ASTR 101

Wednesday, Sept. 11, 2013

 Review: Questions on parallax and retrograde motion in geocentric models. (QQ)

 Today's Topics:

Renaissance Astronomy and
The Copernican Revolution
• Copernicus: His model and explanation. (QQ)
• Tycho Brahe: Fame, model and Observatory.
• Galileo Galilei: Inertia, the Milky Way, the Sun, the Moon and Jupiter's moons, phases of Venus.
• Johannes Kepler: Laws of ellipses, areas, periods.

Summary of Motions in the Sky
Changes in one night, sky rotation.
Changes over longer periods of time (SkyGazer):
   the Sun; the Moon; planets vs stars.
What is a day? (Solar vs sidereal day.)
What about a week? A month? A year?

 Assignment: Section 3.3 of the book; Today's class summary; Lecture notes.

Spaceweather; APOD; Heavens-Above; Clear Sky Clock; PhysOrg Astronomy News; The Sky at a Glance

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