constellations and night sky
Pleiades
"electra" trademark for suburu cars 6 stars- 6 sistersr a little smear that aldebaraux follows
Beta Sirius
"the pup' sirius's famous companion star Cant see with naked eye
Orion Nebula
...
Regulus
...
zenith
1. The highest point; the peak. 2. The point in the sky directly above the observer.
why were people more educated about the night sky 150 yrs ago?
1. they had nothing to do at night. no radios, computers, tv. Stargazing was entertainment 2. no light pollution
1 AU
100,000,000 MILES
Opiuchus
13th zodiacal sign serpent handler not an actual zodiacal sign
how far apart are castor and pollux?
18 light years
speed of light
186,000 mi/sec
1 unit on apparent magnitude scale
2.5x brighter
how may galaxies are believed to be in the universe
200 billion
how far is vega from earth
25 light yeras
alpha centauri distance
4.2 light years
how may of these are modern constellations
40
how many of thesee are ancient constellations?
48
stars
6000 can be seen from night sky about 3,000 from each side of the hemisphere
how many constellations?
88
polaris
A creamy-white supergiant star that is a Cepeid variable in the Ursa Minor Constellation located in the Northern Hemisphere.
what is so unusual about the star ALBIREO
Albireo is the "cub scout" star it is part of the constellation CYGNUS the swan. it is a Double Star with contrasting colors (one blue/one yellow)
norhhern triangle
Altair Vega Deneb
Stars in Orion
Betelgeuse and Bellatrix (gamma orionus) Saiph and Rigel = arms and legs Orion Nebula Alnitak= at the belt ALDEBERON
describe Betelgeuse
Betelgeuse eis a SUPER RED GIANT it is less than 10 million years old- making it a very young star it is 450 light years away it is located on the left side of Orion's belt and it is HUGE---if earth was the size of a period it would be the diameter of a building. THE BIGGEST THING you can see!
Sirius
Brightest star in the night sky. The "dog" star. Actually a binary star. located in Canis Major
which constellation does Sirius belong to?
Canis major
name the only husband and wife team in the night sky
Cassiopeia and King Cepheus
what two stars are the heads of thhe twins?
Castor and Pollux are the two heads of tthe Gemini twins Castor is whitish in color while Pollux is orange/yellow
Orion
Contains: -betelgeuse -bellatrix -rigel -aldebaran -saiph orion nebula
variable star
Delta Cephae was the first a star that is dying it brightens and dims as it contracts swells and gets brighter now there are over 1,000 found
The pointer stars
Dubhe and Merak located on the big dipper (ursa major) they point to Polaris, the north star (on Ursa minor)
pointer stars
Dubhe and Merak both parts of the the big dipper (ursa major) they point to the the pole star polaris. polaris is the main star in the Ursa minor constellation
name the two poinnter stars. where are they and what are they pointing to
Dubhe and Merak are the pointer stars located in the big dipper/ursa major. They point at Polaris, the north star, located on the little dipper/ursa minor
Delta Cepheus
First Variable star----> now called cepheid variables star that is dying pulses-- gets super bright and then dims
describe the star brrightness scale that was established by the greek astronomer Hipparchus
Hipparcus was an early 200 BC astronomer who created the apparent magnitude (brightness) scale we stille use today. his scale measured how brighht stars looked from earth on a scale of 1-6. 1 being the brightest and 6 being about tthe naked eye limit. we have since adjusted the scale bc it was too small and developed the absolute magnitude scale that measures the true brightness of stars
the largest constellation
Hydra the water snake
Andromeda galaxy
M31 fuzzy patch in the sky most distance and biggest thing you will see with naked eye 2.5 million light years away.
Ursa Major
MIZAR AL COR ALKAID
can u buy and name a star?
NO its bullshit! only the IAU can recognize the names of stars officially
betelgeuse
Red supergiant star in the Orion Constellation located in the Northern Hemisphere. The biggest star in our galaxy
Andromeda
Shaped like a curved V the fussy patch to the left is the Andromeda Galaxy daughter of Cassipeia
what star is the brighhtest as seen from earth? what star is truly the brightest?
Siriuus= sirius is the brightest as seen from earth. m=-1.5 it is 9 light years away Rigel= (part of Orion's belt) it is truly the brightest star. it is 900 light years away- if it was as close as sirius it would be brighhter than the moon
What direction to stars move?
Stars move around the center of the galaxy CLOCKWISE
in that Vega points one of its poles at the sun, that makes the sun its..
The sun is vega's pole star
alpha lyrae
Vega (α Lyr, α Lyrae, Alpha Lyrae) is the brightest star in the constellation Lyra, the fifth brightest star in the night sky and the second brightest star in the northern celestial hemisphere, after Arcturus. It also is 2 times as big as the sun
Cassiopeia
W shaped Married to King Cepheus mom of andromeda put into the sky for her vanity and bragging about her beauty queen of ethiopia
asterisms
a group of stars that make an image that is not on the official list of constellations not constellations most are the ones you can easily see: ex. big dipper and little dipper----they actually belong to Ursa Major and Ursa Minor
first 4 letters of greek alphabet
alpha beta gamma delta
closest star
alpha centauri
Greek letters designate the brightness of a constellation
alpha- brightest beta- second brightest gamma-- third brightest delta etc... if you are Alpha Ursa Major you are brightor than Gamma Ursa Major
what is orbiting pollux?
an exoplanet (2.9x as massive as jupiter)
closest galaxy
andromeda galaxy
in what language do star names come from?
arabic
oldest star
arcturus
what is the seconod rightest star in the noorthern hemisphere
arcturus
light pollution
artificial light that hinders astronomical observations.
Big dipper
asterism constellation= ursa major
north star
at the moment, POLARIS thuban was the north star before polaris changes about every 28,000 years
what people created astrology
babylonians
zodiacal constellations
background of the sun's movement the ecliptic- the apparent path of the sun seems like the sun is circling the earth the month you are born determines your sign because that where the sun was at in the ecliptic when you are born, the zodiacal constellation that was behind the sun is your sign your birthday constellation can only be seen 6 months later
what might be the reason people do believe horoscopes
bc they project themselves into them- therefore the horoscopes are never wrong
circumpolar constellations and asterisms
because certain stars are so close to the north star, they are always in the night sky star seen at the pole are always seen (not seasonal like winter or summer onstellations)
largest star
betelgeuse
mizar and Al Cor
double star system right above Alkaid. al cor-= " the rider" Mizar= "the horse" bigger dot= Mizar= brighter
Hipparchus
early 200 BC astronomer who created the apparent magnitude (brightness) scale we still use a modified version of his scale today apparent brightness: how bright a star looks from earth. (m) scale goes from 1 to 6 1= brightest. 6= about the naked eye limit he gave values to many of the stars. today, we have adjusted and modified his values because his scale was TOO small sun m=-26 full moon m=-12 polaris m=2.5 Sirius m=-1.5 every whole unit = 2.5x brighter than previous 2.5^5= 100 2.5^4= 40 2.5^3 = 15 2.5^2= 6
in what direcction do star and star groups rise
east they set in the west
how often do the 5 inner planets "bunch up"
evvery few years
Cygnus the swan
flies down the milky way contains the northern cross contains Albiero - Double star -"the cub scout" -the two stars are contrasting colors--blue and yellow
Callisto
had an affair with zeus. she was turned into abear and shot by her own son who was a great hunter
VV Cephei
huge cant really be seen bc of their distance and gas/dust
Cepheus
husband of Cassipeia shaped like an upside down house next to Draco and Cassiopeia Delta Cepheus Mu Cephei VV Cephei
largest constellation
hydra the snake
what is unusual about the path of arcturus
it doesnt movve counter clockwise it dives down and around. scientists think its orbit is because it was originally part of a dwarf galaxy that the milkyway absorbed
what is unusual about the age of arcturus?
it is the OLDEST thing we will see with the naked eye. it is 10-12 billion years old it is 36 light years away
in what language do most constellation names come from
latin
Gemini constellation protects...
looks over sailors at sea
What is Vegas apparent magnitude
m=0 it is the sky's reference point
Polaris is NOT THE BRIGHTEST STAR
m=2 there are 40/50 brighter stars Sirius is 40x brighter
star brightness
measured by: 1. distance from earth 2. size 3. temperature stars dont reflect light they produce light (no albedo)
Orion's belt stars
minaka, alnilam, Alnitak ALNITAK =directly below Betelgeuse!!!
only 36 stars have proper names
most names come from Arabic most stars have names like: HDE12309 most stars have names that begin with a greek letter!
surverys show that whaht percentage of americans actually believe thaht planets can influence us
nearly half
barnard star
next closest star after Alpha Centauri ~5 light yrs away
do all stars look the same?
no! you can tell: -diff colors -diff brightness -diff distances from each other there is a tremendous range of distance. ancients used to think they were all the same distance away and that all stars were embedde d on a crystal sphere that went around earth and earth was the center of the earth. stars can be all colors of the rainbow EXCEPT GREEN
you can see about 6,000 stars with the naked eye; how manyy of them have traditional names?
only 3 dozen
what will vega become again with regard to earth in 12,000 yrs
our pole star
Aldebaraux
red/orang star near Orion's bow
absolute brightest star
rigel
ALdeberon
right above Bellatrix!
apparent brightest star
sirius
list 3 factors that would cause one star to be brighter than another star
size temperature distance from earth
smallest constellation
southern cross
spica
speed to spica blue/white part of Virgo
where could you see all of the constellations?
standing on the equator
names
stars= arabic constellations=latin
alkaid
tail ened of the big dipper means "leader" in arabic low on the horizon
ecliptic
the apparent path of the sun (what we see)
why is the winter sky darker than the summer sky
the atmosphere has less pollution and is clearer during the winter because it is dry ---no humidity to fog up the night sky winter sky is darker than summer sky because you are looking outinto the sky. in the summer, you are looking toward into the galaxy and the billions of stars are washing out hte sky
what would you expect the stars with traditional names to be like?
the brightest the dimmer stars are named using numbers.
what "honor" will vega hold in 200,000 years?
the brightest star in the sky
precession
the movement of the earth relative to the night sky creates different poles in the sky creates different north stars (thuban then Polaris) about every 28,000 years
polaris
the north star m=2.02 right tover the north pole NOT the brightest star beginging to die- it pulses about 2,000 light years away
what is the catasterismi?
the oldest known compilation of ancient greek star myths
what do both ursa major and ursa minor pivot around?
the pole star- the northern celestial pole
absolute magnitude
the true brightness of a star M scientists artificially place stars on an imaginary plane in space and give them their M value this imaginary line is the 10 parsecs line= 36 light years away
Stars swell before they die
their contractions make them super bright
constellations
these stars arent together for any special places Images that humans project into the sky Human grouping of stars into a pattern there are 88 constellations -40 modern -48 ancient every star visible to the naked eye is in one and only one constellation constellation names= latin constellations can be used to help map the sky 48 ancient constellations: -all northern hemisphere stars. the northern hemisphere is where man started writing. the greeks and romans were the ones writing and grouping the stars 40 modern constellations: -southern hemisphere constellations. -James cook. when the english went to australia he saw the new southern hemisphere stars and started putting new images up their -consist mostly of animals found down there. ex. peacock most are animals or monsters or the things they used to find the stars (telescope, sexton, compass, boat...) not all are the same size in 1928 the IAU finalized the list of constellations for good. no more can be added. there is a total of 88
what was Edison's main purpose for inventing the lightbulb?
to work a lot longer and be more productive
which planet is the only one named after a greek god
uranus
Mu Cephei
very dim from earth 2,000 light years away Huge
explain why you are the zodiacal sign that you are
when i was born, it looked like the sun was in the zodiacal constellation Aquarius. althouugh, you will not actually be able to see you zodiacal constellation until 6 months after your birthday
Naked eye astronomy
you can see 2-3,000 stars from one side of the earth --> with naked eye, you can only see about 6,000 stars total most stars arent visible to naked eye southern hemisphere stars are different from northern hemisphere stars up until 150 yrs ago, people were more intimate with the night sky. not only educated people but EVERYONE.