UNIT C AND D SECTION 2.

1 PATTERNS IN THE NIGHT SKY Constellations: a region of the sky with well-defined borders, the star patterns help us locate them o Every point in the sky belongs to some constellation o Stars in a constellation may appear to be close by may lie very far apart Celestial sphere: imaginary sphere on which objects in the sky appear to reside when observed from Earth o Greeks actually believed universe was a sphere b/c of lack of depth perception o Still allows us to map the sky as seen from Earth o North celestial pole: point directly over Earths North Pole o South celestial pole: point directly over Earths South Pole o Celestial Equator: projection of Earths equator into space o Ecliptic: the path the Sun follows as it appears to circle around the celestial sphere once each year (at a 23.5 angle) Milky Way o Band of light circles all the way around the celestial sphere o Milky Way in sky traces the galactic plane o Can hinder us from seeing the distant universe Local Sky: the half of the celestial sphere you see at any time o Horizon: the boundary b/w Earth and sky o Zenith: the point directly overhead o Meridian: half circle stretching from N to S through zenith o Pinpoint position by direction (along horizon) and altitude (angle) Angular Size o The angle it appears to span in your field of view o Angular distance: angle that appears to separate 2 objects in the sky Stars Rise and Set Everything in the celestial sphere appears to circle around Earth daily Circumpolar stars: always remain above the horizon for a particular latitude Stars relatively near the south celestial pole never rise above the horizon at all All other stars have daily circles partly above/below horizon Visible Constellations Depend on Latitude and Time of Year Latitude Variations Latitude affects locations of horizon and zenith Altitude of celestial pole in your sky = to your latitude Variation with Time of Year Earth changes position in orbit around the Sun Zodiac: the constellations that would appear in the ecliptic in line with the Sun, if we could see Sun and stars at the same time o We can not see the zodiac because they move with the Sun SECTION 2.3 THE MOON Orbits Earth every 27 1/3 days Rises in east, sets in west, but appears to move eastward from night to night

Phases of the Moon Appearance and times that it rises go through a cycle Half of the moon is always illuminated by sun, but the amount we see depends on the Moons position in orbit Waxing: in between new and full Waning: in between full and new Crescent: a Gibbous: Moons Synchronous Rotation Moon rotates on its axis in same time it takes to orbit Earth, therefore we always see the same side Result of Earths gravity Eclipses Moons orbit is inclined to the ecliptic plane by 5 (why we dont have eclipses every month) Nodes: the 2 points in each orbit where the moon crosses the ecliptic plane The phase of the moon must be full or new and must occur during one of the periods when the nodes are aligned with the Sun and Earth Two regions of shadow o Umbra: where sunlight is completely blocked (center) o Penumbra: sunlight is only partially blocked Lunar Eclipse: when Earth lies directly b/w the Sun and Moon, Earths shadow falls on Moon o Can be total or partial o Penumbral lunar eclipse if Moon passes only through penumbra Solar Eclipse: Moon lies b/w Earth and Sun and casts its shadow on Earth o Total if seen from the Moons umbra, partial if in the penumbra o Annular: if Moon is far away, umbra wont reach Earth and there will be a ring of Sun around the moon Eclipsing seasons: 2 periods every year when the nodes are nearly aligned with the Sun, lasts a few weeks Saros cycle: the period over which the basic pattern of eclipses repeats, about 18 yrs, 11 1/3 days SECTION 2.4 ANCIENT MYSTERY OF THE PLANETS Mercury-Saturn are easy to see with the naked eye Rise in E, set in W like all things in the sky Planets usually move eastward through constellations like Sun and Moon, but sometimes have apparent retrograde motion: appear to reverse course o Earth orbits Sun faster than planets further out Aristarchus first proposed the Sun-centered model in 260BC but everyone rejected his idea until 2000 yrs later Greeks expected to see parallax a different way b/c they believed all stars were on the same celestial sphere

o If Earth orbited Sun, we were be closer to different stars in the sphere at different times of the year, but they angular separation never changed so they didnt believe that model SECTION 3.2 ANCIENT GREEK SCIENCE Greece rose as a power around 500 BC, we get much of our science from them o They developed tradition of understanding nature without relying on the supernatural o Used math to give precision to their ideas o Used the power of reasoning o Created models: represent an aspect of nature that can be used to explain and predict real phenomena Explained properties of matter and motions of the stars, moon, and planets Explaining Planetary Motion Believed in geocentric model: spherical Earth at center of the universe Early Geocentric Model o Greek science traced to Thales Thought Earth was a flat disk floating in infinite ocean o Anaximander: student of Thales, suggested Earth floats in empty space surrounded by celestial sphere Thought Earth was cylindrical o Pythagoras: Earth is round o Eudoxus: made a model in which Sun, Moon, and planets had their own spheres nested w/in other spheres, reproduced many observed motions of their objects o Aristotle: all spheres of motion were transparent and interconnected Also, gravity pulls heavy things to center of universe, which formed Earth Ptolemy Earth still at center, but planets moved around Earth on a small circle that turns upon a larger circle o Explains apparent retrograde motion o Based on other scientists work Preserving Greek Knowledge Their society was great at everything from science to politics to philosophy City of Alexandria began work on the Library shortly after Alexander the Greats death o Worlds best research center for 700 years, ultimately destroyed Whatever survived preserved by a new center in Baghdad o Scholars in Islam used knowledge to better understand Allah while Europe was in the Dark Ages o Most of the star names and constellations come from Arabic Islamic world frequently made contact with India and in turn China Accumulated knowledge spread through Byzantine Empire and to Europe when Constantinople fell