Solar System Astronomy Activities Manual
Edition: 1
Copyright: 2019
Pages: 114
Edition: 1
Copyright: 2019
Pages: 114
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Students learn by doing, not by listening to lectures. The Solar System Astronomy Activities Manual provides nineteen astronomy activities which can be done in class or as homework assignments. They range from conceptual activities (on radioactive decay, etc.) to multi-part activities which reinforce key concepts (phases of the moon, orbits, etc.), to activities on topics not covered in other activity books (working out the lengths of the solar days on Mercury and Venus, tidal forces and the Roche limit, etc.). Solutions are available from the author.
1. Properties of a Transiting Extrasolar Planet
2. Temperature Scales
3. Measuring Angles
4. Motion on the Celestial Sphere
5. Motions of the Moon
6. Lunacy: Moon Phase Exercise
7. The Phases of Venus
8. Mapping the Solar System from Earth
9. Moon Phases
10. The Seasons and the Sun’s Path on the Celestial Sphere
11. Force, Acceleration, and Gravity
12. Kepler’s Laws and Elliptical Orbits
13. How Long are the Days on Mercury and Venus?
14. Electromagnetic Radiation and Thermal Spectra
15. A Scale Model of the Solar System
16. Kuiper Belt Objects
17. Age Dating Through Radioactive Decay
18. Tidal Forces and the Roche Limit
19. Stellar Masses with Newton’s Version of Kepler’s Third Law
Patrick B. Hall is an astronomer, professor, and former Chair of the Department of Physics and Astronomy at York University in Toronto, Canada. Born in California to Canadian parents, he double-majored in Physics and Astronomy at U. C. Berkeley and obtained a doctorate in astronomy at U. Arizona (even if it took him 7 and a half years to get that PhD). He then studied galaxies as a postdoctoral fellow at U. Toronto and quasars as a joint postdoc at Princeton and the Universidad Católica de Chile before joining the faculty at York. These days he divides his work time between research on quasars and their outflows, teaching astronomy and physics, and outreach. He can be reached at phall@yorku.ca.