ASTRONOMY
SPACE




Modern astronomy is not to be confused
with astrology, the belief system that
claims human affairs are correlated with
the positions of celestial objects.
But the science that deals with the
study of stars, outer space, moons,
planet, suns and those studies.




ASTRONOMY

ASTRONOMICAL OBJECTS

CELESTIAL NAVIGATION

INTERDISCIPLINARY STUDIES

SPACE EXPLORATION

TELESCOPES

TELESCOPES LINKS

OPTICAL TELESCOPES

REFRACTORS TELESCOPES

RADIO TELESCOPES

STAR CHARTS MAPS

STAR CHARTS MAPS LINKS

PLANETARIUM

OBSERVATORY

ASTRONOMY LINKS



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SECTION 1



ASTRONOMY




ASTRONOMY

Astronomy is the science
of celestial objects:
stars,
planets,
comets,
galaxies,
and phenomena that
originate outside
of the Earth's
atmosphere
such as,
auroras,
cosmic background
radiation.

It is concerned
with the,
evolution,
physics,
chemistry,
meteorology,
and motion of celestial
objects, as well as the
formation and development
of the universe.




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SECTION 2



ASTRONOMICAL
OBJECTS




Astronomical objects are significant
physical entities, associations or
structures which current science has
confirmed to exist in space.




ASTRONOMICAL
OBJECTS


Astronomical objects can be easily
confused with "astronomical bodies."


The term "body"
indicates a
simple object,
such as a planet.

These terms differ from
"celestial objects"
"celestial bodies"
only in that the latter
terms do not include the
Earth.




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SECTION 3



CELESTIAL
NAVIGATION




Celestial Navigation is the art and
science of finding your way by the
sun, moon, stars, and planets, and,
in one form or another, is one of
the oldest practices in human history.




CELESTIAL
NAVIGATION


One of the oldest fields in astronomy,
and in all of science, is the measurement
of the positions of celestial objects.
Historically, accurate knowledge of the
positions of the Sun, Moon, planets and
stars has been essential in celestial
navigation.
Celestial navigation, also known as
astronavigation, is a position fixing
technique that was devised to help
sailors cross the featureless oceans
without having to rely on random chance
to enable them to strike land.

Celestial navigation uses angular
measurements (sights) between the
horizon and a common celestial
object.
The Sun is most often measured.
Skilled navigators can use the
Moon, planets or one of 57
"navigational stars" that are
described in nautical almanacs.

Sights on the moon, planets and
stars allow navigation to occur
when clouds obscure other objects.



Celestial Navigation Net
http://www.celestialnavigation.net/





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SECTION 4



INTERDISCIPLINARY
STUDIES




Astronomy has developed significant
interdisciplinary links with other
major scientific fields.




INTERDISCIPLINARY
STUDIES


These include:


ASTROPHYSICS:

Astrophysics: the study of the
physics of the universe, including
the physical properties:
luminosity,
density,
temperature,
chemical composition,
of astronomical objects.




ASTROBIOLOGY:

Astrobiology: the study of the
advent and evolution of biological
systems in the universe.




ASTROLOGY:

Astrology is a group of systems,
traditions, and beliefs in which
knowledge of the relative positions
of celestial bodies and the related
details is held to be useful in:
understanding,
interpreting,
organizing information about:
personality,
human affairs,
and other terrestrial events.

A practitioner of astrology is
called an astrologer, or, less
often, an astrologist.
Historically, the term mathematicus
was used to denote a person proficient
in astrology, astronomy, and mathema.




ARCHAEOASTRONOMY:

Archaeoastronomy: the study of ancient
or traditional astronomies in their
cultural context,
utilizing archaeological,
anthropological evidence.




ASTRONOMER:

An astronomer or astrophysicist
is a person whose area of interest
is astronomy or astrophysics.




ASTROCHEMISTRY:

Astrochemistry: the study of the
chemicals found in outer space,
usually in molecular gas clouds,
and their formation, interaction
and destruction.
As such, it represents an overlap
of the disciplines of astronomy
and chemistry.




COSMOGONY:

Cosmogony is any theory concerning
the coming into existence or origin
of the universe, or an origin belief
about how reality came to be.
In the specialized context of space
science and astronomy, the term refers
to theories of creation of the Solar
System and their study (for example,
the Solar Nebula theory).




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SECTION 5



SPACE
EXPLORATION




Space exploration is the
physical exploration of
outer space by both manned
and unmanned spacecraft.




SPACE
EXPLORATION


The development of the large
liquid-fueled rocket engines
during the early 20th century
allowed space exploration to
become a practical possibility;
it is distinct from the earth-
based observation of outer space,
known as astronomy, which has
occurred for millennia.




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SECTION 6



TELESCOPES




A telescope is an instrument
designed for the observation
of remote objects.




TELESCOPES

The term usually refers to
optical telescopes, but there
are telescopes for most of the
spectrum of electromagnetic
radiation and for other signal
types.




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SECTION 7



TELESCOPE
LINKS




Air Force Maui Optical
Supercomputing Site

http://www.maui.afmc.af.mil/

Amateur Telescope Optics
http://www.telescope-optics.net/

European Southern Observatory
http://www.eso.org/

DFM Engineering, Inc
http://www.dfmengineering.com/

Galaxy Optics
http://www.galaxyoptics.com/

Nordic Optical Telescope
http://www.not.iac.es/

Oldham Optical
Telescope Design

http://www.oldham-optical.co.uk/



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SECTION 8



OPTICAL
TELESCOPE




An optical telescope gathers and
focuses light mainly from the
visible part of the lectromagnetic
spectrum (although some work in the
infrared and ultraviolet).




OPTICAL
TELESCOPE


Optical telescopes increase the
apparent angular size of distant
objects, as well as their apparent
brightness.
Telescopes work by employing one
or more curved optical elements,
lenses or mirrors, to gather light
or other electromagnetic radiation
and bring that light or radiation
to a focus, where the image can be
observed, photographed or studied.


Optical telescopes are
used for astronomy
and in many of ths
non-astronomical
instruments
including:
theodolites,
transits,
spotting scopes,
monoculars,
binoculars,
camera lenses,
spyglasses.


There are three
main types:

The refracting telescope:
which uses solely an
arrangement of lenses.

The reflecting telescope:
which uses solely an
arrangement of mirrors.

The catadioptric telescope:
which uses a combination of
mirrors and lenses.




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SECTION 9



REFRACTING
TELESCOPE




REFRACTING
TELESCOPE


An objective lens brings
starlight to a focus.

Subject to chromatic aberration
caused by dispersion in the glass
of the objective.
Chromatic aberration can be
compensated with a lens of
several elements of differing
materials.




PRIME
FOCUS
REFLECTING
TELESCOPES


A (typically) parabolic objective
or primary mirror reflects light
back to a detector (camera or
other device) at the prime focus.

Telescopes with only reflecting
optics are not subject to chromatic
aberration.




NEWTONIAN
REFLECTING
TELESCOPE


A (typically) parabolic primary
mirror reflects light to a flat
secondary mirror and thence to
the focus.
The obstruction of the light beam
caused by the secondary mirror is
typically less than 10% of the
total incoming light.




CASSEGRAIN
REFLECTING
TELESCOPE


A parabolic primary reflects light
to the hyperbolic secondary mirror
and thence to the focus through a
hole in the primary mirror.




OBJECTIVE
MIRROR
SPHERICAL


The simplest (and easiest to make)
objective mirror for a telescope
is concave and spherical in cross
section.




PARABOLIC:

A parabolic cross section fully
corrects spherical aberration and
parabolic mirrors are common in
small and moderate aperature
telescopes.




MAGNIFICATION
OF A
TELESCOPE


The magnification of the
telescope is only useful
for extended objects,
moon,
planets,
nebulae,
galaxies,
not unresolved objects
such as stars.

It is most easily calculated
from the ratio of the effective
focal length of the telescope to
the focal length of the eyepiece
(m = Fscope /feyepiece ).




FIELD
OF
VIEW


In addition to the magnification
the field of view of an eyepiece
is important.
The field of view is a function
of the optics of the eyepiece
itself and its magnification
which is the function of the
telescope focal length.

Typical eyepieces have field of
view ranging from 40° to 65° or
more.
The intrinsic eyepiece FOV must
then be divided by the magnification
to get the effective field of view at
the telescope.




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SECTION 10



RADIO
TELESCOPES




Radio telescopes are made
by focusing radio antennaes,
often with a parabolic shape.




RADIO
TELESCOPES


The dishes are sometimes
constructed of a conductive
wire mesh whose openings are
smaller than the wavelength
being observed.




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SECTION 11



STAR
CHARTS
MAPS




star charts, star maps, sky maps,
skymaps, constellations, star, sky
charts, night, skywatchers, educators.




A chart showing the relative
positions of the stars in a
particular part of the sky.

Deep sky objects, galaxies,
nebulae, clusters and the
Milky Way.

Black sky, white stars
and other objects.




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SECTION 12



STAR
CHARTS
MAPS
LINKS




Astro Surf
http://www.astrosurf.com/

Cloudy Nights
http://www.cloudynights.com/

Deepsky Astronomy Software
http://www.deepsky2000.com/

Go Astronomy
http://www.go-astronomy.com/

Optics Planet
http://www.opticsplanet.com/

Skymaps.com
http://www.skymaps.com/



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SECTION 13



PLANETARIUM




A planetarium is a theater built
primarily for the presenting of
educational and entertaining shows
about astronomy and the night sky,
or training in celestial navigation.




PLANETARIUM:

A dominant feature of most
planetariums is the large
dome-shaped projection
screen onto which scenes
of stars, planets and
other celestial objects
can be made to appear
and move realistically
to simulate the complex
'motions of the heavens'.

The celestial scenes can
be created using a wide
variety of technologies,


for example:

precision-engineered
'star balls'
that combine optical,

electro-mechanical
technology,

slide projector,

video,

fulldome projector

systems,

lasers.


Whatever technologies are
used, the objective is
normally to link them
together to provide an
accurate relative motion
of the sky.
Typical systems can be set
to display the sky at any
point in time, past or
present, and often to show
the night sky as it would
appear from any point of
latitude on Earth.




PLANETARIUM
links




American Museum
Natural History

http://www.amnh.org/

International Planetarium Society
http://www.ips-planetarium.org/




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SECTION 14



OBSERVATORY




An observatory is a location
used for observing terrestrial
and/or many celestial events.




OBSERVATORY:

The purpose is to provide the
best ground-based astronomical
telescopes to the nation's
astronomers, to promote public
understanding and support of
science, and to help advance
all aspects of US astronomy.



Astronomy,
astrology,
climatology,
geology,
meteorology,
oceanography,
volcanology,


are examples of disciplines for
which observatories have been
constructed.
Historically, observatories were
as simple as containing a sextant
(for measuring the distance between
stars) or Stonehenge (which has some
alignments on astronomical phenomena).




OBSERVATORY
LINKS



Exploratorium's Observatory
http://www.exploratorium.edu/

Lowell Observatory
http://www.lowell.edu/

National Optical
Astronomy Observatory

http://www.noao.edu/

National Radio
Astronomy Observatory

http://www.nrao.edu/

National Solar Observatory
http://www.nso.edu/

Royal Observatory
http://www.rog.nmm.ac.uk/




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SECTION 15



ASTRONOMY
links





The American Meteor Society
http://www.amsmeteors.org/

The Astronomer Magazine
http://www.theastronomer.org/

Astronomical Consultants
Equipment Inc (ACE)

http://www.astronomical.com/

Astronomy For Kids
http://www.kidsastronomy.com/

Astronomy News
http://www.astronomy.com/

Astronomy Now Online
http://www.astronomynow.com/

Aviation Museums in Atlantic Canada
http://www.kanetix.ca/aviation-in-atlantic-canada

The Backyard
Astronomer's Guide

http://www.backyardastronomy.com/

Become an Engineer
http://tryengineering.org/explore-engineering/become-engineer

Canadian Space Agency
http://www.asc-csa.gc.ca/index.html

Celestial Bodies and Astronomy
http://www.ellejet.com/celestial-bodies.php

Dynamics of Space Flight - NASA
http://www.grc.nasa.gov/WWW/k-12/UEET/StudentSite/dynamicsofflight.html

Engineering the Future: The Educator's Guide to Building and Construction
http://www.homeadvisor.com/r/educators-guide-to-building-and-construction/



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European Space Agency
http://www.esa.int/

Exploratorium
http://www.exploratorium.edu/

Sea and Sky
http://www.seasky.org/

Griffith Observatory
http://www.griffithobs.org/

Heavens-Above
http://www.heavens-above.com/

Manitoba Museum Planetarium & Science Blog
http://www.manitobamuseum.ca/main/science/

Math Calculators - organized by Subject, Topic & Difficulty
http://www.calculators.org/math/

NASA
http://www.nasa.gov/

Russian Space Agency
http://www.federalspace.ru/

The Science Behind Aircraft Flight
http://www.e-aircraftsupply.com/the-science-behind-aircraft-flight/

Science Daily
http://www.sciencedaily.com/

Science News for Students
http://student.societyforscience.org/topic/tech-math

Smithsonian National Air
and Space Museum Homepage

http://www.nasm.si.edu/

Space.com
http://www.space.com/

Universe Today
http://www.universetoday.com/

Views of The Solar System
http://www.solarviews.com/

Woman Astronomer
http://www.womanastronomer.com/



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