Download Study Guide for 1ST Astronomy Exam

Study Guide for 1ST Astronomy Exam: Summer 2013
The successful student will be able to…
Unit 1: Our Planetary Neighborhood
 Write the planets in order of increasing distance from the Sun,
 Using a ratio determine how much larger one object is compared to another given their diameters,
 Convert AU into kilometers and kilometers into AU.
Unit 2: Beyond the Solar System
 Define a galaxy giving a representative diameter in light years,
 List the hierarchical structures of the universe in order of increasing size,
 Define a light year and convert light-years into kilometers and kilometers into light-years.
 Using a proportion, calculate how big an object would be given the model size of another object. e.g. “If the Earth were the
size of a softball (diameter = 8 cm, how big would the Milky Way galaxy be?”,
Unit 3: Astronomical Numbers
 Convert between m and km,
 Work in scientific notation,
 Identify astronomical numbers from a list of such numbers (e.g. the page in the text with Physical and Astronomical
Constants and Useful Formulas
Unit 5: The Night Sky and Dr. Fred’s Five Rules
 Draw and label the celestial sphere for an observer at any latitude,
 Draw the apparent motion of stars as seen by any observer looking North, East, South or West,
 Define a constellation and distinguish it from an asterism,
 Use celestial coordinates of Right Ascension and Declination appropriately in written work and problem solving,
 Use the simplified celestial sphere diagram to determine the visibility of an object and its maximum altitude, given its
declination at any latitude on the Earth,
 Use the fact that the Earth rotates 15 degrees per hour to calculate time periods between celestial events.
Unit 6: The Year
 Describe in words and using the Whole Sky Map, developed in class, the annual motion of the Sun eastward through the stars
along the ecliptic defining and identifying the special points on the ecliptic (solstices and equinoxes),
 Correctly characterize the maximum and minimum declination of the Sun with the tilt of the Earth’s axis,
 Define precession,
 Identify precession as the cause for Polaris not always being the “North Star”,
 Describe quantitatively the apparent daily motion of the Sun on an equinox or solstice from any latitude (where sun rise
occurs, maximum altitude of the Sun, where sun set occurs, and the length of daylight) using the simplified celestial sphere
diagram,
 Calculate the maximum altitude of the Sun at any location and time of year using te 2-D Local Horizon Map.
 Predict where the Sun will be on the Whole Sky Map some number of months after its current position on the ecliptic.
Unit 7: The Day
 Describe the location of sunrise and sunset along the horizon for any given day of the year. (Figure 7.1)
 Describe how the maximum altitude of the Sun depends on day of the year. Fig 7.1)
 Explain why the solar day is different from the sidereal day. (Fig 7.2)
 Describe how day length varies depending on whether the Sun is above, on, or below the celestial equator.
Unit 8: The Lunar Cycles
 Describe the daily and monthly apparent motion of the Moon and its relationship to the Zodiac.
 Predict where the Moon will be on the Whole Sky Map some number of weeks after its current position on the ecliptic.
 Name the phase of the Moon from a photograph of the Moon.
 Estimate the number of days between lunar phases.
 Rank images of the Moon in different phases in order of occurrence first to last.
 Estimate the time of day given the Moon’s position in the observer’s sky and the lunar phase.
 Explain why the lunar sidereal period is different than the time for a cycle of lunar phases.
Unit 10: Geometry of the Earth Sun and Moon
 Use the angular size relation to estimate the distance or true size of an astronomical object form a photograph.
Unit 11: Planets the Wandering Stars
 Describe the characteristics of the inferior and superior planets as regards their apparent motion in the sky. (Motion,
elongation, configuration while retrograde…)
 Work with and identify planetary configurations of opposition, conjunction, quadrature and maximum elongation.
 Describe the basic ideas of the Copernican model of the Universe.
 Describe the cause of retrograde motion in our modern Copernican Model.
 Describe why inferior planets demonstrate a maximum elongation in their motion.
 Describe how Copernicus determined the relative distances of the planets from the Sun.
Unit 12: The beginnings of modern astronomy
 Discuss Galileo’s observations of the Sun. Moon, Jupiter and Venus and state how they contradicted the previously held
Aristotelian model of the Universe.
 Describe Kepler’s three laws of planetary motion and state how the first two laws were contrary to the previously held ideas
of Aristotle and Ptolemy.
Unit 16: The Universal Law of Gravitation
 Describe the characteristics of gravity in words and in an equation. (16.2)
 Describe and illustrate by example the nature of the inverse square law as it applies to gravity.
 State the significance of the low value for G.
Unit 17: Measuring a Body’s Mass using Orbital Motion
 Describe what an astronomer needs to observe to calculate the mass of a distance body using properties of the distant body’s
satellite.
Unit 18: Orbital and Escape Velocities
 Describe how the orbital velocity of an object in circular orbit depends on the distance from the central object and how the
orbital velocity depends on the mass of the central body.
 Calculate the orbital velocity of a satellite using (1) circumference and period of its orbit and (2) the radius of its orbit and the
mass of the central object.
 Describe how the mass of an orbiting object affects its orbital velocity.
Plus…
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Use ratios to compare sizes of astronomical objects.
Use a proportion to calculate a scale model of an astronomical object.
Use the t = d/v relation to determine travel times.
Estimate the angular size of an object from a photograph with a known field of view.
Use the angular size relation to calculate an objects true size or distance.