![]() On any given night you may also see a meteor, also Sky, but the other planets appear only as points of light, indistinguishableįrom stars except by their brightness and their motion (hence wanderers). Both the Sun and Moon appear as large objects in the Nowadays, we would classify the Sun as a star, and the word moon is reservedįor members of the natural satellites orbiting planets, but that was not the Did you know that the Sun and Moon were called planets? These 7 objects were called for the latin planetes, Sun itself, as well as the Moon and 5 of the planets, Mercury, Venus, Mars, In addition to the light, you may see dark patches where thereĪppear to be fewer stars-these are dust clouds, which are a common featureĪnd the even farther away faint Milky Way, you can also see a variety of nearby Light of the billions of faint stars making up our galaxy, and is called the Sky, like you might see in the country far from city lights, you can see aįaint path of milky light running across the sky. For example, the Andromeda Galaxy is found In this way, a faint galaxyįound in some area of the sky can be said to belong to the constellation within Now refers not to a set of stars, but to areas of the sky, within officialīoundaries set by the committee in 1928. In 1928, to agree with the names known in Europe at the time, but almost allĬultures had their own names and stories. The constellation names were standardized (a group of stars that form a recognizable pattern, but is not officially (a group of stars officially recognized by astronomers) and asterism We call such groupings by two names- constellation Names are associated with myths or legends of human or supernatural events. Noticed apparent groupings of stars and gave them names. ![]() Two stars may appear close to each other in the sky, but actuallyīe thousands of light years apart in distance. The most part random chance groupings of stars, and the stars are not actually You may pick out patterns in the stars-in general this is a natural function Sky on a dark night away from city lights, you can see at most about 1000 stars. Patterns and Sights in the Sky When you see the night This is a very important line in the sky, as we will learn shortly. Horizon, is called the meridian or local meridian. North point on the horizon through the zenith to the south point on the This never happens in Newark, but in some places on the Earth If the Sun is ever at the zenith, then your shadow would be directly under Thus, an altitude of 35 dĢ7' 15" means an angle of 35 degrees, 27 arcminutes, and 15 arcseconds. Which is 1/60th of an arcminute, or 1/3600th of a degree. Of arc), which is 1/60th of a degree, and arcseconds If we want to be really accurate, we may want to specify the position to better (30 degrees,Ĥ5 degrees) means the star is thirty degrees above the NE horizon. Object using the pair of coordinates, altitude and azimuth, i.e. More than 90 degrees, then it has an angle of less than 90 Is this the maximum? Because if a star in the north has an angle of A star on the horizon has an altitude of 0 degrees.Ī star straight overhead has the maximum altitude of 90 degrees. We call such coordinates the azimuth coordinate.Ĭoordinate. We can specify coordinates, in degrees, by assigning N as 0 ,Īnd increasing eastward (E = 90 ), through S (180 ), Think of the sky as painted, or projected, onto the insideĪre the familiar directions North, East, South, and West (N, E, S, W). Of the Earth, we can only see at most half of the Universe, the other half beingīlocked by the body of the Earth. Our View from Earth's Surface Imagine the Universe asĮxtending out into space in all directions. If you get up before the Sun (around 5 am) you can see Venus and Saturn, which are bright, low in the Eastern sky. Unfortunately, all of the planets are near the Sun. Please go out on clear evenings and look up at the sky.įind the moon if it is up. You do not need a telescope, or charts-all you need is to be armed with a little Looking at the Sky You can enjoy astronomyĪll on your own, just by going out and looking at the sky (day or night!). ![]()
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