Wednesday, June 10, 2009

Homework #2 solutions

The Home #2 solutions are posted, so that you can use them for studying for the midterm.


Some of the homework solutions require producing a diagram for the answer. So instead of being part of actual solutions, I'm just going to post the diagrams here on this website. Question (5) asked you to draw Venus circling the Sun, and identify the various phases of Venus as seen from Earth. From this diagram you should also be able to identify at what phases does Venus have the largest and smallest angular size in the sky. Another good thing to practice is to draw a similar diagram for Mars. What phases do you see for Mars from Earth, and how do these differ from the phases we see for Venus?


Questions (6b) asked at what position on the Earth will the north celestial pole be seen at the horizon. The answer is the equator, but you also need to draw a diagram to explain this fast. Here is the diagram. Note that the south celestial pole is also at the horizon when viewed from the equator, but it's on the exact opposite end of the sky from the north celestial pole. Using a diagram like this, you should also be able to identify what things in the sky can and cannot be seen depending on your position on Earth. For example, if you are in Berkeley, can you see the south celestial pole? If you wanted to maximize the amount of the celestial sphere that you can see with a given telescope (over the course of a year), where is the best place to place it on the Earth?

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