Question | Answer |
astronomer | a scientist who studies and objects that exist in space |
constellation | a pattern of stars, usually named after ancient folk heroes, gods or animals |
axis | an imaginary rod that stretches through a planet (Earth from north to south) |
rotation | a planet spinning onits axis; an object spinning in isolation. |
revolution | an object spinning around another object (Earth traveling around the sun) |
star | a huge globe of hot gases that shines by its own light. |
planet | a large object that circles a star and doesnt produce its own light; any of the nine large bodies that revoles around the sun. |
hemisphere | describing one half of Earth. Northern/Southern hemisphere or /Eastern/Western hemisphere. |
horizon | the line in the distance where the land appears to meet the sky. |
zenith | the highest point in the sky; the point directly up in the sky (not north) |
copernicus | an early astronomer who first proposed the idea that Earth travels around the Sun. |
Galileo | an early astronomer who first used a telescope to study the night sky. Galileo discovered that the moon did not shine by its own light and that the surface of the moon was covered with craters, mountains and valleys. |
telescope | an instrument used for viewing distant objects. |
refracting telescope | an telescope in which light from an object is gathered and focused by a mirror. |
reflecting telescope | a telescope in which light from an object is gathered and focused by a mirror. |
lens | a curved piece of glass, or other material like glass, that brings light rays closer together or farther apart so that things are shown to be clearer, larger or closer. |
convex | shaped in an outward curve |
concave | rounded inward (the inside of a bowl is concave) |
focal point | the point at which the lenses of a refracting telescope bring an image to focus. |
eyepiece lens | the lens at the eye of a telescope |
objective lens | the lens at the far end of a telescope |
mirror | a material that can refect light and images |
geocentric | the theory that Earth is the center of our solar system; it stated that the sun revolves around the Earth |
heliocentric | the correct theory that the sun is the center of our solar system; Earth revolves around the Sun. |