Starry Starry Night Vocabulary Flashcards
What is a day?
The measurement of a day is the time it takes a planet to rotate once on its axis. Earth rotates once every 23 hours 56 miniutes.
What is the Celestial Sphere?
It is not noticible with the naked eye. It is useful to think of the stars as “painted” on the interior wall of a large sphere with Earth in the middle.
What is a month?
The time it takes for the moon to revolve once around the Earth. It takes 29.5 days.
What is the North Celestial Pole?
The point at which the sky seems to rotate around.
What is the Ecliptic?
It is the apparent path of the Sun across the sky.
What is a Zenith?
A point directly overhead of the observer.
What is the Celestial Meridian?
An imaginary line through the sky from south to north and through the observer’s zenith. It divides the sky into two parts.
What is the celestial equator?
The Earth’s equator projected into space. This seperates the sky into a northen and southern hemisphere.
What is the horizon?
The apparent meeting of the sky and Earth. The horizon line way off in the distance marks the limit of a point of view.
