Running Head: ASTRONOMY

Astronomy
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ASTRONOMY 2
PART A
1. If you take a picture of the sky, you will take it from the earth. Its like you are holding a
picture upwards. If you put it down, there will be a reversal of the Eastern and Western side from
how it was being held upwards.
2. Auriga is closest to Sun now
3. The sun has move a little bit to the Eastern side
4. At 2015hrs which is 8:15pm
5. It is closest to Auriga
6. The sun is at a different place from where it was earlier in the day. Previously, it was very
close to the constellation but now it is a bit further from it though its the nearest to the same
constellation.
7. In course of the day, the relative movement of the sun and the stars is observed is to be non
uniform. When the sun is rising and setting, the movement of the sun and stars is seen to be more
rapid as they move across the sky. Around the middle time of the day, the movement is slower.
8. The direction of the movement of the sun is not a straight line. As observed from my station at
New York, it follows a path that can be described as a curve.
9. To establish if the same would reflect for the night time, I would take a place that is exactly on
the other side of New York in the world. This point would the same latitude but to get the
longitude, I would add 180 to the longitude, from this place; I would use the Sky Chart to trace
the movement of the sun. From this I would be able to make a conclusion.

ASTRONOMY 3
10. The physical cause of the generalization is that the sun follows the line of longitude that can
be traced on the earth. The lines of longitude are curved as they are traced on the surface of the
earth.
PART B
11. It is on the top side of the map. The star group is Ursa Major
12. its on the right hand side of the map. The group is called the Hydra
13. Its at the left of the Eastern horizon. The star group is the Ophiuchus.
14. its on the lower part of the map. Its the Booles
15. The star group that was here has moved towards the right side of the map.
16. The centaurs is at the center is in the southern horizon at the bottom.
17. The Hydra that was there has gone towards the right hand side.
18. Its at the center. Its called Orion.
19. The hydra moved to the left of the Western horizon
20. Its the Aquila. Its at the center.
21. It moved towards the Southeast of the map.
22. If you moved the time to midnight all the start would shift by some scale towards the western
side of the map.

ASTRONOMY 4
23. In course of the night, all the stars that were visible during the day would disappear. Other
new one would appear.
24. The sun will set at 2020hrs which is 8:20pm.
25. One month from now, the sun will set at 2035hrs also called 8:35pm
26. It will set at 8: 00pm
27. It will set at 1950hr of 1:50pm
28. It will set at 1650hr or 4:50 pm
29. It will set at 1745hr or 5:45pm
30. It will set at 8.20pm
31. I partly agree with the above conclusion and I also partly disagree with the conclusion. On
the part that states that the sun sets earlier and earlier in the fall, I would agree with him. It is also
true that the sun sets later and later during the spring is true. THE data starts around the Month of
May, and each time I increase the month, the time when the sun sets in becomes earlier and
earlier. I would however disagree with the part that states that the time intervals changes about an
hour per month. My first interval was about 15 minutes; the next was about 20 minutes then 30
minutes and finally one hour. I would rather say that the time interval increase steadily until a
maximum of around one hour.
32. From the tabulated data, we have that if those five months were the basis of the study, then
the majority if the data points to the Northwestern direction. Out of the five cases, four of them

ASTRONOMY 5
have Southwest or something to do with southwest. Since majority of the pointers points to the
Southwest, then I would say that the sun sets in the Southwest.
33. To describe how the suns position changes over a semester in the Southern horizon, you
would proceed as follows.
a) Establish a working station which will act as the reference point for the observations to
be made. The station chosen should be preferably be on the one area that can be
described as the southern hemisphere.
b) From the Heavens Above website, configure your chosen location and obtain the
whole sky chart from your settings.
c) Set the dates of the whole sky chart to those of the start of the semester.
d) Locate the position of the Sun at this time.
e) By varying the number of hours of the first day, observe the motion of the sun from
dawn to when the sun sets. Record the rising and the setting time of the sun the path
that the sun traces during the day. Record also the relative movement of the stars
relative to the sun and relative to the sky.
f) Increase the number of days by one and repeat (e).
g) Increase the days till you get to the end of the semester. You will have you
comprehensive data.
34. An African Tourist visited Washington City and stayed up for four months. When he
arrived, he noticed the strange direction from which the sun seemed to be rising. He decided that
he would come up with a general direction for the rising of the sun for the rising of the sun in
Washington City. As his visit came to an end, what direction did he establish as the direction of
the rising of the sun for the Washington city given that he arrived in January?
35. Solving the problem
a) Go to the website www.heavens-above.com

ASTRONOMY 6
b)
c)
d)
e)

Configure the settings of the location to be at Washington.

Obtain the map of the whole sky chart from the settings.
Set the months of the year to be at January.
Locate the sun and by varying the hours, obtain the direction of the rising of the sun for

the beginning of the month and at the mid of the month.

f) Vary the month to February and find the direction of the rising of the sun at this time at
the beginning and at the mid of the month.
g) Increase the month till you get to the month of the April.
h) Interpret the results of the findings.
36.
Rising direction of mid
Month
January

Rising Direction on first

month
East-southeast

East-southeast
East-southeast

February

East-southeast
East

March
April

East-southeast
East

East
East-Northeast

May

East

June

East-Northeast

East-Northeast

37. The direction of the rising of the sun from New York City cannot be said to be fixed. At the
begging of the year, the sun rises from the East-Southeast, and as the year progresses, the
direction shifts toward the North.
38. The motion of the sun during the day as observed from the Sky chart follows a curve in as
shown in the model below. At the beginning of the year, the sun travels along the Southern

ASTRONOMY 7
hemisphere of the sky, chard, then at Equator and at finally at the Northern hemisphere at the end
of the year.

SKY CHART AT THE DIFFERENT TIMES OF THE YEAR SHOWING PATH OF THE SUN
FROM East TO WEST

NORTH

Towards end year

ASTRONOMY 8
EAST
Mid-year

WEST

Beginning of year

SOUTH