Astronomy test 1
Which of these is not a constellation: Ursa Major, Scorpius, Betelgeuse, Centaur
Betelgeuse
What is the maximum length of totality for a lunar eclipse?
A) 1 hour 47 minutes
1 arcsecond is equal to
A) 1/3,600°
The number 50,000 is written in powers-of-ten notation as
A) 5 × 10^4
In the southern hemisphere, day and night are of equal duration on about
A) March 21.
A solar eclipse occurs on the Earth when the
A) Moon casts a shadow on the Earth
The Crab nebula is found in this constellation:
A) Taurus
The building of Sun dials is made possible by the equation of time also known as
A) the analemma
Precession is
A) the slow coning motion of the spin axis of the Earth, similar to that of a spinning top.
The bright stars Vega, Deneb, and Altair form
A) the summer triangle.
Which of these stars does not belong neither to the Summer triangle nor to the Winter triangle: Procyon, Sirius, Alberio, Altair, Vega
Alberio
The number of degrees in a semicircle is
B) 180
One synodic month is longer than one sidereal month by about
B) 2.2 days
The brightest star in the heavens is
B) Sirius
At what average speed does the Sun appear to move across our sky with respect to the stars in order to move through one full circle in one year?
B) about 1° per day
As the Moon orbits the Earth, we say the Moon moves
B) eastward
A lunar eclipse is caused by
B) the Moon passing into the shadow of the Earth
The Moon's angular diameter in our sky is measured to be 0.5°. From this, we can find
B) the diameter of the Moon in kilometers if we know the Moon's distance.
From a location in the northern hemisphere, the pole star always appears at an angle above the northern horizon equal to
B) the latitude of the location.
1 AU or 1 astronomical unit is defined as
B) the mean distance between the Sun and the Earth.
From any location on Earth, the zenith defines a direction
B) vertically above an observer.
How many centimeters is a meter?
C) 100
How many constellations does the zodiac contain?
C) 13
In this age of space exploration, Man has now traveled to the Moon. By how many orders of magnitude (powers of ten) was this journey greater than that of Columbus when he traveled from the Old World to the Americas?
C) 2 orders of magnitude or 10^2
The celestial sphere is divided into this many constellation regions:
C) 88
The nearest star beyond our Sun is
C) Alpha -Centauris
The person who introduced the leap year into our calendar was
C) Julius Caesar
The person who introduced the leap year into our calendar was
C) Julius Caesar.
What is the cause of an annular eclipse?
C) The Moon's position in its orbit is near apogee, its farthest point from Earth.
What point is always directly over your head, no matter where on the Earth you go?
C) The zenith
The plane of the ecliptic intersects the celestial equator...
C) at two points, the vernal and autumnal equinoxe
A light-year is a measure of
C) distance
The equinoxes are located at the intersections of the
C) ecliptic and the celestial equator.
The tilt angle of the Earth's spin axis to the direction perpendicular to the ecliptic (known as the ecliptic pole)
C) is 23.5° and fixed.
The phase of the Moon at the time of solar eclipse
C) will be new
Which one of the following is not a zodiac constellation: Pisces, Cancer, Ophiuchus, Cygnus
Cygnus
By what approximate factor, in powers-of-ten notation, is a human being (height about 2 m) larger than the nucleus of a hydrogen atom, or proton (diameter about 10 -15 m)?
D) 2 × 10^15
What is the approximate inclination of the Moon's orbit to the ecliptic plane?
D) 5°
The Arctic Circle, above which the Sun can be seen for a full 24 hours on at least one day of the year, is a line around Earth at what latitude?
D) 66.5° N
In modern astronomy, the constellations are
D) 88 non-overlapping sky regions, covering the whole sky.
During the middle of March, the Sun appears to move through
D) Capricorn
Polaris is the name for the bright star almost directly in line with the north polar axis of Earth. What is the name of the bright star almost directly in line with the south polar axis of Earth?
D) There is no bright star almost directly in line with Earth's south polar axis.
The constellation whose stars are used as pointers to the north celestial pole in the northern hemisphere at this time in history is
D) Ursa Major, the Big Dipper.
The length of Earth's year at the present time is
D) approximately 365&1/4 days.
About how many stars could a galaxy contain?
D) billions
The Sun's apparent path across our sky against the background stars (which would be seen if the sunlit sky were not light) is known as the
D) ecliptic.
In the system of celestial coordinates that matches latitude and longitude on the Earth, which is the coordinate that is equivalent to longitude?
D) right ascension
Leap-year corrections in the calendar are necessary in order to account for
D) the fact that one year is not exactly 365 days.
The ecliptic can be defined as...
D) the path traced out by the Sun in our sky over one year against the background stars.
