The following topics are important and are chosen from the Voyages text. This list includes many of the important topics (including all bold-faced terms in the text - these are defined in the glossary), but is not exhaustive.

Prologue and Brief Tour of the Universe. Nature of science (self correcting, peer review), scientific notation (see Appendix 4 also), light year, astronomical unit, the Earth's location in the universe (pages 10-12), dark matter.

Chapter 1. Observing the Sky: The Birth of Astronomy. Zenith, horizon, celestial sphere, axis, north and south celestial poles, celestial equator, circumpolar zone, year, day, ecliptic, planets, zodiac, constellations, asterism, ancient calenders, cosmology, Pythagoras, Aristotle, Aristarchus of Samos, Eratosthenes, Hipparchus, magnitudes, precession, Ptolemy and geocentric model, retrograde motion, epicycle, astrology (natal astrology), horoscope, Copernicus and his heliocentric model, Galileo and his observations, accelerate.

Chapter 2. Orbits and Gravity. Tycho Brahe, Kepler, ellipse, foci, major and minor axis, semimajor and semiminor axis, eccentricity, Kepler's First Law of Planetary Motion, Kepler's Second Law of Planetary Motion, Kepler's Third Law of Planetary Motion, Newton, Newton's First Law (Law of Inertia), Newton's Second Law, Newton's Third Law, momentum, density, angular momentum, Newton's Law of Universal Gravitation, period of revolution, perihelion, aphelion, perigee, apogee, asteroid belt, circular satellite velocity (Figure 2.10), discovery of Neptune.

Chapter 3. Earth, Moon, and Sky. Great circle, meridians, declination, right ascension, cause of the Earth's seasons (Figure 3.4), summer and winter solstices, vernal (spring) and autumnal (fall) equinoxes, Tropics of Cancer and Capricorn, arctic circle, antarctic circle, solar day and sidereal day (see Figure 3.9), apparent solar time, mean solar time, international date line, Julian calender, Gregorian calender, lunar phases (new, waxing crescent, first quarter, waxing gibbous, full, waning gibbous, third quarter, waning crescent - Figure 3.13), the sun and moon and tides (Figure 3.18), spring tide, neap tide, eclipse, solar eclipse, lunar eclipse, umbra, penumbra, partial and total eclipses, Bailey's Beads, the "diamond ring," corona.

Chapter 4. Radiation and Spectra. James Clerk Maxwell, protons, electrons, magnetism, relationship between electric and magnetic fields, electromagnetic radiation, aether, wavelength, radio waves, infrared, ultraviolet, e-rays, gamma rays, ROY G. BIV, frequency, Hertz, photons, quantum mechanics, apparent brightness, inverse square law, electromagnetic spectrum and the penetration of Earth's atmosphere, blackbody (Figure 4.8), Wien's Law, Stefan-Boltzmann Law, dispersion, spectrometer, continuous spectrum, absorption spectrum, emission line spectrum, nucleus (of atom), number of protons in an atom, the Bohr model of the atom and the behavior of electrons in orbitals, energy levels and spectra (Figure 4.16), ground state, excited state, ion, Doppler Effect, radial velocity, blueshift, redshift.

Chapter 5. Astronomical Instruments. Optical and radio "window," aperture, focus, focal length, refracting telescope, reflecting telescope, prime focus (Figure 5.5), Newtonian focus (Figure 5.5), Cassegrain focus (Figure 5.5), resolution, arcsecond, adaptive optics, charge-coupled device (CCD), spectrometer, grating, ways air imposes limitations of telescopes (p. 116), seeing, antenna as conductor, radio interferometer, interferometer array, very long baseline interferometers, radar, Hubble Space Telescope.

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