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INTRODUCTION TO ASTRONOMY Overview FRONTIERS IN ASTRONOMY PHYS 271
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North America Landsat Satellite Images
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Earth from SPACE APOLLO 17 IMAGE
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Earth and Moon From Galileo Spacecraft on way to Jupiter
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Comparison of Earth and Moon Relative Diameters Earth ~ 8000 miles, Moon ~ 2160 miles
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Distance to the Moon About 240,000 miles (similar to the Diameter of Saturn’s Rings)
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The Moon Mare Orientale: a large lunar crater on the East Limb (edge). ~ 700 miles Diameter
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The Sun Much larger than the Planets
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The Sun The Chromosphere with a large Prominence (~ 864,000 miles in Diameter)
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The Corona in X-Rays Active regions (solar activity)
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The Astronomical Unit Average distance between Sun and Earth ~ 150 million Kilometers or 93 million miles
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Size of the Sun 109 times the diameter of Earth
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Relative Size of the Planets Pluto smaller than the Moon
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Orbits of the Planets Eccentricity and inclination of Pluto’s Orbit!
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The Sky – Celestial Sphere North and South Celestial Poles The Celestial Equator
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Rotation or Spin Rotation of the Earth - time scale Day 24 hours with respect to the Sun
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Rotation of SKY – Star Trails 23 hours and 56 minutes, diurnal motion
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Diurnal Motion Near Horizon Western or Eastern Horizon
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Circumpolar Stars or constellations They never set, 23 hours 56 minute clock
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Revolution The orbit of the Earth (sky changes)
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Constellations Chance alignments in different directions
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Summer Triangle Looking in different directions from Sun
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Winter Constellations Use your imagination – anthropomorphic
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Stars very far away Pleiades (A star cluster size of full Moon)
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Milky Way – Our Galaxy Looking toward Andromeda Nebula
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About 200 billion stars Some close, some intermediate, some far
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Andromeda Galaxy Nearest Major Galaxy – 2.7 million Light Years distant
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Clusters of Galaxies 100s or 1000s of individual galaxies!
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Giant Elliptical Galaxy Standard Candles Dominates Centers of most Clusters Among Brightness Objects we know
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Clusters more and more remote Billions of light years distant
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Hubble Deep Field Smallest blue objects more than 10 billion light years distant
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