Astronomy 1

• Astronomy is the study of anything we see in the sky, and beyond, and overlaps with physics, chemistry, geology, and other sciences.
• The Gran Telescopio Canarias is the largest telescope of our time.
• The Gran Telescopio Canarias is built on the island La Palma in the Canary Islands of Spain on the top of a volcanic peak 7,438 feet above sea level.
• The Scientific Method in Astronomy involves combining observations with understanding of other sciences to make good predictions, and sometimes our "lab" is a computer.
• Astrology is the belief that the stars and planets affect your life, and it does not use the scientific method.
• Observing the Universe began with people observing their surroundings, including what the sky looked like when herds moved, when a season changed, and when it was good to plant.
• An incomplete list of objects observed in Astronomy includes the Moon, planets (Venus, Mercury, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn), stars, meteors (shooting stars), aurora, and comets.
• A History of Astronomy begins with the branch of science that tries to know about objects outside the Earth (astronomical objects), and includes ancient astronomy, ancient Chinese and Indian observations, calendars, religions, and the solar system's geocentric and heliocentric models.
• Ancient Greek Astronomy involved the belief that all astronomical objects were perfect, unchanging spheres and orbited in perfect circles around the earth, following different physical laws from those on Earth.
• In European history, the Middle Ages lasted from about 500 A.D. to about 1500 A.D., a period between antiquity and the modern period, and during this time, astronomy (and knowledge in general) did not gain much.
• Nicholas Copernicus (1473- 1543) is known for the publication of his book, On the Revolutions of the Celestial Spheres, which argued for the heliocentric model based on the observed backward motion of Mars.
• Tycho Brahe (1546- 1601) was an astronomer who made detailed observations about the planets and stars.
• Lippershey failed to receive a patent since the same claim for invention had also been made by other spectacle-makers but he was handsomely rewarded by the Dutch government for copies of his design.
• The higher the magnification on a telescope, the better the view.
• A telescope is an instrument used to view distant objects, such as planets.
• Hans Lippershey, also known as Johann Lippershey or Lipperhey, was a German-Dutch lensmaker who is commonly associated with the invention of the telescope.
• Lippershey applied to the States General of the Netherlands on October 2, 1608, for a patent for his instrument "for seeing things far away as they were nearby", beating another Dutch instrument-maker's patent, Jacob Metius, by a few weeks.
• Italian physicist Galileo Galilei built his own telescope in 1609 after hearing about Lippershey's new instrument.
• In 1659-1666, Sir Isaac Newton decided that the problem of chromatic aberration could not be solved after studying the reflection of light through prisms.
• The Herschel Space Observatory, bearing the name of astronomer, William Herschel, was launched in 2000.
• Telescopes have found use in terrestrial applications and astronomy.
• In 1608, Hans Lippershey, a German-Dutch lensmaker, wanted to make an instrument "for seeing things far away as they were nearby".
• American astronomer Alvan Clark built the world's largest (at that time) existing refracting telescope-the Yerkes Telescope in Wisconsin in 1897.
• Laurent Cassegrain, a catholic priest from France, developed a telescope that bears his name-the Cassegrain telescope in 1673.
• Sir Isaac Newton made an improved version of the reflecting telescope.
• Galileo used his telescope to discover the four largest moons of Jupiter (lo, Ganymede, Callisto and Europa), sunspots on the surface of the Sun, the phases of Venus and physical features on the Moon-such as craters.
• A scientific definition of the word telescope is an instrument that aids in the observation of remote objects by collecting electromagnetic radiation, such as visible light.
• The Cassegrain telescope uses mirrors that are called hyperbolic and parabolic mirrors.
• In 1721, English mathematician and inventor of the octant John Hadley presented a much-improved Newtonian telescope design.
• In 1729, a huge development in refracting telescope happened when lawyer Chester Moore Hall made a lens to reduce chromatic aberration even further.
• Magnetometers are widely used for measuring the Earth's magnetic field and in geophysical surveys to detect magnetic anomalies of various types.
• The planetary simulator of Eudoxos was a simulator of the ostensible motion of the planets.
• There are two kinds of telescope, the reflecting telescope and the refracting telescope.
• The most powerful and advanced telescope of our present time is the Hubble Space Telescope made by NASA.
• Stonehenge is used as a celestial calendar, burial place,sacrificial altar and a defensive building during the early times.
• High class telescopes are made to see stars, planets, moons and other celestial bodies.
• The astrolabe of Ptolemy was an exceptional astronomical instrument which depicted the celestial sphere and was used for the measurement of geographic length (longitude) and width (latitude) of the observed stars from any part of the Earth but also reversely as locator of place (GPS) and also for the measurement of the Sun-Moon distance.
• A quadrant is an instrument that is used to measure angles up to 90°.
• The four-cubit dioptra of Archimedes was an early astronomical instrument suitable for measuring very small angles.
• The quadrant was originally proposed by Ptolemy as a better kind of astrolabe.