GCSE (9-1) Astronomy Distance Learning

Total Page:16

File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb

GCSE (9-1) Astronomy Distance Learning New Pupil Toolkit for GCSE (9-1) Astronomy GCSE (9-1) Astronomy Pupil Worksheet Week 9 Topic 6.6 Spec. refs 6.15, 6.16, 6.17, 6.18 Assume that the declination of Polaris is +90°. 1. An observer sees a star crossing her meridian. What is the astronomical name for such an event? Choose from: eclipse occultation transit Your answer: . (1) 2. Which of the following could you use to determine the altitude of the Pole Star? x A altimeter x B clinometer x C planisphere x D polarimeter (1) 3. An astronomy student determines that the altitude of Polaris is 55°. What is the latitude of the student’s location? Your answer: . (2) New Pupil Toolkit for GCSE (9-1) Astronomy © Mickledore Publishing 2017 New Pupil Toolkit for GCSE (9-1) Astronomy 4. Deduce whether or not the following stars would be circumpolar from the corresponding locations: (a) Thuban (declination +64°) from Edinburgh (latitude 56° N) Your answer: . (b) Vega (declination +39°) from Istanbul (latitude 41° N) Your answer: . (c) UMi (declination +49°) from Athens (latitude 38° N) Your answer: . (d) Vel (declination -55°) from Wellington, NZ (latitude 41° S) Your answer: . (4) 5. By how many degrees does the Earth rotate in 8 hours? Choose from: 80° 120° 240° Your answer: . (1) 6. How long does it take for the Earth to rotate through an angle of 60°? Your answer: . hours (1) 7. Which of the following shows the correct relationship for a star to be circumpolar? x A latitude of observer < polar distance of star x B latitude of observer < declination of star x C polar distance of star < latitude of observer x D polar distance of star < declination of star (1) New Pupil Toolkit for GCSE (9-1) Astronomy © Mickledore Publishing 2017 New Pupil Toolkit for GCSE (9-1) Astronomy Question 8 - 11. The diagram shows the paths taken by two stars V and W around the Pole Star during one complete rotation of the Earth. The local meridian of an observer is also shown. local meridian star V X star W 8. In which compass direction is the observer looking? Your answer: . (1) 9. Which of the following statements is correct? x A Both V and W are circumpolar from this latitude. x B Neither V and W are circumpolar from this latitude. x C Only star V is circumpolar from this latitude. x D Only star W is circumpolar from this latitude. (1) 10. At 22:00 GMT, star V is located at position X. On the diagram, draw the position of star V at 04:00 GMT on the same night. Use the letter Y. (1) 11. Star W crosses the observer’s meridian twice in one day. What is the astronomical name given to the event when star W crosses the observer’s local meridian at its lowest altitude? Choose from: culmination lower transit northern transit upper transit Your answer: . (1) New Pupil Toolkit for GCSE (9-1) Astronomy © Mickledore Publishing 2017 New Pupil Toolkit for GCSE (9-1) Astronomy Solutions 1. transit (1 mark) 2. B (1) 3. 55° (1) north (1) 4 (a) circumpolar (1) (b) not circumpolar (1) (c) not circumpolar (1) (d) circumpolar (1) 5. 120° (1) 6. 4 hours (1) 7. C (1) 8. north (1) 9. D (1) 10. Y correctly shown at ’12 o’clock’ (1) local meridian Y (1) star V X star W 11. lower transit (1) Your score: / 15 New Pupil Toolkit for GCSE (9-1) Astronomy © Mickledore Publishing 2017 .
Recommended publications
  • Basic Principles of Celestial Navigation James A
    Basic principles of celestial navigation James A. Van Allena) Department of Physics and Astronomy, The University of Iowa, Iowa City, Iowa 52242 ͑Received 16 January 2004; accepted 10 June 2004͒ Celestial navigation is a technique for determining one’s geographic position by the observation of identified stars, identified planets, the Sun, and the Moon. This subject has a multitude of refinements which, although valuable to a professional navigator, tend to obscure the basic principles. I describe these principles, give an analytical solution of the classical two-star-sight problem without any dependence on prior knowledge of position, and include several examples. Some approximations and simplifications are made in the interest of clarity. © 2004 American Association of Physics Teachers. ͓DOI: 10.1119/1.1778391͔ I. INTRODUCTION longitude ⌳ is between 0° and 360°, although often it is convenient to take the longitude westward of the prime me- Celestial navigation is a technique for determining one’s ridian to be between 0° and Ϫ180°. The longitude of P also geographic position by the observation of identified stars, can be specified by the plane angle in the equatorial plane identified planets, the Sun, and the Moon. Its basic principles whose vertex is at O with one radial line through the point at are a combination of rudimentary astronomical knowledge 1–3 which the meridian through P intersects the equatorial plane and spherical trigonometry. and the other radial line through the point G at which the Anyone who has been on a ship that is remote from any prime meridian intersects the equatorial plane ͑see Fig.
    [Show full text]
  • Capricious Suntime
    [Physics in daily life] I L.J.F. (Jo) Hermans - Leiden University, e Netherlands - [email protected] - DOI: 10.1051/epn/2011202 Capricious suntime t what time of the day does the sun reach its is that the solar time will gradually deviate from the time highest point, or culmination point, when on our watch. We expect this‘eccentricity effect’ to show a its position is exactly in the South? e ans - sine-like behaviour with a period of a year. A wer to this question is not so trivial. For ere is a second, even more important complication. It is one thing, it depends on our location within our time due to the fact that the rotational axis of the earth is not zone. For Berlin, which is near the Eastern end of the perpendicular to the ecliptic, but is tilted by about 23.5 Central European time zone, it may happen around degrees. is is, aer all, the cause of our seasons. To noon, whereas in Paris it may be close to 1 p.m. (we understand this ‘tilt effect’ we must realise that what mat - ignore the daylight saving ters for the deviation in time time which adds an extra is the variation of the sun’s hour in the summer). horizontal motion against But even for a fixed loca - the stellar background tion, the time at which the during the year. In mid- sun reaches its culmination summer and mid-winter, point varies throughout the when the sun reaches its year in a surprising way.
    [Show full text]
  • Lunar Motion Motion A
    2 Lunar V. Lunar Motion Motion A. The Lunar Calendar Dr. Bill Pezzaglia B. Motion of Moon Updated 2012Oct30 C. Eclipses 3 1. Phases of Moon 4 A. The Lunar Calendar 1) Phases of the Moon 2) The Lunar Month 3) Calendars based on Moon b). Elongation Angle 5 b.2 Elongation Angle & Phase 6 Angle between moon and sun (measured eastward along ecliptic) Elongation Phase Configuration 0º New Conjunction 90º 1st Quarter Quadrature 180º Full Opposition 270º 3rd Quarter Quadrature 1 b.3 Elongation Angle & Phase 7 8 c). Aristarchus 275 BC Measures the elongation angle to be 87º when the moon is at first quarter. Using geometry he determines the sun is 19x further away than the moon. [Actually its 400x further !!] 9 Babylonians (3000 BC) note phases are 7 days apart 10 2. The Lunar Month They invent the 7 day “week” Start week on a) The “Week” “moon day” (Monday!) New Moon First Quarter b) Synodic Month (29.5 days) Time 0 Time 1 week c) Spring and Neap Tides Full Moon Third Quarter New Moon Time 2 weeks Time 3 weeks Time 4 weeks 11 b). Stone Circles 12 b). Synodic Month Stone circles often have 29 stones + 1 xtra one Full Moon to Full Moon off to side. Originally there were 30 “sarson The cycle of stone” in the outer ring of Stonehenge the Moon’s phases takes 29.53 days, or ~4 weeks Babylonians measure some months have 29 days (hollow), some have 30 (full). 2 13 c1). Tidal Forces 14 c). Tides This animation illustrates the origin of tidal forces.
    [Show full text]
  • Using the SFA Star Charts and Understanding the Equatorial Coordinate System
    Using the SFA Star Charts and Understanding the Equatorial Coordinate System SFA Star Charts created by Dan Bruton of Stephen F. Austin State University Notes written by Don Carona of Texas A&M University Last Updated: August 17, 2020 The SFA Star Charts are four separate charts. Chart 1 is for the north celestial region and chart 4 is for the south celestial region. These notes refer to the equatorial charts, which are charts 2 & 3 combined to form one long chart. The star charts are based on the Equatorial Coordinate System, which consists of right ascension (RA), declination (DEC) and hour angle (HA). From the northern hemisphere, the equatorial charts can be used when facing south, east or west. At the bottom of the chart, you’ll notice a series of twenty-four numbers followed by the letter “h”, representing “hours”. These hour marks are right ascension (RA), which is the equivalent of celestial longitude. The same point on the 360 degree celestial sphere passes overhead every 24 hours, making each hour of right ascension equal to 1/24th of a circle, or 15 degrees. Each degree of sky, therefore, moves past a stationary point in four minutes. Each hour of right ascension moves past a stationary point in one hour. Every tick mark between the hour marks on the equatorial charts is equal to 5 minutes. Right ascension is noted in ( h ) hours, ( m ) minutes, and ( s ) seconds. The bright star, Antares, in the constellation Scorpius. is located at RA 16h 29m 30s. At the left and right edges of the chart, you will find numbers marked in degrees (°) and being either positive (+) or negative(-).
    [Show full text]
  • Astronomy: Space Systems
    Solar system SCIENCE Astronomy: Space Systems Teacher Guide Patterns in the night sky Space exploration Eclipses CKSci_G5Astronomy Space Systems_TG.indb 1 27/08/19 8:07 PM CKSci_G5Astronomy Space Systems_TG.indb 2 27/08/19 8:07 PM Astronomy: Space Systems Teacher Guide CKSci_G5Astronomy Space Systems_TG.indb 1 27/08/19 8:07 PM Creative Commons Licensing This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. You are free: to Share—to copy, distribute, and transmit the work to Remix—to adapt the work Under the following conditions: Attribution—You must attribute the work in the following manner: This work is based on an original work of the Core Knowledge® Foundation (www.coreknowledge.org) made available through licensing under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. This does not in any way imply that the Core Knowledge Foundation endorses this work. Noncommercial—You may not use this work for commercial purposes. Share Alike—If you alter, transform, or build upon this work, you may distribute the resulting work only under the same or similar license to this one. With the understanding that: For any reuse or distribution, you must make clear to others the license terms of this work. The best way to do this is with a link to this web page: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/ Copyright © 2019 Core Knowledge Foundation www.coreknowledge.org All Rights Reserved. Core Knowledge®, Core Knowledge Curriculum Series™, Core Knowledge Science™, and CKSci™ are trademarks of the Core Knowledge Foundation.
    [Show full text]
  • Little Things 02 Content Overview C Coaches Captains Athletes Parents
    WEEK LITTLE THINGS 02 CONTENT OVERVIEW C COACHES CAPTAINS ATHLETES PARENTS Demonstrate how Earn the title Control little day- Enjoy the the little things of Leader through to-day things to little things. build to create the small acts. gain control of the big differences. big things. LITTLE THINGS Everyone loves celebrating the big things. The trophies, the big wins, the acceptance letters. They’re all big achievements, and they are certainly worthy of celebration, but people tend to forget all of the little things that had to happen to make those big things a reality. Every goal achieved is a culmination of a lot of little actions. Reaching a new squat PR is a culmination of thousands of single reps made over the course of days, weeks, and years. Beating our best time is a culmination of shaving thousandths of a second off laps made over the course of days, weeks, and years. It all requires steadfast purpose and the will to persevere to get just one more rep, just one more lap, add just one more pound, drop just one more tenth of a second. But, because the focus is so often on celebrating the big things instead of the little victories, we sometimes buy the lie that it’s only important to be successful in the big things. That if we’re excellent on game day, we don’t have to work as hard in the off-season, or excel in the classroom. It doesn’t work that way, though. How we handle the little things expresses how we’ll handle the bigs things.
    [Show full text]
  • What Is a Lunar Standstill III |
    Documenta Praehistorica XLIII (2016) What is a lunar standstill III 1| Lionel Sims University of East London, London, UK [email protected] ABSTRACT – Prehistoric monument alignments on lunar standstills are currently understood for hori- zon range, perturbation event, crossover event, eclipse prediction, solstice full Moon and the solari- sation of the dark Moon. The first five models are found to fail the criteria of archaeoastronomy field methods. The final model of lunar-solar conflation draws upon all the observed components of lunar standstills – solarised reverse phased sidereal Moons culminating in solstice dark Moons in a roughly nine-year alternating cycle between major and minor standstills. This lunar-solar conflation model is a syncretic overlay upon an antecedent Palaeolithic template for lunar scheduled rituals and amenable to transformation. IZVLE∞EK – Poravnava prazgodovinskih spomenikov na Lunine zastoje se trenutno sklepa za razpon horizonta, perturbacijo, prehod Lune, napovedovanje Luninih mrkov, polne lune na solsticij in sola- rizacije mlaja. Prvih pet modelov ne zadostuje kriterijem arheoastronomskih terenskih metod. Zad- nji model lunarno-solarne zamenjave temelji na vseh opazovanih komponentah Luninega zastoja – solarizirane obrnjene Lune, ki kulminirajo v mlaju v solsticiju v devetletnem izmeni≠nem ciklu med najve≠jim in najmanj∏im zastojem. Ta lunarno-solarni model je postavljen na temeljih predhodne paleolitske predloge za na≠rtovanje lunarnih ritualov in je dojemljiv za preobrazbe. KEY WORDS – lunar standstill; synodic; sidereal; lunar-solar; syncretic Introduction Thom’s publications between 1954 and 1975 galva- properties of prehistoric monument ‘astronomical’ nised a generation – with horror among many ar- alignments to trace their variable engagement by chaeologists and inspiration for others, some of different researchers.
    [Show full text]
  • Arxiv:1708.07700V3 [Physics.Ed-Ph] 31 Aug 2017 Zon to the South
    AstroEDU manuscript no. astroedu1645 c AstroEDU 2017 September 1, 2017 Navigation in the Ancient Mediterranean and Beyond M. Nielbock Haus der Astronomie, Campus MPIA, Königstuhl 17, D-69117 Heidelberg, Germany e-mail: [email protected] Received August 8, 2016; accepted March 2, 2017 ABSTRACT This lesson unit has been developed within the framework the EU Space Awareness project. It provides an insight into the history and navigational methods of the Bronze Age Mediterranean peoples. The students explore the link between exciting history and astronomical knowledge. Besides an overview of ancient seafaring in the Mediterranean, the students explore in two hands-on activities early navigational skills using the stars and constellations and their apparent nightly movement across the sky. In the course of the activities, they become familiar with the stellar constellations and how they are distributed across the northern and southern sky. Key words. navigation, astronomy, ancient history, Bronze Age, geography, stars, Polaris, North Star, latitude, meridian, pole height, circumpolar, celestial navigation, Mediterranean 1. Background information the celestial poles. Archaeological evidence from prehistoric eras like burials and the orientation of buildings demonstrates that the 1.1. Cardinal directions cardinal directions were common knowledge in a multitude of The cardinal directions are defined by astronomical processes cultures already many millennia ago. Therefore, it is obvious that like diurnal and annual apparent movements of the Sun and the they were applied to early navigation. The magnetic compass was apparent movements of the stars. In ancient and prehistoric times, unknown in Europe until the 13th century CE (Lane 1963). the sky certainly had a different significance than today.
    [Show full text]
  • Distinctive Traditions of Epiphany by Amber and John Inscore Essick
    Copyright © 2011 Center for Christian Ethics at Baylor University Distinctive Traditions of Epiphany BY AMBER AND JOHN INSCORE ESSICK The Epiphany feast completes the season of Christmas by inviting us to discern the identity of the Christ child. Three traditions—baking a Kings’ Cake, marking a door lintel with the Magi’s blessing, and elaborating worship with lighted candles—help us interpret the Christmas season appropriately. o celebrate the feast of Epiphany is to continue down the liturgical path that originates in the anticipatory weeks of Advent. The feast Tcompletes the season of Christmas by inviting us to discern the identity of the Christ child. Like the Magi who anticipated, recognized, and welcomed the infant king, congregations and families can recognize and proclaim the appearance of God’s chosen one. Thus, Epiphany is the culmination of the Christmas season, not its ending. Recovering three historical Epiphany traditions—baking a Kings’ Cake, marking a door lintel with the Magi’s blessing, and elaborating worship with lighted candles—can help God’s people interpret the Christmas season appropriately. The KINGs’ CAKE Just as the Magi made a careful search for the child king upon his birth, so we should acknowledge that an important component of our faith involves seeking and searching for the Lord in unlikely places. One delightful way to celebrate Epiphany in the home is to prepare and eat a Kings’ Cake with friends and family. In this symbolic search for the baby Jesus, children and adults gather to eat a delicious cake or pastry with a toy baby hidden inside.
    [Show full text]
  • 11 · the Culmination of Greek Cartography in Ptolemy
    11 · The Culmination of Greek Cartography in Ptolemy o. A. w. DILKE WITH ADDITIONAL MATERIAL SUPPLIED BY THE EDITORS By the time of Marinus of Tyre (fl. A.D. 100) and Clau­ about his work remain unanswered. Little is known dius Ptolemy (ca. A.D. 90-168), Greek and Roman in­ about Ptolemy the man, and neither his birthplace nor fluences in cartography had been fused to a considerable his dates have been positively established.4 Moreover, extent into one tradition. There is a case, accordingly, in relation to the cartographic component in his writings, for treating them as a history of one already unified we must remember that no manuscript earlier than the stream of thought and practice. Here, however, though twelfth century A.D. has come down to us, and there is we accept that such a unity exists, the discussion is fo­ no adequate modern translation and critical edition of cused on the cartographic contributions of Marinus and the Geography.5 Perhaps most serious of all for the stu­ Ptolemy, both writing in Greek within the institutions dent of mapping, however, is the whole debate about of Roman society. Both men owed much to Roman the true authorship and provenance of the general and sources of information and to the extension ofgeograph­ regional maps that accompany the several versions of ical knowledge under the growing empire: yet equally, the Byzantine manuscripts (pp. 268-74 below). AI- in the case of Ptolemy especially, they represent a cul­ mination as well as a final synthesis of the scientific tradition in Greek cartography that has been traced through a succession of writers in the previous three 1.
    [Show full text]
  • Surveying by the Stars, Part II: Solar Observation (Hour-Angle Method) and Polaris Observation
    Surveying by the Stars, Part II: Solar Observation (Hour-Angle Method) and Polaris Observation Please obtain written permission from author/compiler Wayne Twigg, (copyright 2017 A.D.) before using for educational and instructional exercises. We Surveyors today record our measurements to [a supposed] accuracy of one second of arc. In fact, one second of arc subtends the width of a human hair at…….. Facts: Earth’s radius = 3,961± miles. At this place on the Earth’s surface, 1 second of Latitude = 101’±; 1 second of Longitude = 78’± “He must be blind who does not at once see, from the best and wisest structure of things, the infinite wisdom and goodness of their almighty Creator; and he must be mad who refuses to acknowledge them.” ….preface to the 2nd Edition of Sir Isaac Newton’s The Principia by Roger Cotes, Plumian Professor of Astronomy, Cambridge, England, 12 May 1713 Radio Station WWV broadcasts UTC time scale (Coordinated Universal Time). Available over shortwave radio at 2.5, 5, 10, 15 and 20 MHz. WWV telephone (303)499-7111. There is a time announcement delay of less than 30 ms (“land line”) and up to 150 ms (cell phone). To convert to UT1 (Survey Time), apply DUT correction in 0.1 seconds, which is encoded in the voice announcement as the number of double-ticks during the first 16 seconds of each minute; positive sign in seconds 1 – 8; negative sign in seconds 9 – 16. The Equator is perpendicular to the Poles. The Horizon is perpendicular to the Observer’s Zenith. Complementary angles: Latitude and Co-Latitude; Altitude and Zenith; Declination and Polar Distance.
    [Show full text]
  • Lab Experiment
    Lab 2 Observing the Sky 2.1 Introduction Early humans were fascinated by the order and harmony they observed in the celestial realm, the regular, predictable motions of Sun, Moon, planets, and “fixed” stars (organized into patterns called constellations). They watched stars rise in the east, their height (or altitude) above the horizon steadily increasing with each passing hour of the night. After they reached a high point, at culmination, they were observed to slowly set in the west. Other stars never rose or set, but rotated once a day around a fixed point in the sky (the celestial pole). The ancients recognized seven objects that moved slowly with respect to the fixed stars. These were the Sun, the Moon, and five bright planets (from the Greek word for “wandering star”). The Sun and Moon moved steadily eastward through a band of twelve constellations located above the Earth’s equator called the zodiac. As people spent a lot of time outdoors without artificial lighting, changes in the appearance of the Moon were obvious to them. They tracked the Moon’s phase (fractional illumination) from night to night, as it grew from new to full and back to new each month (or “moonth”). The Sun moves more slowly through the sky. Its journey once around the zodiac takes a full year, and its changing position heralds seasonal changes. The ancient Babylonians, Egyptians, Mayans, Chinese and other civilizations designed calendars based on their ob- servations of the Sun and Moon, and carefully watched the skies. In New Mexico, ancient pueblo peoples used celestial patterns to determine when to plant crops in spring, when to prepare irrigation ditches for summer rains, and how to orient buildings to maximize solar heating in winter.
    [Show full text]