Astronomy Web Resources Assignment Summary

General Requirements

• Due Date: March 6, 2003
• Be sure to staple all of your papers together, and write your name on the front page. You'd be surprised at how many people fail to do these two things, and if you forget, you will lose points.
• Make an effort to make your writeup neat, because you never know when we might decide to give bonus points for presentation...

Printouts

• Images of your chosen object taken in the different wavelengths.
• Star chart for your date of birth
• Map of the Earth

Questions

• Astronomy Pictures
1. In how many of the six images has your object been "detected"?
2. Why doesn't your object look the same in all of the wavelengths in which it was detected?
3. HST is not a large telescope. It is smaller than the one that took the DSS images. Why are the Hubble images so much better then?
• Astronomical Literature
1. How many articles did the database find?
2. Has Mike ever collaborated with any other astronomers?
3. When was his first paper published?
4. What was his last paper about?
5. How many supernovae were discovered in 1994 prior to this one?
6. What do you suppose NGC 5194 is? (remember, we wanted supernovae in M51).
• Hey Baby...What's your sign?
1. The position of the Sun with respect to the zodiacal constellations appears to shift by one "sign" about every 2000 years. How long ago was the Sun actually in your sign on your birthday?
2. How long will it be until the Sun is in your sign on your birthday again?
3. The basic modern system of astrology originated about two or three thousand years ago, but at that time noone knew about the precession of the Earth's axis of rotation. What implications does this have for the validity of astrology?
• The Astronomical Almanac
1. What are the rise and set times for Saturn on Feb 23, 2003? Will you be able to go out at night and see it?
2. Go back to MICA and check out the rise and set times for Polaris (the North Star). The results might be unexpected. Explain why you get what you do for the rise and set in this case.
• Maps of the Earth
1. From looking at these maps, can you tell what time of day it is (Santa Cruz)?
2. What time of the year it is? (Hint: You should be able to do this by looking at the illumination pattern of ANY of the 5 maps.)
3. How will the shape of the illumination pattern differ in 6 months?
• Astronomical Scavenger Hunt
1. For each of your 3 topics, hand in a short summary of what you found out, and the address of the site you from which found that information.