Frequently Asked Questions for Astronomy 201

These questions will be updated through the semester.

Basic stuff

• Questions about observations of the night sky and observational phenomena (eclipses, phases of the moon, planetary motions, the Sun, etc.

• The timeline of astronomical discovery through history to the time of Newton.

• Questions about the electromagnetic spectrum, light, spectra etc.

• Questions about telescopes and how they work.

• Info about the Cornell Atacama Telescope CAT

• Questions about the magnitude scale and how we measure brightness and luminosity.

The Sun, the Solar System and planets around other stars

• What is the Sun like?

• What are sunspots and the solar activity cycle?

• Info about the Solar System

• How do astronomers search for ExoPlanets?

Stellar Evolution, Stellar Death, and other stellar exotica

• Questions about stellar evolution

• Questions about supernovae

• Questions about pulsars

• Questions about black holes

• Questions about binary stars

• Link here to the Astro 101 binary star simulations.

Galaxies, Cosmology and Dark Matter

• Questions about galaxies

• Questions about cosmology

• Questions about Dark Matter

General Stuff

• Selected astronomical objects

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