Part 02: Tools of

Astronomy
1.Celestial sphere.
•Stars appear to be attached to a
giant “sphere” extended around the
Earth and rotating East to West
-This is called the Celestial Sphere
The motion of the stars from East to
West is the result of the Earth’s
rotation from West to East
•The celestial equator: The projection
of the terrestrial equator onto the
celestial sphere
•Earth’s rotation axis intersects the
celestial sphere at the North and
South celestial poles
Celestial coordinates

The celestial coordinates The projection of the terrestrial coordinate

system of longitude and latitudes on the celestial sphere generates
the set of celestial coordinates. The celestial coordinates are called
Right Ascension (RA) and Declination (Dec or dec)
Celestial Coordinates
Right Ascension = Time to rotate
through a given angle (The angle is
measured in hours-minutes-sec)
Similar to Longitude on Earth (The
reference, 0 hours of RA is at the
position where the Celestial equator
crosses the Ecliptic, the vernal
equinox). Range of values: 0 to 24
hours
Declination = Angle in degrees
north/south of the Celestial equator
Similar to Latitude on Earth (The
reference, 0 degrees of Dec is at the
Celestial equator) Range of values: 0
to +90 degrees and 0 to -90 degrees
(+) values in Northern hemisphere, (-)
values in Southern hemisphere
MOTION IN THE SKY
Earth’s Rotational and Orbital Motion
-The Earth rotates on its axis once
every day . The Earth orbits the Sun
once every year. 1 sidereal day later 1
solar day later
Solar day = 24 hours (one rotation
of the Earth relative to the Sun)
 Sidereal day = 23 hr 56min (one
rotation of the Earth relative to a
reference star)
• The Earth must rotate an extra
0.986 degrees to face the Sun. Earth
takes about 4 minutes to rotates
0.986 degrees This generates two
types of days, sidereal and solar day
Precession and nutation
TRAJECTORY OF THE SUN
The Ecliptic
Ecliptic is the apparent path of the
Sun through the sky (and through the
zodiac constellations) over the course
of a year
Motion of Sun along the ecliptic on
the celestial sphere throughout the
year. The Sun crosses the celestial
equator twice a year; at the vernal
equinox around March 21st and the
autumnal equinox around September
21st Summer solstice occurs around
June 21. Winter solstice occurs around
December 2
SEASONS
Seasons…
The Earth rotation axis is tilted
23.5 from the perpendicular to
the plane of the ecliptic Why is
this important??
The reason for the seasons:
The 23.5 degrees tilt of the Earth
rotational axis.
Phases of the moon
• The eight lunar phases are, in order: new
moon, waxing crescent, first quarter, waxing
gibbous, full moon, waning gibbous, third quarter,
and waning crescent. The cycle repeats once a month
(every 29.5 days).
• New Moon
This is the invisible phase of the Moon, with the illuminated side of
the Moon facing the Sun and the night side facing Earth. In this
phase, the Moon is in the same part of the sky as the Sun and rises
and sets with the Sun.
• Waxing Crescent
This silver sliver of a Moon occurs when the illuminated half of the
Moon faces mostly away from Earth, with only a tiny portion visible
to us from our planet.
• First Quarter
The Moon is now a quarter of the way through its monthly journey
and you see half of its illuminated side.

Waxing Gibbous
• Now most of the Moon’s dayside has come into view, and the Moon
appears brighter in the sky.
• Full Moon
• This is as close as we come to seeing the Sun’s illumination
of the entire day side of the Moon
• Waning Gibbous
As the Moon begins its journey back toward the Sun, the
opposite side of the Moon now reflects the Moon’s light
Last Quarter
• The Moon looks like it’s half illuminated from the
perspective of Earth, but really you’re seeing half of the half
of the Moon that’s illuminated by the Sun ― or a quarter
• Waning Crescent
• The Moon is nearly back to the point in its orbit where its
dayside directly faces the Sun, and all that we see from our
perspective is a thin curve.
 ECLIPSES
Lunar Eclipse
The Earth blocks the Sun’s light
from the Moon
•The Sun and the Moon must
be in opposite direction as seen
from Earth
•The phase of the moon must
be full Moon
•Can be seen from anywhere
on the Earth where the Moon is
visible
ECLIPSES……
Solar Eclipse
•The Moon blocks the Sun’s light
from the Earth (Coincidentally, the
Moon and Sun have the same
angular size, around 0.5 degrees!)
•The phase of the Moon must be
new Moon
• Solar eclipses can only be seen
from specific places on Earth,
along a narrow path
ANOTHER VIEW OF SOLAR ECLIPSE
The Copernican Revolution
The Sun, Moon and even the stars all move smoothly across the sky,
with slight changes in brightness and position happening slowly over
days and months or even years.

Planets seemed to "wander" across the Celestial sphere in two ways

1. Direct Motion - normal eastward movement across the sky
2. Retrograde Motion – occasional westward movement, causing the
planet to appear to make “loops”. Around the period of the
retrograde motion, the planet get brighter
Models used to describe the
universe
The Geocentric Models
The heliocentric model.
Geocentric model:
Earth is at the center of the universe with planets and Sun orbiting it in
circular orbits.
• Explained planetary motions using deferents and epicycles
• Ptolemy (AD 140) constructed one of the best geocentric models
called Ptolemaic universe
Ptolemaic universe
heliocentric model
Copernicus introduced a mathematical model for a Heliocentric
universe. The Sun is at the center of the universe.
 The critical realization that the Earth is not at the center of the
Universe is called the “Copernican Revolution”
Earth spins on its axis.
 Earth and all the planets orbit the Sun! (still on circular orbits)
• Only the Moon orbits the Earth.
• Retrograde motion is an “optical illusion.”
Galileo Galilei discoveries
The Birth of Modern Astronomy
• Father of experimental science
• First to point a telescope (which
he built) toward the sky in 1609
Discoveries:
1. Moon craters and mountains
2. Sunspots and the rotation of
the Sun
3. Satellites (Moons) of Jupiter
4. Phases of Venus
Galilei Galileo discoveries………
Galileo observations contradicted Galileo used the Scientific Method
the geocentric model: when studying objects in the sky
Venus did not orbit the Earth. It
orbits the Sun
Jupiter’s satellites did not orbit
the Earth. They orbit Jupiter
Galileo observations challenged
the “scientific” orthodoxy and
the religious dogma of the day.
His ideas were judged heretical.
He was forced to retract his claim
that Earth orbit the Sun. The
Inquisition put him in house arrest
for the rest of his life.
The Laws of Planetary Motion
Johannes Kepler (1571-1630)
• Using the Copernican heliocentric model, he struggled trying to fit the
observations using circular orbits. It didn’t work!
• To fit the observations, he had to assume that planets are on elliptical
orbits
His three laws of planetary motions are empirical (Based on fitting to
the existing data)
The Laws of Planetary Motion……..
1.Kepler’s First Law
‘’The orbital path of the planets are
elliptical with the Sun at one focus.’’
Eccentricity is the measure of how
elliptical/flat the orbit is.
Eccentricity

In general, all orbiting bodies follow

elliptical orbits. This applies to the
Moon, planets, binaries stars and all
orbiting bodies
The Laws of Planetary Motion……..
2.Kepler’s Second Law
‘’An imaginary line connecting the
Sun and any planets sweeps out equal
areas of the ellipse in equal intervals
of time.’’
Important implication of the Second
Law:
area A = area B = area C The length of
the arc for area C is larger than the
length of the arc for area A but the
planet travel trough these two arcs in
the same amount of time.
The Laws of Planetary Motion……..
3.Kepler’s Third Law
‘’The square of a planet's orbital period is proportional to the cube of its semi-
major axis.’’
If the period is expressed in years and the semi-major axis in AU, the
proportional sign can be replaced by the equal sign .

P (Period in years) = time for one orbit

a (Semi-major axis in AU) = average distance
a corresponds to the radius if the orbit is circular)
Kepler’s Third Law, an example..
What is the orbital period (or the “year”) of a planet located at a
distance of 10 AU from the Sun?
Kepler’s 3rd Law revised
Newton’s laws of motion and his law of universal gravitation provided a
theoretical explanation for Kepler’s empirical laws of planetary motion
Using Newton’s universal gravitation law, one can derive Kepler’s laws.
But the equations are more general and allow to extend the results to
any two bodies orbiting each other.
The Sun and Earth both orbit their mutual center of mass, which is
inside the Sun. The Sun moves very little (BIG mass), while the Earth
moves a lot (less massive).
Kepler’s 3rd Law revised
The revised Kepler’s 3rd law include
both the mass of the central body
and the mass of the orbiting body.
The change to Kepler’s third law is
small in the case of a planet orbiting
the Sun, but larger in the case where
the two bodies are closer in mass,
e.g. 2 stars orbiting each other
(binary star system).
Approximate Angular size of celestial
objects
BASIC DESIGNS OF TELESCOPES
• What are the two basic designs of telescopes?
 Reflecting telescope: focuses light with mirrors. The curved
(concave) mirror reflect light and forms an image
Refracting telescope: focuses light with lenses. The lens “bends” light
by refraction and forms an image
• The main (or primary) mirror or lens is also known as the objective
of a telescope
I. Reflecting telescopes
A reflecting telescope has a primary mirror
and secondary mirror. The secondary can
be flat or curved.
• The primary mirror is curved (concave)
and can be supported from the back in
several places so it can maintain the
curvature.
• The primary mirror can be spherical or
parabolic. Some spherical mirror requires a
corrector plate at the opening
• Reflecting telescopes can have much
greater diameters.
• Modern telescopes are reflectors.
I. Reflecting telescopes ……………….
Designs of reflecting telescopes
ii. Refracting telescopes
• A refracting telescope uses a lens instead of a
mirror Some disadvantages of refracting
telescopes:
• The lens separate light into different colors. It
focuses light at different distances along the
optical axis. This is known as chromatic
aberration.
• To correct for chromatic aberration it is
necessary to use an objective composed two or
three elements
• Refracting telescopes need to be very long
(large focal length), with large, heavy lenses.
• Light passing through a lens can get absorbed.
Absorption can be severe at UV and IR
Magnification of a Telescope

The distance of separation

between lenses is given by;
 Example
1.The refracting telescope located at the Yerkes Observatory in Wisconsin, It is
referred to as a “40-inch” telescope, meaning that the diameter of the
objective is 40 in., or 102 cm. The objective lens has a focal length of 19 m, and
the eyepiece has a focal length of 10 cm.
(a) Calculate the total magnifying power of this telescope.
(b) Estimate the length of the telescope
The telescope size or diameter What are the two most important
properties of a telescope?
1. Light-collecting area: Telescopes with a larger mirrors or lenses
(larger diameter) have a large collecting area. It will act as a “light
bucket”. A large collecting area can gather a greater amount of light
in a shorter time. A telescope with a large collecting area can
observe fainter object

2. Angular resolution: Telescopes that have larger mirrors or lenses

are capable of taking images with greater detail.
3. Both the light-collecting area and the angular resolution are
increased by a larger lens or mirror.
Light-Collecting Area ( Or Light-Gathering Power)
• A telescope’s diameter tells us its light-collecting area:
A = π (D/2)²
A= Area
D= Diameter
The diameter of the telescope D (the diameter of the lens or mirror) is
normally referred as the aperture of the telescope
• The light-gathering power is proportional to the area of the objective
• The light-gathering power is proportional to the diameter square
Question 1
How does the Light Gathering Power of a 10-meter telescope compare
with that of a 2-meter telescope?
To examine this problem, we apply the Rayleigh criterion: two objects (or two nearby points on one
object) are just resolvable if
they are separated by an angle.

This formula is valid for either a microscope or a telescope, where D is the diameter of the
objective lens or mirror. For a telescope, the resolution is specified by stating as given by this
equation

In this equation, D is the diameter of the lens, and applies also to a mirror diameter. This is the
limit on resolution set by the wave nature of light due to diffraction. A smaller angle means better
resolution: you can make out closer objects. That means using a shorter wavelength can reduce
and thus increase resolution
For angular separation S
l=distance of view
=angular size
Angular size of object
Angular size and angular separation Read “More precisely , Angular
Measure” Angular size of an object depends on two parameters
• The physical size of the object
• The distance to the object Angular size is measured in units of angle
(degrees, arcmin and arcsec)