ASTR 1001 Lecture Notes - Lecture 1: Circumpolar Star, Celestial Equator, Lunar Phase
24 Jan 2018
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Document Summary
If you lived on the sun, you wouldn"t see the moon going through phases (the other side would be dark, which can be seen from the earth, which would be a lunar phase). It would experience eclipse when going behind the earth. If the moon were smaller, eclipses would still happen. Constellation: region of the sky with well-defined borders and familiar patterns of stars --> 88 constellations. Celestial sphere: ball around the earth that held all the stars. Ecliptic: sun"s apparent path through the celestial sphere (sky) --> plane of the solar system. Zodiacal constellations along the ecliptic line in the sky. Celestial equator: projection of earth"s equator onto the sky --> extending our own equator out into the sphere. Polaris: star to which the north celestial pole appears to be pointing. Only star that doesn"t move (for 13,000 years) Milky way: a band of light making a circle around the celestial sphere.
