Astronomy C

[batmankiller]

I'm curious if anyone has some equations that we should know/those that would be helpful.

Obviously distance modulus, kepler laws, parallax to parsec.. and parsec to AU and parsec, and

With distance and angular diameter(of orbit), we can use the small angle formula to determine the actual
distance of the semi major axis of their orbit:
D(actual distance)= α(angle in arcsec)*d(distance to object) /206265

(this is useful to figuring out the AU of an orbit.. to input into kepler's laws i assume)

... anything else I'm missing?

[Glacierguy1]

http://scioly.org/w/images/c/c6/Formula_Sheet.pdf

[RandomPerson]

Could someone just outline a good list of reference sheets print outs, and good resources to put in a binder in general?

I've got a good idea of a lot of things to put in our binder, but I want to make sure I'm not missing some good sources.

[walkingstyx]

Random Person 52:

I don't think there's a universal source for information about galaxies that test makers take from, but there are more general areas in which almost everyone uses the same resources for test questions, so it would be useful to have them. I have seen a question on every test I have taken this year with images from the Chandra website's chart on stellar evolution and the Astronomy powerpoint from the National Coaches Clinic. If your coach didn't go to that clinic, I think it's included in the Astronomy CD you can order from soinc, and you might be able to find it on the web, too.

[Glacierguy1]

http://www.tufts.edu/as/wright_center/p ... linic.html

[batmankiller]

Maybe I just haven't been able to see any light curves in which i can read the x and y variables. But could someone show me a site where I can learn to read light curves graphs? H-R diagrams were pretty easy but I have no idea how to interpret the graphs... such as O-C diagrams and how to tell where certain events happened. I think I just need to see the graphs more clearly. Anyone have a site/understands what I'm askign for?

[walkingstyx]

http://www.citizensky.org/forum/how-rea ... ight-curve

btw, this site was found by searching for "how to read a light curve" in google. It's the first result, and it's good. It's a lot more time efficient to find this information yourself with a search engine than to ask others

[pjgscioisamazing]

Hey, does anyone have any practice tests/events for this years topics? I've looked around, and it's been tough trying to find galaxy stuff, since it was variable stars for the past many years. If anyone has anything that would be great! THanks!

[batmankiller]

would dark matter/energy be something worth investing time into or no?

[walkingstyx]

I'm pretty sure that galaxies was the topic back in 2001-2003. You can find the old nationals tests in the tufts wright center. Also, even though the specific topic changes from year to year, much of what you are tested over in astronomy stays the same, so it's worth to look over old tests from any year. This is particularly true in the mathier sections of the test, because while the DSO's change every year, things like Kepler's laws, the distance modulus, and Hubble's law have been on the test FOREVER.