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•Synodic Month
The above equations give the radii of the Moon and Sun
entirely in terms of observable quantities.
Historical Background
The following formulae give the distances to the Sun and
Moon in terrestrial units:
24 inch convertible
Newtonian/Casseg
rain reflecting
telescope on
display at the
Franklin Institute.
Scientific Revolution
More extensive star catalogues were produced by
Lacaille. The astronomer William Herschel made a
detailed catalog of nebulosity and clusters, and in
1781 discovered the planet Uranus, the first new
planet found.
•Abbé Nicolas Louis de Lacaille (March 15, 1713 –
March 21, 1762) was a French astronomer.
He is noted for his catalogue of nearly 10,000 southern
stars, including 42 nebulous objects
Scientific Revolution
The distance to a star was first announced in 1838 when the
parallax of 61 Cygni was measured by Friedrich Bessel
•61 Cygni, sometimes called Bessel's Star or Piazzi's Flying Star, is a
binary star system in the constellation Cygnus. It consists of a pair of K-type
dwarf stars that orbit each other in a period of about 659 years, forming a
visual binary. At fifth and sixth apparent magnitudes, they are among the least
conspicuous stars visible in the night sky to an observer without an
optical instrument.
•Cygnus is a northern constellation lying on the plane of the Milky Way. Its
name is the Latinized Hellenic (Greek) word for swan. One of the most
recognizable constellations of the northern summer and autumn, it features a
prominent asterism known as the Northern Cross (in contrast to the
Southern Cross). Cygnus was among the 48 constellations listed by the 2nd
century astronomer Ptolemy, and it remains one of the 88 modern
constellations.
Scientific Revolution
An artist's impression of a
growing quasar.
The Vela Pulsar and its surrounding pulsar wind nebula.
Pulsars are highly magnetized,
rotating neutron stars that emit a
beam of
electromagnetic radiation. The
radiation can only be observed
when the beam of emission is
pointing towards the Earth. This
is called the lighthouse effect
and gives rise to the pulsed
nature that gives pulsars their
name. Because neutron stars
are very dense objects, the
rotation period and thus the
interval between observed
Blazar jet accelerated to the edge of the speed-of-light barrier.
A blazar (blazing quasi-stellar
object) is a very compact
quasar (quasi-stellar object)
associated with a presumed
supermassive black hole at
the center of an active, giant
elliptical galaxy. Blazars are
among the most energetic
phenomena in the universe
and are an important topic in
extragalactic astronomy.
Black Hole
A black hole is a region of
space from which nothing,
not even light, can escape.
Around a black hole there is
an undetectable surface
called an event horizon that
marks the point of no return.
It is called "black" because it
absorbs all the light that hits
the horizon, reflecting
nothing.
Field of Astronomy
During the 20th century, the field of professional astronomy
split into observational and theoretical branches.
Observational astronomy is focused on acquiring data from
observations of celestial objects, which is then analyzed
using basic principles of physics.
Theoretical astronomy is oriented towards the development
of computer or analytical models to describe astronomical
objects and phenomena.
The two fields complement each other, with theoretical
astronomy seeking to explain the observational results, and
observations being used to confirm theoretical results.
Field of Astronomy
Observational astronomy
Radio astronomy is a subfield of astronomy that studies celestial objects
at radio frequencies
Radio astronomy studies radiation with wavelengths greater than
approximately one millimeter.
Radio astronomy is conducted using large radio antennae referred to as
radio telescopes, that are either used singularly, or with multiple linked
telescopes utilizing the techniques of radio interferometry and
aperture synthesis.
The discovery of the cosmic microwave background radiation, which
provided compelling evidence for the Big Bang, was made through radio
astronomy.
Field of Astronomy
Observational astronomy
In the late 19th century and most of the 20th century, images were made
using photographic equipment. Modern images are made using digital
detectors, particularly detectors using charge-coupled devices (CCDs).
Luminosities
Astronomical
kilometres (km) Light Years (l.y.) Parsec (pc)
units (AU)
kilometres
1 149.6 million 9,460,000,000,000 30,857,000,000,000
(km)
Astronomical
0.0000000067 1 63,240 206,263
units (AU)
Light Years
0.00000000000011 0.000016 1 3.2616
(l.y.)
Parsec (pc) 0.000000000000033 0.0000048 0.3066 1
Units and Measurement