Tag Archives: precession

Zodiac

The Zodiac was created about 2,000 years ago as a way to track time. Each month, the sun appears to pass through 1 of 12 constellations that are each tied to a sign (In 1930, the International Astronomical Union, actually defined 13 constellations that the Sun passes through, but one does not have a sign). […] Continue reading

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Milankovitch Cycles and Ice Ages

We have learned about how the tilt of the Earth’s axis affects the change of seasons.  However, over a 40,000 year cycle, the intensity of seasons and ice ages are affected by the Milankovitch Cycles.  This link provides a simple … Continue reading Continue reading

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Precession Is All But Precision

The earth has an axis of tilt of about 23.5 degrees, and precession, a gradual wobble that alters the orientation of Earth’s axis, does not change the amount of axis […] Continue reading

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Precession and the Poles

Pretty much everyone in the North Hemisphere knows about the North Star and how it can be used in navigation. The North Star is such a familiar subject to me that I was surprised when I learned that the North pole does not always point toward the North Star. As we have learned in astro […] Continue reading

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Precession: The Great Year

As humans on Earth there are two celestial motions that affect us most obviously. Earths diurnal motion, its rotation on its axis responsible for day and night, and Earth’s revolution around the sun, determining our yearly cycles (winter, spring, blooming, hibernation, migration). A third and less obvious celestial motion is precession. Its time scale hides […] Continue reading

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Precession

For my second blog I would like to discuss the precession of the Earth’s axis and how it could relate to possible climate change. We learned in class that seasons are caused because of the tilt of the earth. The till causes light to be more direct on a hemisphere during particular parts of the […] Continue reading

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