Astronomy 1010-H
Planetary Astronomy
Fall_2015
Day-5
Course Announcements
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Smartworks Chapter 1: Due Fri. (Sep. 4)
Grades will be downloaded on Saturday.
Read Chapter 2.2, 2.3, 2.4
How is the lunar observing going?
How is the sunset/sunrise observing going?
Next week:
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Dark Night Observing on Tues. 9/8 & Thur. 9/10
Thurs. 9-3: D2Y Meeting; watch for signs.
Thurs. 9-3: “1st Thursday Art Walk” downtown, 5pm
Sat. 9-5: Football vs Mercer, 4pm; Tailgate at 1pm
Spacecraft Reports
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Chantal – New Horizons
Scientist I’d Like to Meet:
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Einstein – 27.5
Hawking – 9
DeGrasse Tyson – 9
Bill Nye – 7
Newton – 3
Tesla – 4.5
Edison – 4
Freud – 3
M. Curie – 3
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“Dr. Smith”
“Newton Einstein”
“Jimmy Neutron” (Mr. West)
 Sagan
 Darwin
 Galileo
 Schrödinger
 Bohr
 Da Vinci
 Konrad Zuse
 Charles Sanders Peirce
 Robert Hooke
 Rosalind Franklin
 Ben Franklin
 Annie Jump Cannon
Definitions & Terms -1
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Math: A useful tool for investigating science and torturing
students.
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Asterism: A pattern of stars that appears to form a
familiar object. It may contain stars from more than one
constellation, or be a small piece of a single constellation
(example – the Big Dipper) .
 Science discovers patterns in nature.
 Mathematics is the language of patterns.
 Most phenomena work regularly and
predictably.
Constellations – the 88 semirectangular regions that make up the sky
 Northern constellations have Latinized Greek-
mythology names:
 Orion, Cygnus, Leo, Ursa Major, Canis Major,
Canis Minor
 Southern constellations have Latin names:
 Telescopium, Sextans, Pyxsis
An Important Assumption
 The cosmological principle: “There is nothing
special about our place in the universe.”
 On one level:
 Our view from the Earth is not special or
unique.
 Distant objects should be like nearby ones
which we can study in detail.
 On another level:
 Matter and energy obey the same physical laws
everywhere.
To make sense of what we see:
The Cosmological Principal
Colored Card Question:
Principles
Which of these is a restatement of the
cosmological principle?
A. The universe is the same everywhere.
B. The same rules work everywhere in the
universe.
C. There are no phenomena remaining to be
discovered.
MATH TOOLS
MATH TOOLS 1.1
 Mathematics works when used to describe
nature and its patterns.
 Basic Tools:
• Scientific Notation: handling large or small
numbers
• Ratios: comparing
• Geometry
• Algebra: representation
• Proportionality: understanding the relationships
between quantities.
MATH TOOLS 1.2
 Graphs are used to
represent
relationships
between quantities.
 Can be linear or
nonlinear.
 For linear, the slope
is the change of the
vertical axis divided
by the change of the
horizontal axis.
Dealing with very large and
small numbers
Scientific Notation
4,500,000,000,000,000 = 4.5x1015
0.000000000000000028 = 2.8x10-17
On calculators…look for the “EXP” key
or the “EE” key
Common Prefixes
centi = 0.01 = 10-2 (c)
milli = 0.001 = 10-3 (m)
micro = 0.000001 = 10-6 (m)
nano = 0.000000001 = 10-9 (n)
kilo = 1,000 = 103 (k)
mega = 1,000,000 = 106 (M)
giga = 1,000,000,000 = 109 (G)
tera = 1,000,000,000,000 = 1012 (T)
Time to Re-Calibrate
Stuff in Chapter 2
Coordinates
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Position
Daily Motion (spin of Earth on its axis)
Visibility of the sky
Year Motion (Earth orbits the Sun)
Seasons (tilt of the Earth’s axis)
Precession of the equinoxes
Motion and phases of the Moon
Eclipses