AS101 Chapter 1: Astronomy Notes: Chapter 1
Document Summary
The scale of the cosmos: space and time. Scienti c notation: the system of recording very large or very small numbers by using powers of 10. Field of view: the area visible in an image, often given as the diameter of the region. Each view is made from a distance that is some power of 10 times farther away, until the distance becomes so large that we jump with higher increments. Every time we move 10 times away, our fov encompasses an area 10*10 larger than the previous square. Distances are rst expressed in metres until they become so large that a metre becomes too small as a unit. Earth is approximately 13000 km in diameter. The rotation of earth on its axis each 24 hours carries us eastward, and as we cross the sunset line into darkness we say that the sun has set.
