Exercises in Astronomy: Revised and Extended Edition of “Practical Work in Elementary Astronomy” by M.G.J. Minnaert

Front Matter....Pages i-xxiii
Front Matter....Pages 1-1
The Stars Around the North Pole....Pages 5-8
Spherical Triangles....Pages 9-10
Sun-Dials....Pages 11-13
The Daily Rotation of the Earth....Pages 15-16
Conversion of Time....Pages 17-18
Simple Measurements with an Altimeter....Pages 19-21
The Adjustment of a Telescope....Pages 23-25
To Point the Telescope to a Star....Pages 27-28
The Sextant....Pages 29-31
Finding Your Position at Sea....Pages 33-35
Precession, Aberration, Nutation....Pages 37-39
Lunar Eclipses....Pages 43-44
The Position of the Planets in their Orbits....Pages 45-46
The Orbit of Mars, as Determined by Kepler....Pages 47-49
The Three-Body Problem....Pages 51-55
Atmospheric Trajectory of a Meteoroid....Pages 57-63
Passage of an Artificial Satellite....Pages 65-67
Position of a Geostationary Satellite....Pages 69-72
Topography of the Moon....Pages 75-76
The Shape of Lunar Craters....Pages 77-80
Front Matter....Pages 1-1
Observation of Planets Through a Telescope....Pages 81-82
The Rotation of Saturn....Pages 83-85
Front Matter....Pages 87-87
Solar Quantities....Pages 91-93
The Size of the Sun (S)....Pages 95-98
The Solar Constant (S)....Pages 99-101
The Brightness Distribution over the Sun’s Disc (L)....Pages 103-105
Profiles of Fraunhofer Lines (L)....Pages 107-109
Equivalent Width of Fraunhofer Lines (L)....Pages 111-113
The Curve of Growth (L)....Pages 115-120
Practice with MHD....Pages 121-136
Sunspots(S)....Pages 137-138
The Rotation of the Sun(L)....Pages 139-140
The Solar Cycle (L)....Pages 141-144
The Convection Cells of Bénard (L)....Pages 145-146
Radio Bursts after a Solar Flare (L)....Pages 147-152
To Draw a Constellation (S)....Pages 155-156
The Apparent Magnitudes of the Stars (S)....Pages 157-160
Photoelectric Photometry of Stellar Images (L)....Pages 161-162
The Atmospheric Extinction (S)....Pages 163-164
Stellar Spectra (L)....Pages 165-168
Front Matter....Pages 87-87
Data Retrieval in Spectroscopy....Pages 169-170
The Colours of the Stars (L)....Pages 171-172
The UBV Photometric System (L)....Pages 173-175
Black Body Radiation....Pages 177-178
Combinations of Black Bodies....Pages 179-180
Spectrophotometry of Stars in the Near Infrared....Pages 181-187
Derivation of Illuminations from Stellar Colors....Pages 189-197
Interstellar Extinction (L)....Pages 199-201
Interstellar Extinction II....Pages 203-208
Temperatures of Stars: Wavelength Dependent Interstellar Extinction....Pages 209-215
The Nearest Stars (L)....Pages 217-220
Stars at the Galactic Centre....Pages 221-222
The Motion of the Hyades (L)....Pages 223-226
The Mean Light Curve of a Cepheid (L)....Pages 227-229
Search and Determination of Periodicity....Pages 231-235
Properties of Pulsars and the Interstellar Medium....Pages 237-246
Mirages Caused by a Gravitational Lens....Pages 247-250
Forbidden Emission Lines — I....Pages 251-254
Forbidden Emission Lines — II....Pages 255-257
Abundance of Elements....Pages 259-261
Front Matter....Pages 87-87
The Observation of Double Stars (S)....Pages 265-267
The Orbit of a Visual Binary (L)....Pages 269-272
The Dynamical Parallax of Binaries (L)....Pages 273-274
The Orbit of a Spectroscopic Binary (L)....Pages 275-279
The Orbit of an Eclipsing Variable (L)....Pages 281-285
Light Changes of Eclipsing Variables and what we can Learn from them....Pages 287-307
The Observation of Star Clusters and Nebulae (S)....Pages 309-310
Open Clusters (L)....Pages 311-314
The Distribution of the Stars in a Globular Cluster (L)....Pages 315-316
Cluster Variables in a Globular Cluster (L)....Pages 317-319
The Milky Way (S)....Pages 321-321
The Spiral Structure of the Galactic Clouds, Derived from 21 cm Measurements (L)....Pages 323-326
Stability of Molecular Clouds....Pages 327-329
The High Redshift of Quasars....Pages 331-335
Back Matter....Pages 337-339