Assignment 1 Astronomy

Part 1 Your birth Day Month Year Location 11 03 (March) 2005 Alghero Question 1: ● Time of sunrise: 06:44 ● Constellation in which the Sun was found: Between Acquarius and Pisces (at 8am) Question 2: ● Time of sunset: 18:29 ● Constellation in which the Sun was found: Between Pisces and Acquarius ● Were you surprised? Why or why not? Yes, but not too much. I was taught that on March 11, the Sun is typically considered to align with the constellation Pisces. However, due to the uneven sizes of the constellations and the precision of my birth time, it's possible that the Sun was indeed in cusp state (the boundary between Pisces and Aquarius). From what I know in astrology cusps usually occur on the 21st of every month and had I been born on the 21st of March then I would have cusped with the Aries sign, so it’s curious how despite astrology being very mainstream the sizes and clashes of constellations aren’t mentioned that much. I guess I never reflected much on how the Sun might not align perfectly with the astrological dates associated with each zodiac sign, but I’m not very surprised either. Meanwhile, the sun remaining seemingly ‘trapped’ within the same two constellations for the whole day isn’t surprising either. We did discuss how from our perspective on Earth, the Sun appears to move through a different constellation about every month, meaning that this motion is very gradual. It’s unsurprising that it slowly transitions over the span of several days which is why on some days, it appears to be between two constellations. Question 3: ● Hours of daylight that day: 11:44

● Were you surprised? Why or why not? Again, it is sort of surprising. Alghero is part of an island located in the world’s northern hemisphere, where March marks the transition from winter to spring. By this time, the days are getting noticeably longer compared to the winter solstice in December (ie the shortest day of the year). Around the time of the spring equinox, which occurs around March 20-21, day and night are approximately equal in length. Given that March 11 is close to the equinox, having almost 12 hours of daylight is quite normal and unsurprising. Question 4: ● Phase of the Moon that day: Waxing Crescent ● When did it rise that day? 07:01am Question 5: ● Was the Moon visible at midnight? Yes, although very faintly ○ A 2% illuminated crescent moon is extremely thin and faint, making it difficult to see, additionally on this day it was very close to the horizon making it nearly impossible to notice. Around the new moon phase, which is close to what an illuminated crescent would be, the Moon is very close to the Sun in the sky. This means it rises and sets approximately with the Sun, spending most of the daylight hours above the horizon. During the day, the brightness overwhelms the faint crescent making the moon difficult to notice. ● What constellation was the Moon in? ○ On March 11th, the Moon was positioned between the constellations of Pisces and Cetus (which isn’t considered part of the traditional Zodiac). Question 6: ● Was Venus visible one hour after sunset? Yes, when hiding the horizon. The first month in which Venus appears to be visible from above the horizon is in June 2005. Without horizon it’s within Aquarius’ center ● Was Venus visible one hour before sunrise? Yes, when hiding the horizon. I can see how Venus is located within Aquarius’ area one hour before the sunrise. Question 7: ● What constellation was Venus in? On March 11th Venus is located within Aquarius’ area. However, on the June 11th 2005 (first day on which I could find Venus) it lied right in the middle of Gemini’s constellation Question 8: ● Was Jupiter visible at midnight? Yes, but it was actually only visible in the morning (before sunrise, but not after sunset) ● When was Jupiter at its highest point in the sky? at 2:47am , with an altitude of 43 degrees and the Azimuth being 188 degrees ● What constellation was it in? It lied within the area of Virgo’ s constellation

Picture 1: Shows how Jupiter is right within the center of Virgo’s constellation Part 2: The Kingston eclipse ● Time of first contact: 13:10:00 ● The time of what I informally called ‘getting there’: 13:48:49 ● Start of totality: 14:22:58 ● End of totality: 14:26:03 ● The time of ‘getting away’: 14:56:00 ● Time of last contact: 15:35:00 ● Full duration of the eclipse, from first to last contact: 2h and 35 minutes or 155 minutes ● Full duration of totality: 3 minutes and 5 seconds Part 3: Exercise 1: Eclipse from Birth City Alghero is located in Southern Europe, therefore the eclipse wasn’t visible at any point throughout the day of the 8th of September 2024. The eclipse was visible in a band of shadow that spanned throughout North America and Central America only. However, here is a picture of the sky at 19:10, hence the parallel time in which the eclipse officially started in Kingston.