Astronomy 201 Fall 2007
Assignment #1: Due *Friday*, September 14th, 5PM (extended slightly from the future norm)
Online Quiz #1:
(a) Go to http://www.masteringastronomy.com and login. The course ID is RICEASTR201F07 and your user ID should be the first three letters of your last name followed by the last three numbers of your Rice student ID number. EX: duf123, bru789, lee429, etc. If you get stuck with some other user ID, email it and your name to gbrunner@rice.edu.
(b) For practice take the “Basic Skills/Definitions Quiz” (BSDQ) for Chapter 1….do not submit it! Also, for practice, you might look at the “Conceptual Quiz”questions too (particularly review them before exams!).
(c) OQ1: Answer and submit the “BSDQ” questions for Chapters 2 and S1 by Friday, September 14th, 5pm central (otherwise the computer starts penalizing you)
Problem Set 1: Due to be turning in during class on Thursday, September 13th or to the “Astro 201 IN envelope” on Dr. Dufour’s office door bulletin board. The solutions should be in writing following the guidelines at the end of the syllabus handed out and on the course webpage.
P1-1: The “dog star” Sirius is the brightest star in the sky and the “Dog Days of August” start when it can be seen rising in the morning twilight. Suppose on September the 1st, you saw Sirius rise at 6:00AM central time. About what time would you expect to see Sirius Rise a month later, say the morning of October 1st?
P1-2: The bright star Capella has a declination of +45.95 degrees.
(a) What is Capella’s distance from the North Celestial Pole in degrees?
(b) At what latitude would an observer have to be to see Capella pass through his/her local zenith during the day/night?
(c) How far north latitude would an observer have to be so that Capella is seen all night (and day!) as a circumpolar star?
P1-3: Compute the angular size (in radians, degrees, and arcseconds) of a 12inch ruler that a friend holds atop the Rice football stadium as seen by you standing on the parking lot surrounding the campus observatory some 1500 feet away.
P1-4: Your are a mariner adrift in a sailboat under clear skies and note that Polaris is 27o above the north point of the horizon (you have a sextant!) and that your Universal time clock reads 1AM but your “local” clock reads 8PM (or 20:00 on a 24hr clock).
(a) what is your approximate latitude and longitude?
(b) What body of water are you located in?