Exam 2: Observing the Sky: the Birth of Astronomy

The slow tipping of the Earth's axis in a circle with a period of about 26,000 years is called:

From horizon to opposite horizon, the sky takes up how much angular distance?

Which of the following is NOT an argument for showing that the Earth must be round:

Let's say we find a star that is located on the points or circles in the sky listed in the answer choices below. Then, on the same night, we move to a location on Earth that is some significant distance from our first location. There will now be a different star at or on:

Which ancient Greek thinker suggested (long before Copernicus) that the Earth is moving around the Sun?

Someone who observes the sky every clear night in Boston for many years will NEVER get to see:

How did Eratosthenes measure the size of the Earth?

The strip of the sky through which the Sun, the Moon, and the bright planets appear to move in the course of a year is called:

In Ptolemy's system the planets orbit the Earth and not the Sun. How did the system explain the retrograde motion of planets like Jupiter?

If the Earth goes around the Sun, why is the ecliptic not lined up with the celestial equator?

As seen from the continental United States, the Big and Little Dipper

In Copernicus' day, people were worried about the idea that the celestial sphere seemed to turn around us once a day because the Earth rotates. They argued that if the Earth were to rotate so fast, it should fly apart. According to our textbook, what was one response Copernicus had to this worry?

The south celestial pole and the north celestial pole lie in the sky directly above

Which of the following was NOT done by Hipparchus, the great ancient astronomer?

The star that is currently closest to the North Celestial Pole is:

When a planet temporarily moves westward in the sky over the course of several weeks or months (instead of eastward, as it typically does), we call it:

The Sun's apparent path around the celestial sphere is called