Chapter 1-2
One of the constellations mentioned in the Bible
What is Orion?
(or Gemini)
The best color flashlight to use when stargazing, in order to prevent destroying dark-adapted vision.
What is a red flashlight?
The length of time it typically takes to become fully dark-adapted.
What is 30 minutes?
Large dark regions on the moon.
What are marias?
The moons of Mars
What are Phobos and Deimos?
A collection of 100 billion stars
What is a galaxy?
The "wobbling" effect of the moon.
What is libration?
The two types of light-detecting cells in the human eye.
What are rods and cones?
Instead of looking directly at objects through a telescope, astronomers use this method to see objects a little better.
What is averted vision?
The length of time of a sunspot's life cycle
What is 11 years?
The largest of Saturn's 60 moons.
What is Titan?
Some of the best galaxies, star clusters, and nebulae that can be viewed from earth with a telescope are found in this list, first published in 1781.
What is the Messier List?
The literal definition of solstice.
What is "sun stop?"
The type of cells in your eyes that are most sensitive to light.
What are rods?
The typical temperature of a clear night, perfect for telescopic viewing.
What is cold?
What are sunspots?
Another name for double stars.
What are binary stars?
The most common classification of galaxies
What are elliptical galaxies
The term describing the position of a planet behind the sun.
What is conjunction?
The brightest star visible in Earth's nighttime sky.
What is Sirius?
the brightening of the nighttime sky caused by artificial lights.
What is Light Pollution?
The dividing arc between day and night on the moon
What is the Terminator?
The brightness of stars as we see them from Earth are classified according to this quality.
What is apparent brightness?
A cloud of hydrogen and helium gas spread out over a vast region of space
What is a nebula?
The thin ring of sunlight around the moon during a solar eclipse; it is only visible when the moon is slightly farther away from Earth than usual.
What is the annulus?
The more common name for Algol, because its light flickers more noticeably than other stars.
What is "the Demon Star?"
The second smaller telescope often attached to a larger one.
What is a spotter?
light-colored streaks that radiate away from some craters
What are Ejecta?
Pluto is now part of this new class of interstellar objects.
What are the Trans-Neptunian Objects?
A type of star cluster which is very compact and spherical in shape
What is a globular cluster?
The two coordinate systems used by astronomers to pinpoint the position of the stars.
What are the equatorial coordinate system and the alt/azimuth coordinate system
The method in which stars are named (i.e. beta Lyrae).
What is brightness, then constellation?
The type of telescope that uses a mirror in addition to lenses.
What is a reflector?
This effect makes the moon appear larger when near the horizon.
What is the "moon illusion"?
The organization of stars from hottest to coolest.
What is O, B, A, F, G, K, and M.
The tracks, often circular, that appear because of the combination of the earth's rotation and long exposure setting.
What are Star Trails?