Elizabeth Poling
Metzler
Earth Science 106
11/30/2017
The Constellations Looking up into the night sky, one can often connect the dots to imagine different images within of stars. These distinctive patterns are called constellations. In contemporary culture, they are believed to be a tool in determining one’s future, however it has not, and never will be scientifically proven to do so. However, the study of constellations dates back to ancient times, as they have been observed and studied for centuries.
The names of constellations are usually based upon the image that it represents. Many are named after animals, people, objects, mythological characters. Examples of this would be the constellations Leo, Cancer, Aries, Hercules, Orion …show more content…
On different parts of the planet, different regions of the sky can be seen. Not all stars are on the same orbit relative to Earth, which is why some stars rise and fall, while some can never be seen from the Earth, and some never seem to move. The latitude of a person’s location has an effect on their view of the stars. The closer one is to the equator, the smaller regions are visible, so less stars can be seen. However, at larger latitudes, closer to the poles, more stars can be seen. The stars that are subject to this latitudinal viewing are called circumpolar stars and they orbit on a circular route. The stars that can’t be seen from Earth are called the Southern circumpolar stars. These stars never make it above Earth’s horizons, therefore making them impossible to see. The tilt of the Earth’s axis that is responsible for the different seasons, also an effect on the visibility of stars over time. This was first recorded by Egyptian librarian Hipparchus. He concluded that over long periods of time, the rotational axis of the Earth will be facing in a different direction, causing people to have a different view of the night sky than those who came hundreds of years before them, and those who will be here in the distant future (Barrow, …show more content…
The original brightness scale, or the “magnitude scale” was developed by Hipparchus as well. That scale included all of the stars that were visible to him from one to six, one being the brightest stars, and six being the dimmest. Since then, the scale has been tremendously expanded, including more stars and a range larger than one to six. The scale that is used today is called the Hertzsprung-Russell Diagram, the HR diagram for short. The diagram’s axis’ are labeled as luminosity, relative to temperature. A star’s brightness includes two forms of measurement. Each star has an apparent as well as an absolute magnitude. The absolute would be if the brightness of all the stars if they were to all be measured from an equal distance away from where the measurements are being taken. The apparent magnitude is their brightness relative to their appearance from Earth. Stars are all a different distance from Earth, so no matter what their true luminosity is, the farther away they are, the fainter the stars will seem (Norton). Luminosity, or the absolute brightness is calculated by the total energy that the star is emitting per second. The two main factors that determine a star’s luminosity are its temperature and radius. Stars that are hotter, have greater energy output, therefore having a higher luminosity. Larger stars also tend to have higher luminosity simply because
Metzler
Earth Science 106
11/30/2017
The Constellations Looking up into the night sky, one can often connect the dots to imagine different images within of stars. These distinctive patterns are called constellations. In contemporary culture, they are believed to be a tool in determining one’s future, however it has not, and never will be scientifically proven to do so. However, the study of constellations dates back to ancient times, as they have been observed and studied for centuries.
The names of constellations are usually based upon the image that it represents. Many are named after animals, people, objects, mythological characters. Examples of this would be the constellations Leo, Cancer, Aries, Hercules, Orion …show more content…
On different parts of the planet, different regions of the sky can be seen. Not all stars are on the same orbit relative to Earth, which is why some stars rise and fall, while some can never be seen from the Earth, and some never seem to move. The latitude of a person’s location has an effect on their view of the stars. The closer one is to the equator, the smaller regions are visible, so less stars can be seen. However, at larger latitudes, closer to the poles, more stars can be seen. The stars that are subject to this latitudinal viewing are called circumpolar stars and they orbit on a circular route. The stars that can’t be seen from Earth are called the Southern circumpolar stars. These stars never make it above Earth’s horizons, therefore making them impossible to see. The tilt of the Earth’s axis that is responsible for the different seasons, also an effect on the visibility of stars over time. This was first recorded by Egyptian librarian Hipparchus. He concluded that over long periods of time, the rotational axis of the Earth will be facing in a different direction, causing people to have a different view of the night sky than those who came hundreds of years before them, and those who will be here in the distant future (Barrow, …show more content…
The original brightness scale, or the “magnitude scale” was developed by Hipparchus as well. That scale included all of the stars that were visible to him from one to six, one being the brightest stars, and six being the dimmest. Since then, the scale has been tremendously expanded, including more stars and a range larger than one to six. The scale that is used today is called the Hertzsprung-Russell Diagram, the HR diagram for short. The diagram’s axis’ are labeled as luminosity, relative to temperature. A star’s brightness includes two forms of measurement. Each star has an apparent as well as an absolute magnitude. The absolute would be if the brightness of all the stars if they were to all be measured from an equal distance away from where the measurements are being taken. The apparent magnitude is their brightness relative to their appearance from Earth. Stars are all a different distance from Earth, so no matter what their true luminosity is, the farther away they are, the fainter the stars will seem (Norton). Luminosity, or the absolute brightness is calculated by the total energy that the star is emitting per second. The two main factors that determine a star’s luminosity are its temperature and radius. Stars that are hotter, have greater energy output, therefore having a higher luminosity. Larger stars also tend to have higher luminosity simply because