Download Study guide for Tools of Astronomy

Study guide for Tools of Astronomy – Galaxies test
KNOW VOCABULARY FOR BOTH TOPICS!!!
(Astronomy, Space, Electromagnetic Spectrum, Optical Telescopes, Non-optical telescopes,
Refracting telescopes, Reflecting telescopes, Radio telescopes, Observatory, Spectrograph,
Galaxy, Big Bang, Elliptical galaxy, Spiral galaxy, Irregular galaxy, Light Year, Red shift, Blue shift,
Doppler Effect, Milky Way)
Know your telescope types
Optical – 2 types
Refracting – uses convex lenses which cause the light rays to bend, can cause
“chromatic aberrations” which cause the image to be blurry. Galileo first used a
refracting telescope to view the night sky in 1609
Reflecting - uses a concave mirror to reflect the received starlight to the eyepiece
resulting in a much smaller telescope that produces much clearer images. The reflecting
telescope was invented by Isaac Newton in 1669.
Non-optical telescopes view all portions of the EM spectrum except for visible light portion
(radio, microwave, infrared, ultraviolet, x-ray, and gamma ray)
Know the arrangement of the EM spectrum, by wavelength
Know what the Doppler effect is and how it is used by astronomers (blue shift, red shift) and what the
significance is of being able to detect those shifts in light.
Know the name of the theory that describes the formation of the universe.
Know what the current evidence suggests about our universe and what it is doing (shrinking, staying the
same, getting bigger)
Know what a galaxy is and the 3 types that we discussed, to include what their shapes are.
Know where our solar system is within the galaxy (about 2/3 from the center on one of the spiral arms)
Know what a light year is and how/why it is used by astronomers
Know what makes the Hubble Telescope so good as compared to other ground-based optical telescopes