Patterns in the sky 

■ The patterns of stars seen in the sky → ​constellations

■ During the night the constellations seem to move smoothly across the sky from east
to west.
■ Longitude (along the rotation direction of Earth) - Starts from Greenwich, plus values
towards East, minus values towards West.
■ Latitude (subtended from Equator) - Starts from Equator, plus values towards North,
minus values towards South.

Circling the sky 

■ Two angle measurements are required to locate any object on the local sky.
■ Each angle has a ​zero point.
1. Azimuth (direction) - Starts from North, measured along East, South, West
and back to North
2. Altitude (elevation) - Starts from the horizon rises upto Zenith (direction where
your head is pointing).
The Local Sky:​ The sky as seen from wherever you happen to be standing. The zenith is
where your head is pointing upwards when you stand. The meridian is an imaginary half
circle: North → Zenith → South.
A lunar eclipse occurs when Earth lies directly between the Sun
and the Moon, so that Earth’s shadow falls on the Moon.
• A solar eclipse occurs when the Moon lies directly between the
Sun and Earth, so that the Moon’s shadow falls on Earth. People
living within the area covered by the Moon’s shadow will see the
Sun blocked or partially blocked from view.
Solstices and Equinoxes
■ Summer Solstice​: the point on the ecliptic where the sun is at its Northen most point
above the celestial equator.
■ Equinoxes​: the two points where the ecliptic intersects the celestial equator (short
for ​equal day and night​)
■ Vernal (spring) Equinox:

 
■ associated with the end of winter
■ the start of a new growing season

The reason for seasons 

■ Equinoxes​: the two points where the ecliptic intersects the celestial equator (short
 
for ​equal day and night​)

The Moon: Our constant 

companion 
Distinctive Phases:

■ New Moon: not visible (The Moon cannot be distinguished from Sun's light)
■ First and Third Quarters: The angle between Sun - Earth - Moon is 90 degrees
■ Full Moon: The disk of the Moon is fully illuminated by the Sun.
■ Sideral Month:​ The time required to complete one revolution around Earth with
respect to background stars → 27.3 days (360 degree rotation around the Earth).

■ Synodic Month:​ The period of completing phase cycle (eg. New Moon to New
Moon) → 29.5 days (takes longer than Sideral Month).
The Doppler effect tells us how fast an object is moving toward or away from us. Spectral
lines are shifted to shorter wavelengths (a blueshift) for objects moving toward us and to
longer wavelengths (a redshift) for objects moving away from us.

Kirchoff Laws (1859)

1. A luminous solid or liquid, or a sufficiently dense gas, emits light of all wavelengths
and so produces a continous spectrum
2. A low density, hot gas emits light whose spectrum consists of a series of bright
emission lines that are characteristic of the chemical composition of the gas.
3. A cool, thin gas absorbs cerain wavelength from a continous spectrum, leaving dark
absorbtion lines in their place, superimposed on the continous spectrum.

Types of Telescope Designs

■ Prime Focus
■ Single reflection from the primary mirror. Difficult to orient and observe
■ Newtonian.
■ Double reflection. The light beam is directed outside of the tube, just before it
is focused using a secondary mirror.
■ Cassegrain.
■ Double reflection. The same as Newtonian however the light beam is
reflected back to the primary which passes through the hole at the center of
the primary.
■ Nasmyth / Coude.
■ Triple reflection. The same as Cassegrain however the light beam is
deflected outside the tube before it reaches to the primary.
 Measuring the Planets 
Distance
■ Known by ​Kepler's Law

Orbital Period
■ Obtained by ​observation​: repeated observation of its location on the sky

Radius
■ Known by its ​angular size

Mass
■ Known by ​Newton's Law​: gravity of moon's orbits around the planets

Rotation Period
■ Obtained by ​observation​: repeated observation of the disk of planets
Density
■ Obtained by ​calculation​: if radius and mass known
■ Mercury​ and ​Venus​ are difficult to determine. They produce small but measurable
effects on each other's orbits as well as that of Earth i.e wobbles.
■ Ceres​ is the most difficult one because of its very weak gravity.
■ Now ​space probes​ are used to measure these parameters
■ Sun​ occupies ​99.9%​ of the solar system!