Reading

Read all of the Prologue and Chapter 1.

Here are some questions to think about while reading the prologue and chapter 1.

Prologue: Science and the Universe: A Brief Tour

• What is astronomy?
• What makes something a science?
• Know and understand the steps (4) of the scientific method.
• What is the difference between an hypothesis and a "law of nature"?
• What are some laws of nature? (We will learn several in later chapters.)
• Understand scientific (power of ten) notation.
• What is a light-year?
• What consequence does light travel time have in astronomy?
• Be familiar with the general concepts of galaxy, solar system, and planets presented in the section "A Tour of the Universe".
• What is "stuff" made of?
• Understand the difference between molecules and atoms.
• What are the common atoms in the universe?

Chapter 1: Observing the Sky: The Birth of Astronomy

Learn and understand the definitions of terms in boldface throughout this chapter, and future chapters. Both the chapter text and the glossary in appendix 3 can be of help. For this chapter, here is a list of vocabulary terms:

geocentric, zenith, horizon, celestial sphere, north and south celestial poles, celestial equator, north and south circumpolar zones, ecliptic, zodiac, constellations, cosmology, magnitudes (of stars), precession (of the Earth), retrograde motion, epicycles, heliocentric, acceleration.

• Understand why we know the Earth is round (five reasons are given in the text).
• How did Eratostheses measure the diameter of the Earth?
• How was the precession of the Earth noticed by Hipparchus?
• What's the difference between geocentric and heliocentric models?
• Who first used a telescope to look at planets and stars?