Lecture 1 - Introduction - A Modern View of the Universe Lecture 2 - The Starry Night, Seasons and Time

● Light year - distance light can travel in 1 year ● A constellation is a region of the sky and 88 constellations fill the
○ If an object is 4 light years away you are viewing it as it was 4 entire sky
years ago ● Celestial sphere - 88 official constellations cover the celestial sphere
○ The farther away we look in distance, the further back we look ● The Ecliptic is the sun’s apparent path through the celestial sphere
in time ● North and south celestial pole, directly above North and south pole
● Earth is part of the solar system, which is the MIlky Way Galaxy, ● Celestial equator - projection of Earth’s equator onto sky
which is a member of the local Group supercluster ● The Local sky - an object’s altitude(above horizon) and
● The observable universe is 14 billion light-years in radius and azimuth(direction along horizon) determine location in local sky
contains over 100 billion galaxies with a total number of star ● Meridian - line passing through zenith connecting N and S points
comparable to the number of grains of sand on all of Earth’s beaches ● Zenith - the point directly overhead
● Star - a large, glowing ball of gas that generates heat and light ● Right ascension: like longitude on celestial sphere
through nuclear fusion ● Declination : like latitude on celestial sphere
● Planet - a moderately large objects that orbits a star; it shines by ● Stars rise and set due to Earth’s rotation
reflected light. They may be rocky, icy, or gaseous in composition ● Axis tilt is the key to the seasons; without it, we wouldn’t have any
● Moon - an object that orbits a planet ● Although the axis seems fixed on human time scale it actually
● Asteroid - A relatively small and rocky object that orbits a star processes over about 26,000 years, positions of equinoxes shift
● Comet - A relatively small and icy object that orbits a star around orbit
● Solar ( Star) system - a star and all the material that orbits it, including ● Sidereal day ( 23 hrs 55 min 4 secs ) vs solar day (24 hrs)
its planets and moons ● Sidereal month (27.3 days) vs Synodic month ( 29.5 days)
● Nebula - an interstellar cloud of gas and/or dust ● Difference between a planet's sidereal and synodic period depend
● Galaxy - a great island of stars in space, all held together by gravity how far they move in a year

Lecture 3 - Lunar Phenomena Lecture 4 - Harmony of the sphere & starry messengers
● Lunar phases are consequence of the Moon’s 27.3 day orbit ● Greeks were the first people known to make models of nature
● Moon takes about 29.5 days to go through whole cycle of ● Eratosthenes calculated circumference of Earth within 5%(42k km)
phases(synodic month) ● Greeks believed in geocentrism and object orbit in perfect circles
● Phases are due to different amount of sunlit portion being visible from ● Most sophisticated geocentric model was that of Ptolemy
earth ○ Sufficiently accurate to remain in use for 1500 years
● New,crescent,first quart,gibbous,full gibbous,last quart,crescent ● Copernicus proposed a Sun-centered model (1543) but it was no
● Waxing is when it get “fuller” and is visible in afternoon/evening more accurate than the Ptolemaic model; it still used perfect circles
● Waning is when gets “less full” and visible in late night/morning ● Tycho compiled the most accurate naked eye measurements ever
● Moon is tidally locked to Earth, its rotation rate is the same as the made of planetary positions, hired kepler to discover truth
time it takes to make on revolution, we only see same side ● Kepler tried to match Tycho's circular observation but led to ellipses
● When either earth/moon pass through each other’s shadow it create ● Kepler’s First Law: the orbit of each planet around the sun is an
an eclipse ellipse with the Sun at one focus
● Lunar eclipses only occur at full moon, can be penumbral ● Eccentricity (c/a) Perihelion (a(1-e)) and Aphelion (a(1+e))
● Solar eclipses can occur only at new moon ● Kepler’s Second Law: As a planet moves around its orbit, it sweeps
● Eclipses don’t occur eerie month because Earth’s and Moon’s orbits out equal areas in equal times
are not in the same plane ● Kepler’s Third Law: modre distant planets orbit the sun at slower
● Eclipses recur with 18 year, 11 ⅓ day saros cycle average speeds (p2=a3 | p = orbital period in years , a = avg distance
● Moon has large dark flat areas due to lava flow (maria) and craters from sun in AU (aka semimajor axis) )
from meteorite (leaves regolith) in various sizes ● Galileo overcame 3 major objections: 1. Proving Newton's first law of
motion, 2. Proving moon/sun are not a perfect sphere, 3. Shows stars
much farther than Tycho thought, also saw 4 moons orbiting jupiter
 Lecture 5 - On the Shoulders of Giants Lecture 6 - Light:The Messenger
- Speed: rate at which object moves and velocity is speed and direction - The warmth of sunlight tells us that light is a form of energy
- Acceleration: any change in velocity and gravity is about 10m/s2 - We can measure the flow of energy in light in units of watts(joule/s)
- Mass: the amount of matter in an object - Matter can emit, absorb,transmit and reflect/scatter light
- Weight - the force that acts upon an object (weightless in free fall) - When light passes through a window, it is transmitted
- Newton’s First law of motion: an object moves at constant velocity - Mirror reflects light in a particular direction, and movie in all
unless a net force acts to change its speed or direction - Light can act either like a wave or like a particle
- Newton’s Second law of Motion: Force = mass x acceleration - Particles of light are called photons
- Newton’s Third law of Motion: for every force, there is always an - A wave is pattern of motion that can carry energy without carrying
equal and opposite reaction force matter along with i t
- Objects continue at constant velocity because of conservation of - A light wave is a vibration of electric and magnetic fields. Light
momentum. interacts with charged particles through these electric and magnetic
- Angular momentum = mass x velocity x radius fields
- Angular momentum conservation also explains why objects rotate - Electromagnetic waves: Oscillating electric and magnetic fields.
faster as they shrink in radius Changing electric field creates magnetic field, and vice versa
- The universal law of gravitation: - Wavelength x frequency = speed of light (3x108)
- Every mass attracts every other mass - Photon Energy = frequency x planck’s constant (6.626 x 10-34)
- Attraction is directly proportional to the product of their masses - The electromagnetic spectrum is the spectrum of lights of all
- Attraction is inversely proportional to the square of the frequency
distance between their centers - Human eyes can not see most forms of light
- Fg = G (M1M2) / d2 - The entire range of wavelengths of light is known as the
- Size of tides depends on phase of Moon, moon’s gravity causes tides electromagnetic spectrum

Lecture 7 - Light Matter and Energy Lecture 8

- Atom contains an electron cloud and surrounding nuclei - Refraction is the bending of light when it passes from one substance
- Atomic number = # of protons in nucleus into another
- Atomic mass number = # of protons + neutrons - The focal plane is where light from different directions comes into
- Molecules: consist of two or more atoms focus
- Isotopes: same # of protons but different # of neutron - Camera focus light like your eye and record the image with a detector
- Continuous spectrum: spectrum of common (incandescent) light bulb - Light-collecting area: Telescopes with a larger collecting area can
spans all visible wavelength, without interruption gather a greater amount of light in a shorter time.
- Absorption Line spectrum: A cloud of gas between us and a light bulb - Angular resolution: telescopes that are larger are capable of taking
can absorb light of specific wavelengths, leaving dark absorption lines images with greater detail
- Emission line spectrum: a thin or low-density cloud of gas emits light - Light-gathering power:Improves detail
only at specific wavelengths that depend on its composition and - Brightness proportional to square of radius of mirror: A = pi(d/2) 2
temperature, producing a spectrum with bright emission lines - The minimum angular separation that the telescope can distinguish
- Thermal Radiation | nearly all large dense objects emit thermal - Larger the resolution, the smaller the refraction
radiation, thermal radiation spectrum depends on temperature - 1/3600 degree = 1 arcsecond
- Hotter objects emit more light at all frequencies and photons with - If the angular separation of 2 objects is > the angular resolution of
higher average energy telescope, then the telescope can resolve the objects
- Doppler shift tells us ONLY about the part of the object’s motion - The diffraction Limit of a telescope is the angular resolution of a
towards (blueshift) or away (redshift) telescope if it were limited by ONLY interference of light waves
- To determine velocity Vrad / c = wavelengthshift - wavelengthreset / - Refracting telescope: focuses light with lenses
wavelengthreset | c = speed of light - Need to be very long, with large heavy lenses, top heavy
- Each atom has a unique fingerprint - Reflecting telescope focuses light with mirrors
- Wien’s Displacement Law: Lambdamax = 0.0029 (meters Kelvin)/T(Kelvin) - Can have much greater diameters, very bottom heavy