Chapter 2 - 2.1

3. The celestial sphere turns once around each day because

a. the planet on which we live is rotating

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

a. the south circumpolar zone

18. 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:

a. the zodiac

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

b. 180 degrees

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

b. at the north pole

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

b. constellations

9. In the Northern Hemisphere, the altitude (height in degrees above the horizon) of the North Star is always roughly equal to the

b. latitude of the observer

1. Let's say we find a star that is located on the points or circles in the sky listed in the answer choices below. 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:

b. the zenith

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

b. zenith

11. The star that is currently closest to the North Celestial Pole is:

c. Polaris

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

c. an asterism

5. On the celestial sphere, halfway between the celestial poles lies the

c. celestial equator

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

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

7. 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):

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

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

e. the ecliptic

8. 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?

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

12. As seen from the continental United States, the Big and Little Dipper

d. are in the north circumpolar zone throughout the year

6. From a city in the U.S., where in the sky would you look to see a star that is not turning with the motion of the sky in the course of a night?

d. at the north celestial pole

4. The south celestial pole and the north celestial pole lie in the sky directly above

d. the Earth's axis

17. 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?

d. the Moon