1st constellation “Snake Line”

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School

Mt San Antonio College *

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Course

101

Subject

Astronomy

Date

Oct 30, 2023

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Name: Darlene Tandarki Preliminary Observation Due Friday of Week 2 For the preliminary observation you will make three sets of altitude/azimuth measurements for ONE constellation and answer the following questions. 1. Describe your observing location. In a house community, I was observing right in front of my house, in the driveway. 2. Sketch of your constellation/asterism and its name. “Snake Line” . . . . . 3. Altitude and azimuth measurements for the alpha star of your constellation or asterism. Time of Observation Altitude Azimuth 11:32 pm 25 degrees 30 azimuth 12:37 am 42 degrees 36 azimuth 1:47 am 52 degrees 29 azimuth 4. Answer the following questions: a) Just from looking at the sky, could you tell that the constellation/asterism had moved during the two hours of your observation? Explain. Yes it has moved higher in altitude, but it didn’t really move in azimuth. b) At the first observation, was your constellation before or after transit? Explain how you know. The first observation was before transit because it is still on the east side, I know this because if they are between 0 to 180 azimuth then it is before transit. c) How did the altitude change from the first to the second observation? Is this what you would expect based on your answer to question b? Explain. The altitude got higher in the second observation, and yes I did expect it because this constellation is before transit. 1

d) At the second observation, was your constellation before or after transit? Explain how you know. At the second observation the constellation was still before transit because it was in the 0 to 180 range. e) How did the altitude change from the second to the third observation? Is this what you would expect based on your answer to question d? Explain. The altitude got higher from the second to the third observation. It is also what I expected because it was still before transit. The preliminary observation is worth 25 points. You will receive full credit for making your three observations of a constellation/asterism and answering these questions, regardless of how accurate your answers are. This assignment is a way for me to make sure that you are doing things correctly before you start your final observing project. 2