Moon, and the bright planets appear to move in the course of a year is called:

the zodiac

The point in the sky directly above your head at any given time is called the

zenith

Based on the scientific and statistical tests of astrological predictions, which of the following statements is the most reasonable?

astrology has not passed any clear scientific or statistical test and, as a result, most scientists are very doubtful that it can predict anything meaningful about our lives

Where on Earth do stars always circle the zenith (and never rise and set)?

at the north pole

The scientist who first devised experimental tests to demonstrate the validity of the heliocentric model of the solar system was

Galileo

A graduate student in geology who grew up in Florida (near the southernmost tip of the United States) gets to accompany her research professor to the North Pole. What will be different at the North Pole from the way she remembers the sky in Florida?

all of the above would be different from the way it is in Florida

Within a constellation, a recognizable pattern of stars is often called:

an asterism