Egyptian astronomy began in the prehistoric times. The Egyptians knowledge of astronomy helped them contribute to modern day science. The Egyptians were considered “observers of the sky” They are well known for their contribution of the 24 hour day and the calendar. “When the lack of rainfall in North Africa forced a man to abandon his nomadic life as a hunter and settle down near water, he had perforce to become mainly an agriculturist. In eastern North Africa the Nile valley proved to be an admirable haven.”…
After years of fighting with Nightfrost the kingdom of Dawnstar won the battle after 400 years. The war took many years and many lives. It didn’t end until it went into the castle of the Kingdom of Dawnstar. This is where our story begins. King Liam and Queen Juliet loved their kingdom like it was their own child in a unique way it was.…
Sunspots have been observed since the time of Galileo when he used the telescope to observe the sun. They are visible through a telescope as darkened spots on the sun caused by an area of extreme magnetic activity and dramatically lower temperatures (compared to the average temperature of the sun). The sunspots are approximately 2,000 degrees’ kelvin cooler than the photosphere which is why they appear darker against their hotter surroundings. The diameter of a sunspot varies from approximately 700km to over 7,000km and has a magnetic field of up to 0.4 tesla, which is extremely high. Sunspots are caused by locations of magnetic field disruptions inside the sun which prevent a lot of heat from reaching the surface, hence the cooler temperatures.…
Have you ever wanted to conquer air and land? Well, I have… I have had dreams of flying to places like Paris and then driving a fast car with my friends. With a dual-purpose SUV styled vehicle, I could conquer land plus sea. A vehicle that has the capability to do all of that would be the perfect vehicle for me! My perfect vehicle would be a 2039 Lily Sky Searcher.…
V. The Cat’s Eye Nebula One of the most famous nebulae is the Cat’s Eye Nebula (NGC-6543); it was discovered by William Herschel in 1786. NGC-6543 is located in the northern constellation of Draco; it appears as a blooming center with surrounding and expanding rings. The NGC-6543 has a historical importance because it was the first nebula to be studied spectroscopically by the astronomer William Huggins in 1864; this study revealed the distinctions between PNe and the other gaseous nebulae. When Huggins studied the spectrum of NGC-6543, he found that the spectrum is dominated by discontinuous lines, emission spectrum, rather than continuous like in the stellar spectrum. The first identified line was the hydrogen Balmer line (H).…
The Vega has many properties and characteristics in the star. The Vega star is 25 light years away from the earth and the mass is 2.1 times bigger than the sun. It is about 455 million years old and each rotation period is 12.5 hours. The diameter is about 2.2 million miles, which is 2.5 times the Sun, the temperature is approximately 17,000 F (9,500C), the luminosity is about 40 times the Sun’s size, and the star type is is a white main sequence star, so it is in A class. Since it is a main sequence star, it fuses hydrogen into helium in its core, The Vega star is also known as the Alpha Lyrae and is in the Lyra constellation.…
Hope in the Dark: A Story of the Stars Long ago, before the night was filled with life and the beauty of the stars and moon, all was dark and empty. When the sun set and darkness rose, everyone would stay inside and hide away. All except for one, Luna, she dwelled in the darkness of the night. When all were asleep, she would go out with nothing but a candle to light her path.…
Earth rotates on it's axis, however relative to the rotation earth is not standing straight up. Precession is essentially the opposite of when a spinning top falls over. On a small scale, as a top slows down and gravity takes effect it begins to tip over. Precession has the opposite effect on earth, as gravity from the sun and moon pull earth to a more upright position (still relative to the rotation). Because the common points of interest in the sky are located using earthly clues, as the rotating axis changes the location of these points also changes when viewed from earth.…
There are different meanings for each word that is said in a language. Especially the English language. While Precession may have been looked at as angles of torque for physics or body mechanics; in astronomy precession refers to any of several slow changes in an astronomical body's rotational or orbital parameters. An example would be the steady change in the orientation of the axis of rotation of the Earth. How the earth rotates and what angle it is at changes many things.…
Jonathan Hatch walked down the tree-lined road from his home in Valdosta, Georgia while his mind ran through his normal checklist creation for the day. One. Write that email to the Dean of Student Affairs about the lack of student involvement in the astronomy club and create a case for funding even though only 4 students attend regularly. Two.…
Jack O’Keefe Ramsdem, Stephen W. "Total Eclipse of the Sun. " Sky Watch (1089-4888), Jan. 2017, p. 48. EBSCOhost, With less than a year left, America is getting closer to its solar eclipse. This major event should be happening on August 21st 2017. The solar eclipse will be a one time thing for some people in their lives and they would ever want to have to miss a once in a lifetime opportunity.…
When participating in this observation of the sky many things were brought to my attention. The sky has many mysterious things including the stars’ movement. I made eight observations where I live Del Mar Heights. Most of the descriptions of observation were an hour to complete. These observations over the semester from September to December were done with drawings I’ve below, I’ve noted any constellations that were visible I also used an astronomy website to name and understand what I was looking at.…
Basically here we will be looking on how the axis changes its position, from perihelion to aphelion around the sun. One cycle of this process takes about 23,000 years to be completed, this shows that this movement of the axis is very slow and the development that a precession has over short-wave radiation is very small but it still has a huge impact at seasonal changes and one of the main reasons why the incoming solar radiation is not evenly distributed between the equator and the poles. The equator will receive the direct sunlight and experience a higher temperature and at the poles is the opposite, the sun strikes there at an angle and the solar radiation is low resulting in decreased temperature one of the main reason they experience long nights with short days. The ability of the earth to move from one place to another depend on this factor (precession) and also the amount of the insolation reaching the earth depend on the precession. (Loutre, 2004:5).…
Super Giant Star: When I was a young star, younger than all of you, just about after was born. I was a small star, didn't have any idea of what was going on. I had a very surprisingly strong gravitational pull, pulling all sorts of gases. Having stronger gravity pulled more and more gas and dust to me. The inner layers of gas and dust start to warm from the pressure of the gas and dust above.…
The light we see from the sun is not exactly the light that comes to the earth from the sun. We see sunlight as being whitish in color, but it actually is a blend of the colors of the rainbow. The reason we see it this way has to do with the way our eyes perceive color. This is because, “Our eye contains three kinds of light-sensitive cells, each sensing a different band of colors--one band centered in the red, one in the green and one in the blue” (“(S-4) The Many Colors of Sunlight,” 2006).…