I. Introduction
A. Welcome / Names / Course Outline / Plan
for Night Observing
B. Disclaimers
1. My interest, equipment, study
2. What I do not know – no science
degree, limitations of my equipment (not
Hubble!)
3. My estimations/sources, lots
of numbers and pictures, few formulae
4. I will focus on what, where,
compare/contrast, viewing – less on cosmology, how, why.
5. My faith
i. Scripture
references; no offense: science always has non-Biblical or Biblical foundations
ii. Genesis
1: In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth…Then God made two
great lights: the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to
rule the night. He made
the stars
also.
iii. Psalm
8: When I consider Your heavens, the work of Your fingers, the moon and the
stars, which
You have ordained, what is man that You are mindful of him, and the son of
man
that You visit him? (This passage greatly inspired my interest in
astronomy!)
C. Our Solar System in the Spring; Beyond Our
Solar System in the Fall!
D. Ask anything…I’ll try! What are your
experiences, interests, and goals here?
II. Number of Stars
A. Milky Way
1. All sources
say 100+ billion stars!
2. Some sources
say 1 trillion stars.
3. Most sources
say 200-400 billion stars.
B. Naked-eye
visibility
1. This is severely
limited by weather, light pollution, the Moon, nearby obstacles (trees,
buildings,
mountains, et cetera), and how well your eyes have adjusted to the dark.
2. We can see no
more than 10,000 stars.
3. In the middle
northern latitudes on Earth, 1/3+ of the stars are too far south. In the middle
southern
latitudes, 1/3+ of the stars are too far north. Near the Equator, 1/3+ of the
stars are
too far south
and too far north. Thus you generally can see no more than 5000-6000 stars on
a dark night.
And of those, you can see fewer than half in a given moment. If you stay up all
night, you can
see most of them rise and set, but some are too close to the Sun. Realistically,
if you spend two
hours under dark, clear, and open skies, you might see 2000-3000 stars.
C. Nearby stars
1. Proxima
Centauri: http://www.skyandtelescope.com/astronomy-resources/far-closest-star/
2. 33 stars
within 12.5 light years: http://www.atlasoftheuniverse.com/12lys.html
3. 120 stars
within 20 light years: http://www.atlasoftheuniverse.com/20lys.html
4. 2000 stars
within 50 light years: http://www.atlasoftheuniverse.com/50lys.html
III. Nature of Stars
A. Size
1. How big do
stars get?
i. Slide show
of Moon ~ VY Canis Majoris: http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap130606.html
ii. If the
largest stars were where our Sun is, their surfaces would be beyond Jupiter’s
orbit!
3. Did a binary
dwarf star system recently and briefly enter the edge
of our Solar System?
B. Classification
1. What give a
star its appearance? (Distance, brightness, size, mass, properties, temperature)
3. More simply: http://www.atlasoftheuniverse.com/startype.html
C. Other Solar
Systems
1. Almost 2000
planets have been confirmed around nearby stars.
2. Astronomers
think the Milky Way may contain up to 100 billion planets!
IV. Magnitude and Catalogs
A. Apparent and
Absolute Magnitude – give examples
B. Catalogs:
Messier Catalog (M), New General Catalog (NGC), Index Catalog (IC), Caldwell
Catalog (C), Smithsonian
Astrophysical Observatory Star Catalog (SAO)
V. Star Groupings
A. Job 38:
Where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth? Tell me, if you have
understanding…Can
you bind the cluster of the Pleiades, or loose the belt of Orion? Can you
bring out Mazzaroth
in its season? Or can you guide the Great Bear with its cubs? Do you
know the ordinances
of the heavens? Can you set their dominion over the earth?
1. God is
questioning Job, who has wrongfully accused God of injustice.
2. The implied
answer to all of God’s questions is that Job can answer and has done none of
those things,
while God can answer and has done all of them.
3. Today, we
still view, study, and enjoy the night sky objects God mentioned.
B. Constellations
and Asterisms
C. Binaries,
Doubles, Sextuplets, etc.
1. How many Big
Dipper stars? http://astropixels.com/stars/images/MizarAlcor-01w.jpg
2. Alberio: http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap050830.html
4. Polaris – the
North Star: http://www.space.com/15567-north-star-polaris.html
5. Multi-star
systems: http://www.atlasoftheuniverse.com/orbits.html
D. When dealing
with space, motion, distance, mass, and time in astronomy...gravity rules!
VI. Clusters: images
A. Nature: clouds
of interstellar gas and dust – some are heated, others are not
B. Types: reflection,
emission, absorption, planetary, SNR
VIII. Galaxies
A. Psalm
147:
He heals the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds. He counts the number of
the stars; He calls
them all by name. Great is our Lord, and mighty in power; His
understanding is
infinite.
B. Revelation
2:
To him who overcomes I will give some of the hidden manna to eat. And I
will give him a
white stone, and on the stone a new name written which no one knows except
him who receives
it.
C. Nature
1. Large systems
of stars and interstellar matter, typically containing millions to trillions of
stars and solar
masses, spanning a few thousand to several hundred thousand light years.
2. Besides stars,
they typically contain star clusters, nebulae, and black holes.
3. Usually
separated from each other by millions of light years.
4. Various forms:
spiral, lenticular, elliptical and irregular.
i. Types: http://messier.seds.org/galaxy.html
ii. Spiral
structures: http://csep10.phys.utk.edu/astr162/lect/milkyway/components.html
D. Estimated number
of galaxies: 100+ billion!
IX. Milky Way: images
A. Nature
1. 100-500
billion stars; 1 trillion solar masses
2. 100,000 light
years in diameter; 150 globular clusters; 1100+ open clusters
3. The Gaia
Telescope is currently trying to resolve/plot 1 billion stars.
B. Zooming out from
our Sun to the Milky Way
1. Sun: 26,000
light years from Milky Way center; 230 million year-orbit, at 500,000 mph
C. Satellites
1. Up to 30 dwarf galaxies (Note
the satellite galaxy pictures!)
2. Absorbs other
galaxies or their globular clusters (again, gravity!)
i. Similarly,
star clusters absorb other stars.
ii. M87 has
stolen so many globular clusters that nearby galaxies have few or none left.
D. Galactic Center
1. Supermassive
black hole Sgr A
2. Black Holes: http://science.nasa.gov/astrophysics/focus-areas/black-holes/
3. Active
Galactic Nuclei: http://www.outerspacecentral.com/agn_page.html
E. Local Group
1. M31: Andromeda
2. Local Group: http://www.atlasoftheuniverse.com/localgr.html
X. Other Galaxies
A. Isaiah
40:
“To whom then will you liken Me, or to
whom shall I be equal?” says the Holy
One. Lift up your
eyes on high, and see who has created these things, who brings out their host
by number; He calls
them all by name, by the greatness of His might and the strength of His
power;
not one is missing.
B. Are other
galaxies like ours?
1. Drawing of MW
+ pictures of others: http://www.atlasoftheuniverse.com/milkyway.html
2. Milky Way
twin? http://www.space.com/11841-milky-spiral-galaxy-twins-photo.html
3. The Milky Way
has several arms – many spiral galaxies have two or three, one
has one!
C. Biggest Known
Spiral: http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/galex/galex20130110.html#
D. Brightest Known
Galaxy: http://news.nationalgeographic.com/2015/05/150526-astronomy-
XI. Galaxy Groups
A. Nearby Groups
1. Sculptor
Group (closest): http://www.atlasoftheuniverse.com/galgrps/scl.html
2. M81 Group: http://www.atlasoftheuniverse.com/galgrps/m81.html
3. M101 Group: http://www.atlasoftheuniverse.com/galgrps/m101.html
B. Galaxy Clusters
and Beyond
C. How do we
measure big distances? http://www.atlasoftheuniverse.com/galax200.html
XII. Man versus God
A. John 1: “In
the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was
God. He was in the
beginning with God. All things were made through Him, and without Him
nothing was made
that was made. In Him was life, and the life was the light of men. And the
light shines in the
darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it.”
B. The ancients
couldn’t see what we can see, but God could, and He knew everything about
everything – just
as He does now! Not only that, but He can control
everything!
C. Thousands of
astronomers, millions of hours of research, billions of dollars in equipment…
Yet frequent
differences / debates prevail – not just on random websites, but in research
papers.
1. M32 – Does it have star clusters, gas,
and dust, or not?
2. M31
/ Andromeda – It is close and big, yet what are its distance, size, and
satellites?
3. M45 / Pleiades / Seven Sisters – It is
close and big, yet how many stars does it have?
4. M42 / Orion – It is close and big, yet
how far is it, and has it many stars and a black hole?
5. M13 / Hercules – Does it have 100,000
stars, or 1 million stars?
6. M27 / Dumbbell – Is it 500 light years
away, or 3500 light years away?
7. Moon recedes from Earth 1-2” per year;
Earth’s magnetic field decays 5% per century.
8. Uniform temperature across the universe
versus distant starlight? Star formation problems.
10. Big Bang / Expansion – Yes, even this has one competing ideas among secular scientists!
But science can’t explain, enable, prove, or
disprove everything. On the other hand, God can!
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