Tag Archives: astro2110

Reason for Tides

Tides rise and fall twice a day on Earth, and this is mostly due to the Moon’s gravitational pull on Earth. The Moon’s gravity pull on the Earth’s bodies of water squeezing it towards the Moon. The opposite side of the Earth is also receiving high tides due to this reason. I used the word […] Continue reading

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The Moon and The Tides

Did you know that tides are caused by the Moon’s gravitational pull? (Photo from The Business Insider) Usually about every 12 hours coastal places around the world experience high and low tides in a constant cycle. This is due to the subtle pull of the Moon’s gravitational forces on the Earth’s water supply. Along the […] Continue reading

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Satellites and Telescopes

For this post I wanted to discuss the effect that satellites have on astronomical observations. There are many problems that limit our ability to make observations, such as light pollution, the diffraction limit, and technological limitations. Despite this, astronomers have steadily been improving their equipment and building new complex telescopes to overcome these limitations. However, […] Continue reading

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Spectroscopy

Blog #2 While the role of light in our everyday lives is to make color and form visible, by studying light with spectroscopy, we can learn a surprising amount about the object that produces a certain spectrum of wavelengths. In order to understand spectroscopy, first, we must understand what light physically is. Light is composed […] Continue reading

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All About Telescopes

Hubble Space Telescope In the world of telescopes, there are two main types: refracting and reflecting. The first telescopes created by astronomers in the 1600s were refracting telescopes. These work much like eye glasses. A curved lens bends the light into the observer’s eye. The bigger the lens the further into space a person could […] Continue reading

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Retrograde Motion

Diagram of Retrograde Motion Retrograde motion is when the motion of a planet seems to reverse direction in the sky. The name of this phenomenon is derived from the Latin word retrogradus, which means “going backward.” This motion, however, is purely an illusion as the planet’s motion does not actually change and start moving backward […] Continue reading

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Understanding Retrograde Motion

the planets as seen from Earth Retrograde motion is when a planet appears to move backward in its orbit relative to the rest of the night sky. Planets such as Mars and Jupiter can be seen in retrograde motion. Retrograde motion occurs due to the movements and relative positions of other planets around the sun. […] Continue reading

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Gravity & General Relativity

You throw something up in the air and it falls down. Why? Gravity, obviously, everyone knows that. But what really is gravity? By most common knowledge, gravity is one of the four fundamental forces, and has a lot more to it than just making things fall. Gravity actually works as an attraction between two masses, […] Continue reading

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Blog 02 – History of Astronomy

Ancient Mesopotamia is the earliest known source of modern astronomical research. Babylonian MUL.APIN texts provide data on stars’ locations and celestial descriptions dated to 1200 BCE. The group used their fingers and 360 units (comparable to modern 360 degrees) to chart the sky, distances, and celestial movement and occurrences. They used their star passages to […] Continue reading

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Historical Astronomers in Context

A portrait of Galileo Galilei

Importance to Astronomy – Galileo Galilei

Galileo Galilei (15 February 1564 – 8 January 1642) contributed many findings related to astronomy, a few include: He took a spyglass and improved upon it so that… Continue reading

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