Richard 1

Question 1

Describe the crescent moon

Answer 1

always close to the horizon at sunrise or sunset

Question 2

Describe the full moon

Answer 2

rises as the sun sets, high in the sky at midnight.
can only be seen at night, not during the day

Question 3

What proves the moon orbits earth?

Answer 3

phases

Question 4

why can we only see one side of the moon?

Answer 4

• tidally locked
• moon turns on its axis at the same speed it orbits the earth, so we only see one side

Question 5

what is the closest star to the earth?

Answer 5

alpha centauri

Question 6

the higher the magnitude of a star…?

Answer 6

the dimmer the star

Question 7

stars to the left are visible in _________, stars to the right are visible in ________

Answer 7

june, december

Question 8

describe the julian calendar

Answer 8

got out of sync with the seasons and so 46 BCE was 445 days long

Question 9

describe the gregorian calendar

Answer 9

got rid of the leap year system and accidentally skipped ahead 10 days

Question 10

describe lunisolar calendars

Answer 10

follows the months of the moon and so every three years we need an extra month

Question 11

describe the constellation location in the sky every night

Answer 11

every night they start a little lower in the sky than the previous night

Question 12

what is chromatic abberation

Answer 12

when glass bends different light colours to different degrees.
- therefore refractor telescopes have this issue

Question 13

true or false, reflector telescopes use straight mirrors

Answer 13

false, they use curved mirrors

Question 14

the atmosphere limits resolution to?

Answer 14

1 arc second

Question 15

what is the max resolution of the human eye?

Answer 15

30 arc seconds

Question 16

what are the biggest refractor telescopes in the world?

Answer 16

keck telescopes, with a 10m segmented mirror

Question 17

why can’t we see the night sky during the day?

Answer 17

earths atmosphere scatters the light

Question 18

which are the telescopic planets?

Answer 18

uranus and neptune

Question 19

the parallax is ______ the total distance the star moves in the sky because?

Answer 19

half
because it is set relative to the radius (1/2 baseline) not the diameter (1 baseline)

Question 20

why do we have to take proper motion into account during stellar parallax?

Answer 20

because proper motion is larger than the parallax we are measuring

Question 21

how hot is the sun?

Answer 21

5780 Kelvin

Question 22

why can’t we see green stars?

Answer 22

because the green band is narrow and the light is a mix of previous colours

Question 23

objects under _____ degrees do not glow in ________ light, but do in _______ light

Answer 23

300, visible, infrared
- so peak wavelength is out of the visible spectrum but still detectable by our instruments

Question 24

the milky way is __________ light years across

Answer 24

100,000

Question 25

knowing distance to nearby stars allows us to figure out?

Answer 25

intrinsic light output

Question 26

describe the features of the transit of venus

Answer 26

black dot on sun seen in pairs once every 100 years venus is in 'new' phase

Question 27

how often does retrograde motion of venus and mars happen?

Answer 27

venus: once every 18 months mars: once every two years

Question 28

what do individual radio telescopes have low resolution?

Answer 28

long wavelength of radio waves

Question 29

what does the radio image of the centre of the milky way show?

Answer 29

the radio emission of the surrounding gas of the black hole, not the black hole itself

Question 30

true or false, gamma and X rays are made during quiet events

Answer 30

false, they are made during extreme events, and so we cannot see most stars with an x ray telescope

Question 31

what are nebulae?

Answer 31

cold gas clouds which can be the beginning of star formation or the end of a stars life.