Stellar Aberration and Parallax: a Tutorial
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Galileo and the Telescope
Galileo and the Telescope A Discussion of Galileo Galilei and the Beginning of Modern Observational Astronomy ___________________________ Billy Teets, Ph.D. Acting Director and Outreach Astronomer, Vanderbilt University Dyer Observatory Tuesday, October 20, 2020 Image Credit: Giuseppe Bertini General Outline • Telescopes/Galileo’s Telescopes • Observations of the Moon • Observations of Jupiter • Observations of Other Planets • The Milky Way • Sunspots Brief History of the Telescope – Hans Lippershey • Dutch Spectacle Maker • Invention credited to Hans Lippershey (c. 1608 - refracting telescope) • Late 1608 – Dutch gov’t: “ a device by means of which all things at a very great distance can be seen as if they were nearby” • Is said he observed two children playing with lenses • Patent not awarded Image Source: Wikipedia Galileo and the Telescope • Created his own – 3x magnification. • Similar to what was peddled in Europe. • Learned magnification depended on the ratio of lens focal lengths. • Had to learn to grind his own lenses. Image Source: Britannica.com Image Source: Wikipedia Refracting Telescopes Bend Light Refracting Telescopes Chromatic Aberration Chromatic aberration limits ability to distinguish details Dealing with Chromatic Aberration - Stop Down Aperture Galileo used cardboard rings to limit aperture – Results were dimmer views but less chromatic aberration Galileo and the Telescope • Created his own (3x, 8-9x, 20x, etc.) • Noted by many for its military advantages August 1609 Galileo and the Telescope • First observed the -
Autobiography of Sir George Biddell Airy by George Biddell Airy 1
Autobiography of Sir George Biddell Airy by George Biddell Airy 1 CHAPTER I. CHAPTER II. CHAPTER III. CHAPTER IV. CHAPTER V. CHAPTER VI. CHAPTER VII. CHAPTER VIII. CHAPTER IX. CHAPTER X. CHAPTER I. CHAPTER II. CHAPTER III. CHAPTER IV. CHAPTER V. CHAPTER VI. CHAPTER VII. CHAPTER VIII. CHAPTER IX. CHAPTER X. Autobiography of Sir George Biddell Airy by George Biddell Airy The Project Gutenberg EBook of Autobiography of Sir George Biddell Airy by George Biddell Airy This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg Autobiography of Sir George Biddell Airy by George Biddell Airy 2 License included with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.net Title: Autobiography of Sir George Biddell Airy Author: George Biddell Airy Release Date: January 9, 2004 [EBook #10655] Language: English Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 *** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK SIR GEORGE AIRY *** Produced by Joseph Myers and PG Distributed Proofreaders AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF SIR GEORGE BIDDELL AIRY, K.C.B., M.A., LL.D., D.C.L., F.R.S., F.R.A.S., HONORARY FELLOW OF TRINITY COLLEGE, CAMBRIDGE, ASTRONOMER ROYAL FROM 1836 TO 1881. EDITED BY WILFRID AIRY, B.A., M.Inst.C.E. 1896 PREFACE. The life of Airy was essentially that of a hard-working, business man, and differed from that of other hard-working people only in the quality and variety of his work. It was not an exciting life, but it was full of interest, and his work brought him into close relations with many scientific men, and with many men high in the State. -
A New Vla–Hipparcos Distance to Betelgeuse and Its Implications
The Astronomical Journal, 135:1430–1440, 2008 April doi:10.1088/0004-6256/135/4/1430 c 2008. The American Astronomical Society. All rights reserved. Printed in the U.S.A. A NEW VLA–HIPPARCOS DISTANCE TO BETELGEUSE AND ITS IMPLICATIONS Graham M. Harper1, Alexander Brown1, and Edward F. Guinan2 1 Center for Astrophysics and Space Astronomy, University of Colorado, Boulder, CO 80309, USA; [email protected], [email protected] 2 Department of Astronomy and Astrophysics, Villanova University, PA 19085, USA; [email protected] Received 2007 November 2; accepted 2008 February 8; published 2008 March 10 ABSTRACT The distance to the M supergiant Betelgeuse is poorly known, with the Hipparcos parallax having a significant uncertainty. For detailed numerical studies of M supergiant atmospheres and winds, accurate distances are a pre- requisite to obtaining reliable estimates for many stellar parameters. New high spatial resolution, multiwavelength, NRAO3 Very Large Array (VLA) radio positions of Betelgeuse have been obtained and then combined with Hipparcos Catalogue Intermediate Astrometric Data to derive new astrometric solutions. These new solutions indicate a smaller parallax, and hence greater distance (197 ± 45 pc), than that given in the original Hipparcos Catalogue (131 ± 30 pc) and in the revised Hipparcos reduction. They also confirm smaller proper motions in both right ascension and declination, as found by previous radio observations. We examine the consequences of the revised astrometric solution on Betelgeuse’s interaction with its local environment, on its stellar properties, and its kinematics. We find that the most likely star-formation scenario for Betelgeuse is that it is a runaway star from the Ori OB1 association and was originally a member of a high-mass multiple system within Ori OB1a. -
Measuring the Astronomical Unit from Your Backyard Two Astronomers, Using Amateur Equipment, Determined the Scale of the Solar System to Better Than 1%
Measuring the Astronomical Unit from Your Backyard Two astronomers, using amateur equipment, determined the scale of the solar system to better than 1%. So can you. By Robert J. Vanderbei and Ruslan Belikov HERE ON EARTH we measure distances in millimeters and throughout the cosmos are based in some way on distances inches, kilometers and miles. In the wider solar system, to nearby stars. Determining the astronomical unit was as a more natural standard unit is the tUlronomical unit: the central an issue for astronomy in the 18th and 19th centu· mean distance from Earth to the Sun. The astronomical ries as determining the Hubble constant - a measure of unit (a.u.) equals 149,597,870.691 kilometers plus or minus the universe's expansion rate - was in the 20th. just 30 meters, or 92,955.807.267 international miles plus or Astronomers of a century and more ago devised various minus 100 feet, measuring from the Sun's center to Earth's ingenious methods for determining the a. u. In this article center. We have learned the a. u. so extraordinarily well by we'll describe a way to do it from your backyard - or more tracking spacecraft via radio as they traverse the solar sys precisely, from any place with a fairly unobstructed view tem, and by bouncing radar Signals off solar.system bodies toward the east and west horizons - using only amateur from Earth. But we used to know it much more poorly. equipment. The method repeats a historic experiment per This was a serious problem for many brancht:s of as formed by Scottish astronomer David Gill in the late 19th tronomy; the uncertain length of the astronomical unit led century. -
Measuring the Speed of Light and the Moon Distance with an Occultation of Mars by the Moon: a Citizen Astronomy Campaign
Measuring the speed of light and the moon distance with an occultation of Mars by the Moon: a Citizen Astronomy Campaign Jorge I. Zuluaga1,2,3,a, Juan C. Figueroa2,3, Jonathan Moncada4, Alberto Quijano-Vodniza5, Mario Rojas5, Leonardo D. Ariza6, Santiago Vanegas7, Lorena Aristizábal2, Jorge L. Salas8, Luis F. Ocampo3,9, Jonathan Ospina10, Juliana Gómez3, Helena Cortés3,11 2 FACom - Instituto de Física - FCEN, Universidad de Antioquia, Medellín-Antioquia, Colombia 3 Sociedad Antioqueña de Astronomía, Medellín-Antioquia, Colombia 4 Agrupación Castor y Pollux, Arica, Chile 5 Observatorio Astronómico Universidad de Nariño, San Juan de Pasto-Nariño, Colombia 6 Asociación de Niños Indagadores del Cosmos, ANIC, Bogotá, Colombia 7 Organización www.alfazoom.info, Bogotá, Colombia 8 Asociación Carabobeña de Astronomía, San Diego-Carabobo, Venezuela 9 Observatorio Astronómico, Instituto Tecnológico Metropolitano, Medellín, Colombia 10 Sociedad Julio Garavito Armero para el Estudio de la Astronomía, Medellín, Colombia 11 Planetario de Medellín, Parque Explora, Medellín, Colombia ABSTRACT In July 5th 2014 an occultation of Mars by the Moon was visible in South America. Citizen scientists and professional astronomers in Colombia, Venezuela and Chile performed a set of simple observations of the phenomenon aimed to measure the speed of light and lunar distance. This initiative is part of the so called “Aristarchus Campaign”, a citizen astronomy project aimed to reproduce observations and measurements made by astronomers of the past. Participants in the campaign used simple astronomical instruments (binoculars or small telescopes) and other electronic gadgets (cell-phones and digital cameras) to measure occultation times and to take high resolution videos and pictures. In this paper we describe the results of the Aristarchus Campaign. -