Astronomy 1021 Chapter Notes - Chapter 2.1: Azimuth, Angular Distance, Celestial Pole

• School: Western University
• Department: Astronomy
• Course: Astronomy 1021
• Professor: Margaret Campbell- Brown

Document Summary

Constellations: a region in the sky with well-defined borders and a pattern of stars. The celestial sphere: stars may seem close together when in fact they are very far apart; this is because we, on earth, lack depth perception. The ancient greeks thought this deception was reality, and therefore assumed all stars lie on a celestial sphere. The north celestial pole is the point directly over earth"s north pole. The south celestial pole is the point directly over earth"s south pole. The celestial equator, which is a projection of the earth"s equator out into space, makes a complete circle out into the celestial sphere. The ecliptic is the path the sun appears to follow as it circles around the celestial sphere once a year. It crosses the celestial equator at 23. 5 degrees because that is the degree of the earth"s tilt.