Chapter 2

• constellation- is a region of the sky with well-defined borders; the familiar

patterns of the stars merely help us locate these constellations.
• Greeks mistook the illusion for reality imagining the stars to lie on a great
celestial sphere that surrounds Earth.
• North celestial pole- points directly over earths north pole
• Celestial equator- which is a projection of Earth's equator into space,
makes a complete circle around the celestial sphere
• Ecliptic- the path the sun follows as it appears to circle around the
celestial sphere once each year. It crosses the celestial equator at a
23.5 degree angle, because that is the tilt of earths axis.
• Local sky- sky as you see it where you happen to be standing-appears to
take dome shape
• Horizon- boundary between Earth and sky from where you are standing.
• Zenith- the point directly overhead
• Meridian- the imaginary line pointing due south through the zenith due
north
• We can pinpoint the position of any object in the local sky by stating its
direction along the horizon and its altitude about the horizon
• We have no depth perception of the celestial sphere but we can describe
the angular sizes or separations of objects even without knowing how far
away they are
• Angular size- is the angle it appears to span in your field of view.
• Sun and the moon have the same angular size but the sun is 400 times
bigger, also 400 times farther away, so distance isn't taken into account
• Angular distance between a pair of objects in the sky is the angle that
appears to separate them.
• For more precise measurements we subdivide each degree into 60 arc
minutes and 60 arc seconds
• Stars near the north celestial pole make daily counterclockwise circles
around the north pole
• Stars near the south celestial pole never rise above the horizon
• All other stars have daily circles partly above the horizon and partly
below. They appear to be going from east to west because the earth
rotates oppositely.
• CALCULATIONS p31