Astronomy, the oldest of all the sciences, seeks to describe the structure, movements and processes of celestial bodies.
Ancient ruins provide evidence that the most remote ancestors observed and attempted to understand the workings of the Cosmos. Although not always fully understood, these ancient ruins demonstrate that early man attempted to mark the progression of the seasons as related to the changing of the apparent changing positions of the Sun, stars, planets and Moon on the celestial sphere. Archaeologists s…
At its most fundamental, astronomy is based on the electromagnetic radiation emitted by the stars. The ability to gather light is the key to acquiring useful data. The bigger the primary mirror of a telescope, the greater its light-gathering capabilities and the greater the magnification of the instrument. These two attributes allow a large telescope to image fainter, smaller objects than a telesc…
Astronomy is based upon the information we can derive by what we observe when we gaze at the stars. One of the characteristics of a star that can be determined observationally is its luminosity—the amount of light that the star emits. When combined with other information about a star such as its size or temperature, luminosity can indicate the intensity of fusion reactions taking place in t…
When we think of astronomy, spectacular, colorful pictures of swirling galaxies, collapsing stars, and giant clouds of interstellar gas come to mind. In reality, however, some of the most useful observational data in astronomy does not involve images at all. Spectroscopic techniques are powerful tools that allow scientists detect the presence of certain elements or processes in faraway galaxies. I…
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