Homework 1: Due Wednesday, Sept 5

1. Read the introductory section of the textbook (pages 1-7).
2. Suppose you observe a star in the sky, and you want your significant other to look at how beautiful it is. What method of finding things in the sky is the most effective for this pupose?
3. Suppose you wanted a fellow astronomer to look at the star from their observatory in Russia. What method of finding things in the sky is most effective for this purpose?
4. Suppose you observe a star in the sky about 2 thirds of the way up from the horizon, in the Northwest. What are its altitude and azimuth?
5. What Right Ascension and Declination are directly over Ogden (latitude 41^o, longitude 112^o) on the Vernal (i.e. Spring) Equinox at midnight? On the autumnal equinox at midnight?
   Hint: the declination here is not meant to be tricky. Think about what declination is overhead if you are standing at the equator (latitude=0), or at the poles (latitude=+/-90), and you should notice a pattern.
   Right Ascension is somewhat harder. There are three steps to figuring this out:
   1. First, figure out the Right Ascension of the Sun on this day. The Sun has this same Right Ascension all day long.
   2. Second, figure out where the Sun is relative to you at MIDNIGHT (the moon lab will help you with this).
   3. Third, put these two pieces of information together to answer the question.