Download REVIEW FOR ASTRONOMY FINAL EXAM

REVIEW FOR ASTRONOMY FINAL EXAM
Exam Time: Wednesday Jan. 17th for Pd. 5
Friday, Jan. 19th for Pd. 3
Be sure to bring your planisphere and a calculator to the exam!!!
1. Describe the daily and yearly pattern of motions of the Sun.
2. Use a chart/graph to determine altitude of the Sun in the sky, and calculate rising and
setting times, and number of daylight hours.
3. Explain the difference between rotation and revolution.
4. Describe the rotation and revolution for the Sun, Moon, and Earth.
5. Describe the changes in the Moon phases visible from the Earth, and be able to identify
them using the terms gibbous, crescent, waxing, and waning. Why do the phases change?
When does a full moon rise and set? When does a new moon rise and set?
6. Draw a diagram AND explain why we have seasons.
7. When can an eclipse happen? What are the relative locations of the Sun, earth, and Moon
for either a solar eclipse, or a lunar eclipse?
8. Is astronomy or astrology a science?
9. Be able to use a star wheel (aka planisphere) to predict when certain stars will be visible at
different times of night, as well as during different times of year.
10. Describe the circular or elliptical orbit of the Earth around the sun and explain any effect
this has on the seasons and the extent of this effect.
11. How would the Earth – Sun system have to be different in order to have no seasons on
Earth?
12. Your fist, extended at arm’s length, “fits” 38 times around a circle. What is its angular size?
Assume that there are 360 degrees in a circle.
13. If the North Star (Polaris) is on your horizon, where are you located? If the North Star is at
your zenith, where are you?
14. Why is Polaris significant?
15. Be able to use Azimuth and Altitude for measuring the location of objects in the sky.
16. List several constellations we can see from New Jersey.
17. Describe what is meant by the “celestial sphere.”
18. Who was Messier, and what did he catalog?
19. What does NGC indicate?
20. What is a nebula?
21. How do we know the difference between a star and a planet if looking at them in the night
sky? What is the idea of right ascension and declination? How to the correspond to
longitude and latitude?
22. Relative sizes and distances of the sun, moon, and the Earth.
23. Define the following terms:
zenith –
vernal or spring equinox –
summer solstice –
horizon autumnal equinox –
winter solstice -
24. Heliocentric vs. Geocentric World views: What evidence supported each one during its
time, and who helped changed our world view from one to the other.
25. How does the appearance of a planet in the sky differ from a star?
26. Describe the geocentric vs. heliocentric controversy.
27. Describe the difference in appearance and in alignment for solar and lunar eclipses.
28. Describe the formation of the universe according to the Big Bang Theory. How long ago
did it occur?
29. What evidence is there supporting the idea of the Big Bang and that the universe is
expanding?
30. What is the Doppler effect? How does it tell us that the universe is expanding?
31. Redshifts vs. blueshifts.
32. Red vs. blue radiation/light. Which is higher in energy? Longer in wavelength? Highest
frequency aka pitch? Closest to infrared radiation? Closest to ultraviolet radiation?
33. Measuring distance using radar vs. parallax?
34. How do we know the universe is expanding?
35. What is the significance of fusion, and where does it occur in the sun?
36. How long does it take light to reach the earth from the Sun?
37. Sunspots and what they tell us. Why are CME’s so dangerous to Earth and humans?
38. What are the two major categories of planets? What evidence do they provide regarding
the formation of the solar system?
39. Describe the formation of the solar system and how long ago it occurred.
40. What evidence supports that the solar system is significantly younger than the universe?
How do we know it has gone through at least one star cycle, if not two, before forming?
41. What other objects populate our solar system?
42. What causes a star to shine?
43. What can we learn from a Hertzsprung-Russell diagram?
44. Know the general lifecycle of a star from nebula, to main stage star, to red giant, to white
dwarf.
45. Explain the difference among: white dwarf, neutron star, black holes. What do they have
in common?
46. Know the contributions of the following people:
Aristotle
Galileo
Kepler
Copernicus
Brahe
Hubble
Messier
Penzias & Wilson
47. Gravity – what is it, and how does it affect objects in our solar system?
48. Kepler’s relationship between the distance to a planet and its orbital period.
49. Moons of Jupiter – Why are they significant?
Ptolemy
50. How does gravity predict the speed (velocity) of a planet if it is further away from the sun?
51. What is the mathematical relationship between distance and amount of gravity?
52. Parallax – How it is used in measurement of stars. What is it?
53. Relative sizes and distances of objects in the solar system.