Astronomy for VCE Physics

Watch this video as an introduction to the co-ordinate systems used in Astronomy.

There are many other videos that can be found on youtube searching on "astronomy coordinate systems" or "celestial coordinates". Try this or this or even how to navigate using star coordinates from here.

Another comprehensive analysis of Orion is here.

Complete the glossary and these questions.

Download the attached and complete over multiple night viewings. This should not take too long, but carefully locate the objects you are tracking.

Take time to get to know the sky. If you can get away from street lighting and look at the sky for a while, you will notice some have colour. Orion is a great place to start looking for stars with colour. Read the information and watch the video from this link.

The BBC video at this link also contains information about Orion's colours. Remember it is being viewed from the Northern Hemisphere, so it is the other way up for those of us in the Southern Hemisphere.

Download and print the attached.

Follow the directions/questions to learn what a sidereal day is and how long it is.

Answers available for download, but make sure you have completed teh questions before checking your answers.

This diagram shows why we see the moon as we do. On this diagram, the Moon is always lit from the right. As it revolves around the Earth, we are looking at the lit side, the dark side, or somewhere in between.

Additionally, the Moon is no longer geologically active. It's core has cooled and solidified and it has stopped rotating on it's axis. It is more dense on the side that faces us, and we always see this side from Earth.

This document outlines the main types of telescopes and how they are configured.