astronomy 1001; test 1

Consider a time when Mars is in the middle of one of its periods of apparent retrograde motion. During this time, Mars appears _____ in our night sky and crosses the meridian around _____

brightest, midnight

The moon must be _____ for a lunar eclipse

full

Nearby objects have a ____ parallax; distant objects have a ____ parallax

large, small

The distance light travels in one year

light year

Which of the following would you expect to have seasons more like earth? -Jupiter (tilt=3.1) -Mars (tilt=25.2) Uranus (tilt=97.9)

mars

During the waning gibbous phase, how much of the illuminated moon can we see?

more than half

Elipses occur when the line of nodes... and we have a... or a ...

points toward the sun, full moon, new moon

The apparent west-to-eat motion (over the course of many nights) of an object relative to the stationary background stars

prograde motion

If a star rises at 7:36 one night, when will it rise the next night?

slightly earlier; around 4 minutes

You look to the east and see a solar eclipse rising above the horizon. What time of day is it?

sunrise

The amount of sunlight at a given location changes over the year depending on

where you are located on the Earth

The Earth is closer to the sun in the

winter than it is in the summer

One kilometer equals how many miles?

0.62 miles

What are the phases of the moon?

1. New Moon 2. Waxing Crescent 3. First Quarter 4. Waxing Gibbous 5. Full Moon 6. Waning Gibbous 7. Third Quarter 8. Waning Crescent

What are the five types of eclipses?

1. Total Lunar 2. Partial Lunar 3. Total Solar 4. Partial Solar 5. Annual Solar

One meter equals how many centimeters?

100 centimeters

How many meters are in one kilometer?

1000 meters

One meter equals how many millimeters?

1000 millimeters

Every month, a constellation rises

2 hours earlier

How many hours long is a sidereal day?

23 hours and 56 minutes

How many hours long is a solar day?

24 hours

The cycle of the moon is how many days long?

29.5

An axis tilt of ___ would give basically no seasons at all.

3.1 (Jupiter)

One meter equals how many feet?

3.28 feet

How many seconds are in one hour?

3600

closest to the sun; Jan

Perihelion

Star cluster; not a constellation; near Taurus

Pleiades

The earth's axis always points toward

Polaris

The Big Dipper points you to

Polaris (the North Star)

The solar system model based on Greek ideals; Earth is at the center and does not move; everything in the sky goes around the sun

Ptolemy's Model

World's best naked eye astronomer; made extremely accurate observations without a telescope; used SN 1572 to show that the heavens change

Tycho Brahe

One evening at midnight, you observe Leo high in the southern sky. Virgo is to the east and Cancer is to the west. One month from now which constellation will be high in the sky at midnight?

Virgo

Why does the moon go through phases?

We see only part of the illuminated face of the moon depending on it position relative to Earth and the sun

Stellar parallax occurs because

We view nearby stars from different positions in Earth's orbit at different times of year

The constellations include how many rectangular regions in the sky?

88

One light year equals

9.46x10^12 (trillion) km 63,000 AU

One AU equals?

93 million miles 150 million km 8.3 light minutes

An axis tilt of _____ would give extreme seasons.

97.9 (Uranus)

farthest from the sun; July 5

Aphelion

The average distance between the sun and the earth

Astronomical Unit

The date of the winter solstice is

December 21

When we see Saturn going through a period of apparent retrograde motion, it means

Earth is passing Saturn in its orbit, with both planets on the same side of the Sun

What effect does mass have on something orbiting the sun?

It ain't got none

Created a theoretical model to explain planetary motion

Johannes Kepler

The date of the summer solstice is

June 21

The date of the vernal/spring equinox is

March 21

What are the names of the planets?

Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune

We live in the

Milkyway Galaxy

Are all eclipses equal?

NOOOOOOOOOOOOO

Developed details of a heliocentric model in which Earth and other planets orbit the sun

Nicolaus Coperincus

Are all of the stars in a constellation physically connected?

No

Ptolemy's model treated each planet independently; no single law governing the motion of all planets; this problem is know as

Occam's Razor

The date of the autumnal equinox is

September 21

brightest star in the sky

Sirius

What is the place that experiences the smallest amount of variation in the amount of sunlight over a year?

The Equator

A sidereal day is how long it takes for

a star to return to the same place in the sky

You walk outside at sunset and see the moon on your meridian. What is the phase of the moon?

first quarter

Stars that appear to move in a circle around either the North or South pole without rising or setting

circumpolar stars

Arrangement of stars

constellations

During the day, stars

continue moving just as they were at night

Earth spins ________ and revolves around the sun ________

counterclockwise, counterclockwise

Kepler's Third Law states that the square of the orbital period of a planet is directly proportional to the ... of its orbit

cube of the semi-major axis

There are different seasons in

different locations

In general, the stars, planets, the sun, and the moon rise in the _____ and set in the _____

east, west

An astronomical event that occurs when one celestial body is temporarily obscured by either another object or that object's shadow

eclipse

Kepler's First Law states that the orbit of every planet is an ______; with the ______ at one of the two foci.

ellipse, Sun

Kepler's Second Law states that a line joining a planet and the Sun sweeps out

equal areas during equal intervals of time

During the waxing crescent phase, how much of the moon's surface is illuminated?

exactly half

How much of the moon's surface is illuminated at any time?

exactly half

According to Kepler's second law, a planet with an orbit would

experience very little change in orbital speed over the course of a year

Where is the sun during the summer?

high in the sky; more hours of direct sunlight

As you move from the equator toward either pole the number of circumpolar stars

increases

The largest planet is

jupiter

The apparent east-to-west motion of an object relative to the stationary background stars

retrograde motion

A sidereal day depends on

rotation

A solar day depends on

rotation and revolution

Over the course of one day, the sun, moon, planets, and stars all move because

the earth's rotation makes everything appear to move across the sky

Moonlight comes from

the sun

A solar day is how long it takes for

the sun to return to the same place in the sky

What affects seasons?

the tilt of the Earth's axis

An eclipse can be

two stars, a star and a planet, a planet and a moon, a moon and a star, etc.