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Astronomy for dummies - IIBY: informationishere | Category: Education | Post Date: 2008-08-03
I had talked about how to start with basic astronomy in my previous article. Constellations, star charts and some terminology was introduced in the article. We know how to spot the Ursa Major, Orion, Leo, Gemini and some other constellations. We also know how to get to the pole star from Ursa Major and then find the other geographical directions. the concept of zenith has been introduced. Now, lets continue from where we had left. There are a total of 88 constellations in the sky. The IAU has divided the complete sky into regions named after the constellations. In most star maps, these regions are marked by dashed lines. But, it is only possible to see half of the sky at a given point of time because the other half is below you hidden beneath the earth. the earth rotates about its axis. It appears like the stars are revolving around us. If you notice for a long time (for some hours), you will notice that they go in circles about a fixed axis. That fixed axis points towards the north pole or the pole star. This produces an interesting phenomena in the sky. Since the pole star is above the horizon, there can be some stars which never set because the circle they describe about the pole star does not cross the horizon. These stars are called circumpolar stars. Now, it is natural to think that if there some stars which never set for a given place, there can be some which never rise. Indeed, it is so for the stars near the south pole of the earth's rotation axis (NOT the geographical south pole). Lets go ahead and look at another interesting fact. let us assume that you are standing on a level ground at almost sea level. You take a stick and fix it in the ground in such a way that it points towards the pole star. Then, the angle the stick makes with the ground is the geographical latitude of the place. If you are at a certain altitude, this angle would be slightly different. So, lets see some interesting by-products of this. the latitude of the equator is 0 degrees. So, at the equator, that stick would be lying flat on the ground which means that the pole star would be on the horizon. On the contrary, at the north pole where the latitude is 90 degrees, the stick would stand upright pointing upwards. The pole star is towards zenith, directly overhead. Coming Up Next: Tricks and conventions of observational astronomy Introduction to zodiacs If you would like to hear about something else specifically, mail me at iammehul007@yahoo.com Article Source: http://www.saching.com About Author / Additional Info: Part 1: http://www.saching.com/Article/Astronomy-For-Dummies---Astronomy-For-Beginners/260 Part 3: http://www.saching.com/Article/Astronomy-for-Dummies-III--Observational-astronomy-and-clock-system/355 Mehul Jain - My Blog IIT Bombay AstroNUT Additional Articles: * Drill: A Handy Tool for the Modern Craftsman * Important sources of Omega-3 fatty acids * Girls in Software Industry: Changing face of Indian IT Industry * How to attract younger women? Tips for older men to date a young girl * What are the things that you should do if you have lost your job Does this article violate or infringe on your copyright ? It is a violation of our terms for authors to submit content which they did not write and claim it as their own. If this article infringes on your copyrights, then use our Contact us form with the detailed proof of infringement along with the offending article's title, URL and writer name. If you do not hear back from us then contact us again in another 10 days. Thank you. Comments on this article: (0 comments so far) * Additional comments are now closed for this article *
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