Transits of Venus: New Views of the Solar System and Galaxy

Total Page:16

File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb

Transits of Venus: New Views of the Solar System and Galaxy INTERNATIONAL ASTRONOMICAL UNION UNION ASTRONOMIQUE INTERNATIONALE "I TRANSITS OF VENUS: NEW VIEWS OF THE SOLAR SYSTEM AND GALAXY PROCEEDINGS OF THE 196th COLLOQUIUM OF THE INTERNATIONAL ASTRONOMICAL UNION HELD IN PRESTON, LANCASHIRE, UNITED KINGDOM 7-11 JUNE 2004 Edited by D. W. KURTZ Centre for Astrophysics, University of Central Lancashire, Preston, UK CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS V Table of Contents Preface ix Organizing committee xii Conference photograph xiii Conference participants xvi Part 1. TRANSITS OF VENUS: HISTORY, RESULTS AND LEGACY Chairs: Steve Dick & Mary Bru'ck Jeremiah Horrocks, William Crabtree, and the Lancashire observations of the tran- sit of Venus of 1639 [Keynote talk] 3 Allan Chapman ~\ Jeremiah Horrocks's Lancashire 27 John K. Walton William Crabtree's Venus transit observation 34 Nicholas Kollerstrom Venus transits - A French view 41 Suzanne Debarbat James Cook's 1769 transit of Venus expedition to Tahiti 52 Wayne Orchiston v~ Observations of the 1761 and 1769 transits of Venus from Batavia (Dutch East Indies) 67 Robert H. van Gent The 1761 transit of Venus dispute between Audiffredi and Pingre 74 Luisa Pigatto Observations of planetary transits made in Ireland in the 18th Century and the development of astronomy in Ireland 87 C. J. Butler The American transit of Venus expeditions of 1874 and 1882 100 Steven J. Dick The Mexican expedition to observe the 8 December 1874 transit of Venus in Japan 111 Christine Allen Maya observations of 13th-century transits of Venus? 124 Jesus Galindo Trejo and Christine Allen Lord Lindsay's expedition to Mauritius in 1874 138 M. T. Briick ' vi Contents Why did other European astronomers not see the December 1639 transit of Venus? 146 David W. Hughes The Brazilian contribution to the observation of the transit of Venus 154 Ronaldo Rogerio de Freitas Mourdo Part 2. THE AU AND THE PC Chair: Nicole Capitaine The Astronomical Unit now [Keynote talk] 163 E. M. Standish Precision time and the rotation of the Earth 180 D. D. McCarthy Thomas Henderson and a Centauri 198 Brian Warner Part 3. TRANSITS, THE SOLAR SYSTEM AND EXTRA-SOLAR PLANETS Chairs: Jacqueline Mitton & Barbara Hassall Mikhail Lomonosov and the discovery of the atmosphere of Venus during the 1761 transit 209 Mikhail Ya. Marov Probing extrasolar planet atmospheres through transits 220 Ignas Snellen v— Precise determination of the motion of planets and some astronomical constants from modern observations 230 E. V. Pitjeva The black-drop effect explained 242 Jay M. Pasachoff, Glenn Schneider, Leon Golub Orbit of a lunar artificial satellite: Analytical theory of perturbations 254 B. De Saedeleer, J. Henrard The Spin-orbit resonance of Mercury: a Hamiltonian approach 263 S. D'Hoedt, A. Lemaitre Observation and reduction of mutual events in the solar system 271 B. Noyelles. V. Lainey, A. Vienne Early dynamical evolution of the Solar System: constraints from asteroid and KBO dynamics 279 Kleomenis Tsiganis Contents vii Classical and modern orbit determination for asteroids 293 Giovanni F. Gronchi Transits of Venus and Mercury: Patterns of occurrence, and near-resonance phe- nomena 304 P. J. Message Part 4. THE JEREMIAH HORROCKS MEMORIAL PUBLIC LECTURE Chair: Gordon Bromage Our Galaxy in three-dimensions 315 M. A. C. Ferryman Part 5. NEW VIEWS OF THE GALAXY: PARALLAXES, DISTANCES AND IMPLICATIONS FOR ASTROPHYSICS Chair: Naoteru Gouda The (f)utility of ground-based parallaxes 331 David G. Monet High-precision stellar parallaxes from Hubble Space Telescope fine guidance sensors 333 G. Fritz Benedict, Barbara E. McArthur The Pleiades question, the definition of the zero-age main sequence, and implica- tions 347 Floor van Leeuwen The distance to the Pleiades from the eclipsing binary HD 23642 361 J. Southworth, P. F. L. Maxted, B. Smalley Chromatic effects in Hipparcos parallaxes and implications for distance scale. 377 Dimitri Pourbaix The use of eclipses in the evaluation of absolute stellar information 386 Edwin Budding, Denis Sullivan, Michael Rhodes High precision pulsar astrometry and its applications 399 Walter Brisken Statistical calibrations of trigonometric parallaxes 411 T. Tsujimoto, Y. Yamada, N. Gouda Parallaxes of L and T dwarfs '. 420 R. L. Smart, C. A. L. Bailer-Jones and H. R. A. Jones viii Contents Part 6. NEW VIEWS OF THE GALAXY: FUTURE SPACE AND GROUND-BASED PROGRAMMES Chair: Brian Warner Microarcsecond astrometry with Gaia: the solar system, the Galaxy and beyond 429 Coryn A. L. Bailer-Jones Radial Velocities with Gaia 444 Mark Cropper, David Katz, Ulisse Munari, Tomaz Zwitter, Andrew Holland JASMINE: Japan Astrometry Satellite Mission for INfrared Exploration 455 N. Gouda, T. Yano. Y. Kobayashi, Y. Yamada, T. Tsujimoto, T. Nakajima, M. Suganuma, H. Matsuhara, S. Ueda and the JASMINE Working Group Overall design of JASMINE. 469 Yoshiyuki Yamada, Naoteru Gouda, Takuji Tsujimoto, Yukiyasu Kobayashi, Tadashi Nakajima, Hideo Matsuhara, Taihei Yano, Seiji Ueda, Masahiro Suganuma and the JASMINE Working Group The optical system for JASMINE and the CCD centroiding experiment 476 Taihei Yano, Naoteru Gouda, Yukiyasu Kobayashi, Takuji Tsujimoto, Tadashi Nakajima, Hideo Hanada, Yoshiyuki Yamada, Hiroshi Araki, Seiichi Tazawa, Kazuyoshi Asari, Seiitsu Tsuruta, Nobuyuki Kawano, Naruhisa Takato JASMINE simulator 483 Seiji Ueda, Yoshiyuki Yamada, Takashi Kuwabara, Naoteru Gouda, Takuji Tsujimoto, Yukiyasu Kobayashi, Tadashi Nakajima, Hideo Matsuhara, Taihei Yano, Masahiro Suganuma, and the JASMINE Working Group Nano-JASMINE: a nano size astrometry satellite 491 Yukiyasu Kobayashi, Taihei Yano, Naoteru Gouda, Yoshiyuki Yamada, Naruhisa Takato, Satoshi Miyazaki, Masahiro Suganuma, Seiji Ueda, Shin'ichi Nakasuka and the JASMINE working group The VERA project (VLBI Exploration of Radio Astrometry 496 Hideyuki Kobayashi, Noriyuki Kawaguchi, Seiji Manabe, Toshihiro Omodaka, Katsunori Shibata, Mareki Honma, Yoshiaki Tamura, Osamu Kameno, Tomoya Hirota, Hiroshi Imai Part 7. MEETING SUMMARY Shades of the goddess: Venus in transit 499 Richard G. Strom Part 8. TRANSIT OF VENUS: 8 JUNE 2004 - pictures from the transit and banquet Author index 538.
Recommended publications
  • Jeremy Shakerley (1626-1655?) Astronomy, Astrology and Patronage in Civil War Lancashire
    JEREMY SHAKERLEY (1626-1655?) ASTRONOMY, ASTROLOGY AND PATRONAGE IN CIVIL WAR LANCASHIRE A. Chapman, M.A., D. Phil., F.R.A.S. The civil war period witnessed a remarkable activity in the pursuit of astronomy and allied subjects in the northern counties of England, and well over half a dozen mathematical practitioners were active between 1635 and 1650. Perhaps the best known of these men was Jeremiah Horrocks and his circle, including William Gascoigne and William Crabtree who were active around 1640, and made contributions of international importance in celestial mechanics and instrument design. 1 Though working some years later, Jeremy Shakerley was deeply influence by the work of Horrocks, and in many ways, saw himself as continuing in the same tradition. While Shakerley worked in greater isolation in many respects, he did maintain an active London correspondence, and often made reference to fellow astronomers in the Pendle district, where he originally resided. Shakerely's historical importance lies in the nine substantial letters which he exchanged with the London astrologer, William Lilly between 1648 and 1650, along with others to Henry Osborne and John Matteson. Most of these letters, now preserved in the Ashmole manuscripts in the Bodleian Library, are rich in information about the aspirations and problems of a provincial mathematical practitioner. He was an admirer of the theories of Copernicus and Kepler and argued for strictly natural causes in celestial phenomena. Yet he also perceived a hierarchy of correspondences and astrological demonstrations behind the physical laws, whereby man could interpret God's design, as a guide to conduct.
    [Show full text]
  • The 1761 Transit of Venus and Hell's Transition to Fame
    Chapter 3 A New Node of Science in Action: The 1761 Transit of Venus and Hell’s Transition to Fame I reckon there is no one interested in astronomy who does not wait impa- tiently to learn what was observed during the recent meeting of Venus with the Sun, especially since there is no other encounter between celes- tial bodies from which we are able to ascertain with a greater degree of exactness the still unknown, or not yet sufficiently well defined, paral- laxes of the Sun and Venus. Eustachio Zanotti 17611 1 A Golden Opportunity The above assessment of Hell’s Bolognese colleague Eustachio Zanotti could hardly have been more to the point. The passage (or transit) of Venus in front of the Sun as seen from the Earth is a rare astronomical phenomenon: it comes in pairs separated by eight years, after which it does not take place for more than a whole century. The first transit of Venus observed by means of astro- nomical equipment was in 1639. Since then, transits of Venus have occurred in the years 1761 and 1769, 1874 and 1882, and 2004 and 2012—but they will not happen again until 2117 and 2125. The 1639 transit of Venus made no immediate impact and (as far is known) was only observed by two amateur astronomers in the English countryside.2 By contrast, the pre-calculated transits of 1761 and 1 Eustachio Zanotti, De Veneris ac Solis Congressu Observatio habita in Astronomico Specula Bononiensis Scientiarum Instituti Die 5 Junii mdcclxi (Bologna: Laelii e Vulpe, 1761), 1.
    [Show full text]
  • Classical Mechanics - Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia Page 1 of 13
    Classical mechanics - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Page 1 of 13 Classical mechanics From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia (Redirected from Newtonian mechanics) In physics, classical mechanics is one of the two major Classical mechanics sub-fields of mechanics, which is concerned with the set of physical laws describing the motion of bodies under the Newton's Second Law action of a system of forces. The study of the motion of bodies is an ancient one, making classical mechanics one of History of classical mechanics · the oldest and largest subjects in science, engineering and Timeline of classical mechanics technology. Branches Classical mechanics describes the motion of macroscopic Statics · Dynamics / Kinetics · Kinematics · objects, from projectiles to parts of machinery, as well as Applied mechanics · Celestial mechanics · astronomical objects, such as spacecraft, planets, stars, and Continuum mechanics · galaxies. Besides this, many specializations within the Statistical mechanics subject deal with gases, liquids, solids, and other specific sub-topics. Classical mechanics provides extremely Formulations accurate results as long as the domain of study is restricted Newtonian mechanics (Vectorial to large objects and the speeds involved do not approach mechanics) the speed of light. When the objects being dealt with become sufficiently small, it becomes necessary to Analytical mechanics: introduce the other major sub-field of mechanics, quantum Lagrangian mechanics mechanics, which reconciles the macroscopic laws of Hamiltonian mechanics physics with the atomic nature of matter and handles the Fundamental concepts wave-particle duality of atoms and molecules. In the case of high velocity objects approaching the speed of light, Space · Time · Velocity · Speed · Mass · classical mechanics is enhanced by special relativity.
    [Show full text]
  • New Reports1
    2004: the year of the transit by Valerie & Andrew White The highlight of 2004 was the transit of far from Much Hoole, as we Venus in June. To prepare ourselves for knew it has a painting of the event, in April we visited Much Horrocks observing the Hoole in Lancashire, to see the church transit, but it was closed where Jeremiah Horrocks was clerk, and that day, so we just took a nearby Carr House where it is assumed photo of their adverts for he was a tutor to the children of the observing the transit on June house, and from where he was the first 8 and their play ‘Much to view a transit of Venus in 1639. The Hoole about Nothing’. east window of the church has a stained Unfortunately the play was glass depiction of Horrocks viewing the already fully booked, so we Roundels in Much Hoole Church to commemorate the Venus transit and also, in another window in were unable to see it. transits. Left, erected in 1874; right, added in 2004. For the transit itself we flew to Egypt (Sinai) with Explorers some interesting photos of the present Tours and had a perfectly clear sky to interior and garden of the cottage. An view the event, although it was very hot. additional point of interest was that the We took a Meade ETX90 and a Coronado nearby road was called Priory Grove but Maxscope 40 H-alpha telescope with us. its road sign said ‘Priory Grove − late Val viewed through the ETX with a solar Crabtree Croft’.
    [Show full text]
  • Leonhard Euler - Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia Page 1 of 14
    Leonhard Euler - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Page 1 of 14 Leonhard Euler From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Leonhard Euler ( German pronunciation: [l]; English Leonhard Euler approximation, "Oiler" [1] 15 April 1707 – 18 September 1783) was a pioneering Swiss mathematician and physicist. He made important discoveries in fields as diverse as infinitesimal calculus and graph theory. He also introduced much of the modern mathematical terminology and notation, particularly for mathematical analysis, such as the notion of a mathematical function.[2] He is also renowned for his work in mechanics, fluid dynamics, optics, and astronomy. Euler spent most of his adult life in St. Petersburg, Russia, and in Berlin, Prussia. He is considered to be the preeminent mathematician of the 18th century, and one of the greatest of all time. He is also one of the most prolific mathematicians ever; his collected works fill 60–80 quarto volumes. [3] A statement attributed to Pierre-Simon Laplace expresses Euler's influence on mathematics: "Read Euler, read Euler, he is our teacher in all things," which has also been translated as "Read Portrait by Emanuel Handmann 1756(?) Euler, read Euler, he is the master of us all." [4] Born 15 April 1707 Euler was featured on the sixth series of the Swiss 10- Basel, Switzerland franc banknote and on numerous Swiss, German, and Died Russian postage stamps. The asteroid 2002 Euler was 18 September 1783 (aged 76) named in his honor. He is also commemorated by the [OS: 7 September 1783] Lutheran Church on their Calendar of Saints on 24 St. Petersburg, Russia May – he was a devout Christian (and believer in Residence Prussia, Russia biblical inerrancy) who wrote apologetics and argued Switzerland [5] forcefully against the prominent atheists of his time.
    [Show full text]
  • Jeremiah Horrocks's Lancashire
    Transits of Venus: New Views of the Solar System and Galaxy Proceedings IAU Colloquium No. 196, 2004 c 2004 International Astronomical Union D.W. Kurtz, ed. doi:10.1017/S1743921305001237 Jeremiah Horrocks’s Lancashire John K. Walton Department of History, University of Central Lancashire, Preston PR1 2HE, UK (email: [email protected]) Abstract. This paper sets Jeremiah Horrocks and Much Hoole in the context of Lancashire society on the eve of the English Civil War. It focuses on the complexities of what it was to be a “Puritan” in an environment where religious labels and conflicts mattered a great deal; it examines the economic circumstances of county and locality at the time, pointing out the extent to which (despite widespread and deep poverty) the county’s merchants were looking outwards to London, northern Europe and beyond; and it emphasizes that even in the apparently remote and rustic location of Much Hoole it was possible for Horrocks to sustain a scientific correspondence and to keep in touch with, and make his contribution to, developments on a much wider stage. This contribution is intended to complement Allan Chapman’s plenary lecture by devel- oping the local and Lancashire dimension to Jeremiah Horrocks’s astronomical activities at Much Hoole, less than three years before the outbreak of the great Civil War in 1642, which culminated in the execution of Charles I in 1649 and ushered in Britain’s only pe- riod of republican government, which lasted until the Restoration in 1660 (see Chapman 1994, to which this paper runs
    [Show full text]
  • STFC Phd Studentship Allocation for 2021
    STFC PHD STUDENTSHIP ALLOCATIONS FOR 2021 University Department 2021 Aberystwyth University Institute of Mathematics and Physical Sciences 1 Armagh Observatory Astronomy 1 University of Bath Department of Physics 1 Birkbeck, University of London Department of Earth and Planetary Science 0 University of Birmingham School of Physics and Astronomy 5 University of Brighton School of Computing, Engineering and 0 Mathematics University of Bristol School of Earth Sciences 1 University of Bristol School of Physics 3 Brunel University College of Engineering, Design and Physical 0 Science University of Cambridge Department of Applied Maths and Theoretical 5 Physics University of Cambridge Institute of Astronomy 6 University of Cambridge Department of Physics 4 Cardiff University School of Physics and Astronomy 4 University of Central Lancashire Jeremiah Horrocks Institute 2 City, University of London Department of Mathematics 1 University of Derby School of Computing and Engineering 0 University of Dundee Department of Mathematics 2 University of Durham Department of Mathematical Sciences 2 University of Durham Department of Physics 10 University of Edinburgh School of Mathematics 1 University of Edinburgh School of Physics and Astronomy 11 University of Exeter Mathematics 1 University of Exeter School of Physics and Astronomy 2 University of Glasgow School of Geographical and Earth Sciences 0 University of Glasgow School of Physics and Astronomy 7 Heriot Watt University School of Engineering and Physical Sciences 0 Heriot Watt University School
    [Show full text]
  • Nineteenth Century Space Race
    Nineteenth Century Space Race A transit is the crossing of the Sun by a planet. This is visible from the Earth only for Mercury and Venus. The 1874 transit of Venus was studied by 56 expeditions from six countries – and the eight expeditions from the U.S. eventually spent $375,000. This led Laurence Marshall of Gettysburg College to subtitle his lecture on "The Transit of Venus" to the Amateur Astronomers Association of New York at the Kauffman Auditorium of the American Museum of Natural History on 6 October 2006 "The Space Race of the 19th Century." Marshall pointed out that transits are useful in determining relative distances in the solar system. Earlier estimates imagined the solar system to be much smaller, he noted: Copernicus' values, based on results from Ancient Greece, were about a twentieth of the presently-known values. When Pierre Gassendi saw the 7 November 1631 transit of Mercury, predicted in Kepler's Rudolphine Tables published that year, he was surprised how small Mercury's disk appeared. Marshall observed that Kepler missed a transit of Venus in 1639 but added that Jeremiah Horrocks both predicted and observed it. William Crabtree also observed it. Both projected the image of the transited Sun onto a wall. Edmund Halley proposed a way, based on parallax, to use transits to determine the actual distance from the Sun, accurately to one part in 500. But this required two simultaneous measurements, not an easy feat in those days, although it could be compensated for by measuring the time duration of transit. Marshall reported that people sought to employ Halley's method with the transits of Venus in 1761 and 1769.
    [Show full text]
  • Appendix A: Educational Resources in Astronomy
    Appendix A: Educational Resources in Astronomy A.I Planetariums, Museums, and Exhibits A.I.I Planetariums and Museums in the United Kingdom England - AAC Planetarium, Amateur Astronomy Centre, Bacup Road, Clough Bank, Tod­ morden, Lancs. OLl4 7HW. Tel: 0706816964. - British Museum, Great Russell Street, London WC1B 3DG; Tel: 071-323 8395 ext. 395. Astronomical clocks. - British Museum (Natural History), Cromwell Road, South Kensington, London SW7 5BD; Tel: 071-938 9123. Extensive meteorite collection. - Caird Planetarium, Old Royal Observatory, Greenwich, London SE 10. - William Day Planetarium, Plymouth Polytechnic, School of Maritime Studies, Ply- mouth PL4 8AA. Tel: 0752 264666. - Electrosonic Ltd., 815 Woolwich Road, London SE7 8LT. - Greenwich Planetarium, South Building, Greenwich Park, Greenwich, London SE 10. Tel: 081-858 1167. - William Herschel House and Museum, 19 New King Street, Bath, BA1 2Bl. Con­ tact: Dr. A.V. Sims, 30 Meadow Park, Bathford, Bath; Tel: 0225 859529. Open Mar-Oct daily 2-5 pm, Nov-Feb Sundays only, 2-5 pm. - lodrell Bank Planetarium and Visitor Center, Lower Withington, Nr. Macclesfield, Cheshire SK11 9DL; Tel: 0477 71339. - Kings Observatory, Kew, Old Deer Park, Richmond, Surrey TW9 2AZ. - University of Leicester, The Planetarium, Department of Astronomy, University Road, Leicester LEI 7RH; Tel: 0533 522522. - Liverpool Museum Planetarium, William Brown Street, Liverpool, Merseyside L3 8EN. Tel: 051-2070001 ext. 225. - London Planetarium, Marylebone Road, London NW1 5LR; Tel: 071-486 1121 (9:30--5:30), 071-486 1121 (recording). - City of London Polytechnic, The Planetarium, 100 Minories, Tower Hill, London EC3N BY. 071-283 1030. - London Schools Planetarium, John Archer School Building, Wandsworth Rd., Sutherland Grove, London SW18; Tel: 081-788 4253.
    [Show full text]
  • Kiss of the Goddess | the Economist
    5/9/2016 Kiss of the goddess | The Economist Transits of Venus Kiss of the goddess Venus will soon cross the face of the sun, and astronomers around the world will have a party May 27th 2004 | From the print edition FOR about six hours on Tuesday June 8th, the sun will be fainter than usual. There is no need to panic. It will fade by a mere 0.1%. Only a diligent observer with the correct viewing equipment will notice something odd: there will be a small, dark dot on the disc of the sun, like a solitary pea on a yellow dinner plate. The pea is Venus, passing directly between Earth and the sun for the first time since 1882. Insignificant though it may seem, this rare celestial event, a “transit of Venus”, was once thought a key to understanding the universe. Two and a half centuries ago, countries dispatched astronomers on risky and expensive expeditions to observe transits from far-flung points across the globe. By doing this, they hoped to make a precise measurement of the distance to the sun and thus acquire an accurate yardstick by which the distance to everything else in the solar system could be measured. Though this quest fell short of its goal, it did produce a much better estimate of that distance. It also produced some interesting spin-offs, such as the invention of the movie camera and the discovery of Australia's Great Barrier Reef. In any case, astronomers—both professional and amateur—are eagerly awaiting the forthcoming transit so that they can commune with the shades of their predecessors.
    [Show full text]
  • The Transit of Venus, 1639 Jeremiah Horrocks and William Crabtree
    THE TRANSIT OF VENUS, 1639 JEREMIAH HORROCKS AND WILLIAM CRABTREE A Selected Bibliography Primary Sources Horrox, Jeremiah., Venus in Sole Visa, reproduced (in English) in Memoir of the Life and Labours of the Reverend Jeremiah Horrox, by Rev. Arundell Blount Whatton, pub. Wertheim, Macintosh and Hunt, 1859, pp.109-216 Secondary Sources Papers and Articles AMC, Horrocks, Jeremiah (1617?-1641), National Dictionary of Biography, pp.1267-1269 Applebaum, W., and Hatch, R.A., Boulliau, Mercator and Horrocks's "Venus in Sole Venus": Three unpublished letters, Journal for the History of Astronomy, Vol.14, part 3, No. 41, pp.174-175 […], October 1983 Applebaum, Wilbur, Horrocks, Jeremiah, Dictionary of Scientific Biography, Vol.6 (1972), pp.514- 516 Bailey, John E., Jeremiah Horrox, The Observatory, 1883, No.79, pp.318-328 Barocas, V., A Country Curate, Quarterly Journal of the Royal Astronomical Society, Vol. 12, 1971, pp.179-182 Bulpit, W.T., Misconceptions concerning Jeremiah Horrocks, the Astronomer, The Observatory, Vol.27, September 1911, No.478, pp.335-337 (illustrations: plate facing p.335 showing Hoole Church, Carr House and stained glass memorial window at Hoole Church) Chapman, Allan, Jeremiah Horrocks, the Transit of Venus, and the 'New Astronomy' in early seventeenth-century England, Quarterly Journal of the Royal Astronomical Society, Vol. 31, 1996, p.333-357 Clark, G.Napier, Sketch of the Life and Works of Rev.Jeremiah Horrox, Journal of the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada, Vol.10, No.10, December 1916, pp.523-536 (illustrations:
    [Show full text]
  • PDF Click to View Or Download
    Learning Outcomes in Focus Contextual strand: PW3 Students should be able to investigate patterns and relationships between physical observables. INVESTIGATE: Observe, study or make detailed and systematic examination, in order to establish facts and reach new conclusions Nature of science: NoS1 Students should be able to appreciate how scientists work and how scientific ideas are modified over time. APPRECIATE: Have a practical understanding of Learning Intentions As this activity relates to many learning outcomes, including those above, be sure to decide on the specific Learning intentions you have for your class if they are to engage with this activity. Introduction and Teacher Background Students will use a light sensor at the beginning of this activity. A light sensor is an electronic device used to detect light. They usually consist of a photoelectric cell which converts light energy into electrical energy. (You might see links to PW5 and PW6). While the unit LUX is in fact itself a derived unit (Lumen m-2), it is a measure of the light intensity as perceived by the human eye and so students will explore light intensity in lux as a physical observable and investigate its relationship to distance from a source and varied obstacles. In the second half of this activity students will try to apply what they have learned to analyse data from the NASA Kepler mission. While in the initial part of the activity variation in light intensity was achieved by allowing a pendulum to swing over and back in front of a light source, a similar pattern, including regular drops in light intensity, would also be achieved as a planet rotated around a star.
    [Show full text]