Study Guide for Test 3

Study Guide for Test #3

The Moon

Link to the Reading Material - The Moon

crescent moon
Earthshine
full moon
gibbous moon
new moon
moon illusion
quarter moon (1^st & 3^rd)
sidereal month
supermoon
synchronous rotation (tidal lock)
synodic month
waning moon
waxing moon

Eclipses

Link to the Reading Material - Eclipses

annular eclipse
eclipse path (path of totality)
eclipse season
lunar eclipse
occultation
partial eclipse
penumbra
penumbral eclipse
saros period
solar eclipse
total eclipse
transit
umbra

Laws of Physics

Link to the Reading Material - Physics of light

Link to the Reading Material - Light (part 2)

Link to the Reading Material - Doppler Effect

absolute zero
absorption spectrum (dark line)
blue shift
continuous spectrum
cosmic rays
Doppler shift
electromagnetic spectrum
emission spectrum (bright line)
frequency
kelvin temperature scale
red shift
photon
wavelength
Wien’s Law

Instruments

Link to the Reading Material - Amateur Telescopes

The focus on the individual instruments listed below is on the device .... and NOT what it found. This is a list of some of my favorites. There are many, many more not listed.

Link to the Reading Material - Professional Telescopes and Observatories

Link to the Reading Material - Probes

adaptive optics
base line
Cassegrain focus
CCD (charge-coupled device)
Dobsonian Telescope
equatorial mount
focal length
interferometry (arraying) (now in visible too)
Lagrange Points
light collecting power
magnification (magnifying power)
Newtonian focus
objective / eyepiece
radio telescope
reflecting telescope
refracting telescope
resolution (resolving power)
Schmidt telescope
segmented mirror telescope
spin cast mirrors

Surface Optical Telescopes (just a few)

Hale Telescope
Keck Telescopes (I and II)
Large Binocular Telescope (LBT)
Vera C. Rubin Observatory ... formerly know as Large Synoptic Survey Telescope (LSST)
Very Large Telescope (VLT - Chile)
Yerkes Observatory

Space Observatories (just a few)

Hubble Space Telescope (HST) 1990 - present
James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) 2021 - present
Spitzer Space Telescope - 2003 - retired 2020

Searching for exoplanets

Kepler (via transits) - reached orbit 2009 but stopped working in 2013
Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) - successor to Kepler which launched in 2018

Solar Observatories

SOHO (launched 1995 - still working 2021)
STEREO A & B: (Solar TErrestrial RElations Observatory) - launched 2006 - experiencing technical issues on (now retired) STEREO B
Parker Solar Probe - 2018 - present

Other - There are many orbiting observatories looking at all parts of the electromagnetic spectrum

Radio Telescopes

Very Large Array (VLA - NM) ... now called the EVLA
Very-Long-Baseline Array (VLBA)

Other

There are several ground based instruments studying neutrinos, cosmic rays, and gravity waves.

For example: There are currently (2023) four gravity wave detectors - LIGO (USA - two locations), Virgo (Europe), and Kagra (Japan)

Space Probes (just a few)

Apollo missions to land men on the moon (1969 - 1972) but wait ... Artemis program will get us back to the moon

Mercury Probe - Messenger (reached orbit 2011 - crashed 2015)

Venus Probes
Venera series (1961-1984)
Magellan (reached orbit 1990 - stopped working 1994)

Mars Probes

Landers
- Viking 1 & 2 (landed 1976 - stopped 1982, 1980 respectively)
- Spirit (landed 2004- stopped 2010) & Opportunity (landed 2004- stopped 2018)
- Mars Science Laboratory rover - Curiosity (landed 2012 - still working 2023)
- Perseverance (landed February 18, 2021)
Orbiters
- Odyssey (reached orbit 2001 - still working as of 2023)

Jupiter Probes
Galileo (reached Jupiter orbit 1995 - stopped 2003)
Juno (orbiting Jupiter since 2016 - still working as of 2023)

Saturn Probes - Cassini (reached Saturn orbit 2004 - ended 2017)

Voyager - flyby of the 4 Jovian (outer) planets and beyond (launched 1977 - both probes, Voyager 1 & 2, are still working as of 2023 ... wow!)

Other Probes

Near Shoemaker (asteroid Eros - reached orbit 2000, landed 2001)
OSIRIS-REx (landed on asteroid Bennu with a return sample set for 2023)
Stardust (returned samples of comet Wild 2 in 2006)
Rosetta (orbit comet 67P)
New Horizons (Pluto /Charon flyby)

Before you take Test #3, please try practice Quiz #3 . This practice quiz has no point value, but gives you a chance to see typical test questions and gauge if you are really ready to take the test.