Question | Answer |
What is the ecliptic? | The path the sun follows around the celestial sphere. |
What is the most recognizable northern constellation? | Ursa Major |
What constellation is Polaris in? | Ursa Minor |
What constellation is called the little bear and what asterism does it contain? | Ursa Minor contains the little dipper |
What constellation is the great bear? | Ursa Major |
When is Leo best seen? | Spring and summer |
What is Leo's brightest star? | Regulus (in the sickle) |
What stars form the summer triangle? | Deneb vega and altair |
What is cygnus' brightest star? | Deneb |
Which astronomer developed apparent magnitude? | Hipparchus |
What philosopher popularized a geocentric view of the universe. | Aristotle |
In 280 B.C., which philosopher proposed that the earth orbits the sun? | Aristarchus |
Which philosopher wrote almagest? | Ptolemy |
Who proposed a heliocentric view of the universe? | Copernicus |
Which astronomer(s) agreed with Copernicus? | Galileo and Kepler |
Kepler was an assistant to which astronomer? | Brahe |
What is an Ellipses? | A symmetrical oval |
Who formulated the laws of planetary motion? | Kepler |
What does the first law of planetary motion say? | Planets orbit the sun in an ellipse with the sun as a foci and the other as an empty point in space. |
What does the second law of planetary motion say? | A planet closer to the sun moves faster and a planet farther moves slower. |
What does the third law of planetary motion state? | The farther the planets distance from the sun, the longer its period. |
What is gravity and who discovered it? | The force of attraction between two objects.(Newton) |
What does the law of universal gravitation state? | The strength of the gravitational force between two objects depends on their mass and their distance from each other. |
What does "planet" mean? | Wanderer |
What are the planets from closest to the sun from farthest? | Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune. |
What is the terminator? | The line that separates the dark portion of the moon from the light portion. |
What is the first phase of a lunar month? | The lunar month starts with a new moon when the sunlit side is completely hidden from view. |
What are the next three moon phases? | Waxing (growing) Crescent, first quarter, And waxing gibbous. |
What are the last four moon phases? | Full moon, waning (shrinking) gibbous, third quarter, and waning crescent. |
What constellation contains five bright star and resembles an m or w? | Cassiopeia |
What two constellations contain the stars forming The Great Square? | Andromeda and Pegasus |
What constellation is most familiar in the southern hemisphere? | crux |