Chapter 1: Problem 18
What is the advantage to the astronomer of using the lightyear as a unit of distance?
Chapter 1: Problem 18
What is the advantage to the astronomer of using the lightyear as a unit of distance?
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What role do nebulae like the Orion Nebula play in the life stories of stars?
The age of the universe is about \(13.7\) billion years. What is this age in seconds? Use powers-of-ten notation.
What is the difference between a solar system and a galaxy?
If your book comes with a CD-ROM, use it to install the Starry Night Enthusiast \({ }^{\mathrm{TM}}\) planetarium software on your computer and run this program to determine when the Moon is visible today from your location. You will see that the Moon can be seen in the daytime as well as at night. Note that the Time Flow Rate is set to \(1 \mathbf{x}\), indicating that time is running forward at the normal rate. Set the Time Flow Rate to 1 minute and find the time of moonset at your location. Determine which, if any, of the following planets are visible tonight: Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn. Feel free to experiment with Starry Night Enthusiast \({ }^{\mathrm{TM}}\). Operating Hints: (1) To see the sky from your actual location on Earth, select Set Home Location ... in the File menu (on a Macintosh, this command is found under the Starry Night Enthusiast \(5.0\) menu). Click the List tab in the Home Location dialog box; then select the name of your city or town and click the Save As Home Location button. You can always return to this starting screen by clicking the Home button in the toolbar. (2) To change your viewing direction, move the mouse in the view. When the mouse cursor appears as a little hand, hold down the mouse button (on a Windows computer, the left button) and drag the mouse; this action will move the sky and change the gaze direction. (3) Use the toolbar at the top of the main window to change the time and date appropriate to the display and to adjust the time flow rate, as explained above. (4) You can use the Find ... command in the Edit menu or click the Find tab on the left side of the main view window to open the Find pane to locate specific planets or stars by name. (5) To learn about any object in the sky, point the cursor at the object. A panel of information about the chosen object will appear on the display. The position of this information panel and its content will depend upon the selected options. These options can be altered from the Preferences item in the File menu (on a Macintosh, the Preferences item is under the Starry Night Enthusiast \(5.0\) menu). Select Cursor Tracking (HUD) in the left-hand edit box in the Preferences dialog. You can then select the information to be displayed and the position of this information panel. Another way to get information about an object is to position the mouse cursor over the object in the main view window and double-click. This will open the Info side-pane which includes specific information about the chosen object under several headings. You can expand and collapse the layers beneath these headings by clicking the + or - icons to the left of the heading label ( and icons on a Macintosh). You can find further information about the program and its many modes of operation in the Starry Night Enthusiast \({ }^{\mathrm{TM}}\) manual (in Starry Night Enthusiast \({ }^{\mathrm{TM}}\), select User's Guide in the Help menu).
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