Lecture 1 Week 1:

Chapter 1

A Grand Tour of the Heavens

1.3 Finding Constellations in The Sky

People have given names to many star groups that sometimes

resembled some creatures or objects. These stars groups are called
constellations.
These constellations were given names, occasionally because they
resembled something (for example, Scorpius, the Scorpion), but
mostly to honor a hero or other subject of a story.
In 1930, the International Astronomical Union officially divided the
sky into 88 constellations.

The constellations give only the directions to

the stars. Individual stars in a constellation
are generally at quite different distances from
us.

https://stardate.org/nightsky/constellations
Thus, the constellations show where things
appear to be in the sky, but not what they are
like or what they are made of.
1.3 Finding Constellations in The Sky

Thus, the constellations show where things appear to be in the sky, but not what they are like or what
they are made of. In most of this course, you will study the “how and why” of astronomy, not merely
where things are located or what they are called. Still, it can be fun to look up at night and recognize the
patterns in the sky

Star groups made of parts of one or more constellations are called asterism. The Big Dipper is an
example of an asterism. It is part of the constellation Ursa Major (the Big Bear).

The Big Dipper (Asterism) Ursa Major (Constellation)

 1.3a The Autumn Sky

pointers

As it grows dark on an autumn evening, you Almost an equal distance on the other side of Polaris is a
will see the Pointers in the Big Dipper—the two “W”-shaped constellation named Cassiopeia. In Greek
end stars—point upward toward Polaris. mythology, Cassiopeia was married to Cepheus, the king
Known as the “north star,” Polaris is not one of of Ethiopia (and the subject of the constellation that
the brightest or nearest stars in the sky, but is neighbors Cassiopeia to the west). Cassiopeia appears
well known because it is close to the direction sitting on a chair.
of the celestial north pole.
1.3a The Autumn Sky

Location of Cassiopeia and

Cepheus compared to Polaris.
1 light year is the distance light travels in one year.
1 ly = 9.46 x 1015 m
It takes about 8.3 minutes for light from the Sun to reach
Earth.
distance to the Sun / speed of light = 500 seconds = 8.3
minutes
1.3b The Winter Sky Farther toward the east, rising earlier every evening, is the
constellation Orion, the Hunter. Orion is perhaps the easiest
constellation of all to pick out in the sky, for three bright stars
close together in a line make up its belt.

A reddish star, Betelgeuse (“bee'tl-juice” would not be far

wrong for pronunciation, though some say “beh'tl-jouz”),
marks Orion’s armpit, and symmetrically on the other side of
his belt, the bright bluish star Rigel (“rye'jel”) marks his heel.

Betelgeuse is an example of a red supergiant star; it is

hundreds of millions of kilometers across, far bigger itself than
the Earth’s orbit around the Sun!

Orion’s sword extends down from his belt. A telescope, or a

photograph, reveals a beautiful region known as the Great
Nebula in Orion, or the Orion Nebula. Its general shape can be
seen in even a smallish telescope; however, only photographs
clearly reveal the vivid colors that long telescopic exposure
show—though whether it is reddish or greenish in an image
depends on what kind of film is used. It is a site where new
stars are forming right now, as you read these words.
1.3b The Winter Sky
1.3b The Winter Sky

Sirius, the brightest star in the sky. Orion’s belt points

directly to it. Sirius appears blue-white, which indicates
that its surface is very hot. Sirius is so much brighter
than the other stars that it stands out to the naked eye.

It is part of the constellation Canis Major, the Big Dog.

(You can remember that it is near Orion by thinking of it
as Orion’s dog.)

Sirius

Canis Major
1.3b The Winter Sky

Canis Minor
1.3b The Winter Sky

2: Pollux
3: Castor
1.3b The Winter Sky
The 6th brightest star in the nigh sky.

Capella
Betelgeuse: Red Supergiant
If Betelgeuse is in the size of a football, Rigel will
Be in the size of a tennis ball

Rigel: Blue Supergiant

If Rigel is in the size of a football, the sun will
be in the size of a corn kernel
 Sirius B

Sirius

Sirius: brightest star in the night sky. Sirius B, is about as massive as the Sun,
binary start though much more condensed, and was the
Blue-white star first white dwarf star to be discovered.
25.4 times as luminous as the sun
1.71 times that of the sun
Temperature: 9,940 kelvins (K), which is
more than 4,000 K higher than that of the Sun.
Where is Polaris?

Where is Betelgeuse?
 Section 1.4 How do you take a tape measure to the stars?

• It is easy to see the direction to an object in the sky but much harder to find its distance.

• We can send people to the Moon and spacecraft to the other planets. We can even bounce radio waves
off the Moon, most of the other planets, and the Sun, and measure how long the radio waves’ round trip
takes to find out how far they have travelled.
• We can send people to the Moon and spacecraft to the other planets. We can even bounce radio waves
off the Moon, most of the other planets, and the Sun, and measure how long the radio waves’ round
trip takes to find out how far they have travelled.

• The distance (d) travelled by light or by an object is equal to the constant rate of travel (its speed v)
multiplied by the time (t) spent travelling (d= vt).

• If we were carrying on a conversation by radio with someone at the distance of the Moon,
there would be pauses of noticeable length after we finished seeking before we heard an
answer. This is because radio waves, take over a second to travel each way.

• Spacecraft roaming Mars have be autonomous to travel safely over rocky fields at any
reasonable speed.
Section 1.4 How do you take a tape measure to the stars?

• It is easy to see the direction to an object in the sky but much harder to find its distance.

• We can send people to the Moon and spacecraft to the other planets. We can even bounce radio waves
off the Moon, most of the other planets, and the Sun, and measure how long the radio waves’ round trip
takes to find out how far they have travelled.
• We can send people to the Moon and spacecraft to the other planets. We can even bounce radio waves
off the Moon, most of the other planets, and the Sun, and measure how long the radio waves’ round
trip takes to find out how far they have travelled.

• For the nearest hundreds of thousands of stars, we have recent results from a spacecraft that showed
how much their apparent position shifts when we look at them from slightly different angles
• For more distant stars, we find out how far away they are by comparing how bright they actually
(intrinsically) are and how bright they appear to be. We often tell their intrinsic brightness from looking
at their spectra, though we will also see other methods.
• For the nearest galaxies, we search for stars whose specific properties we recognize. Some of these stars
are thought to be identical in type to the same kinds of stars in our own Galaxy whose intrinsic brightnes
we know. Again, we can then compare intrinsic brightness with apparent brightness to give distance.
• For the farthest galaxies, as we shall discuss in Chapter 16, we find distances using the 1920s discovery
that shifts in color of the spectrum of a galaxy reveal how far away it is.
Celestial Sphere: an imaginary sphere of which the observer is the
centre and on which all celestial objects are considered to lie.