1.  Describe the concept of the Celestial Sphere and the various point & lines defined on its surface.

2.  What are constellations?  How come most constellations don't look much like the persons/animals/objects... that they're named after?

3.  Define the equatorial celestial coordinates:  Right Ascension (RA) & Declination (Dec).

4.  Define the horizon based celestial coordinates:  Azimuth (Azm) & Altitude (Alt).

5.  How is local apparent solar time (sundial time) defined?  What motion of the Earth is most related to sundial time?  Is this the only motion of the Earth related to it?

6.  Describe how Local Mean (solar) Time (LMT) and Local Standard Time are related to local apparent solar time.  Use the specific example of eastern standard time (EST) which is our local standard time.

7.  What is sidereal time?  Give two definitions of the Local Mean Sidereal Time (LMST).  How long is a sidereal day compared to a solar day?  What makes the difference?

8.  Is the definition of a week based primarily on a celestial cycle or on some other celestial events or objects?  Explain.

9.  What celestial cycle is most related to a month?

10.  What celestial cycle is a year based on?  What motion of the Earth causes this cycle?

11.  What causes the seasons?  How are the equinoxes and solstices related to the seasons?  Describe the daily motion of the Sun on the equinoxes and solstices.  (Where does it rise, how high does it transit the meridian, where does it set?)

12.  Does the whole Earth experience the same season at the same time?  (i.e. If it's summer in Dahlonega, is it summer everywhere else on the Earth?)  What is solar insolation and what does it have to do with the seasons?

13.  What is precession?  Does it have any effect on time or the seasons as they are defined?

14.  List the lunar phases.  Using the moon phase diagram in the outline (or book) explain the relationship between the Earth-Moon-Sun positions and the lunar phase.  Also show how the observer's position on the Earth sets the local (observer's) time of day and where the observer sees the Moon in the sky.

15.  What is a solar eclipse?  What phase must the Moon be in for a solar eclipse to occur?  Describe total, partial, and annular solar eclipses.  (Define and use the terms "umbra" and "penumbra" in describing solar eclipses.)

16.  What is a lunar eclipse?  Describe total, partial, and penumbral lunar eclipses.  What phase must the Moon be in for a lunar eclipse to occur?

17.  What is the maximum number of solar and lunar eclipses that could happen in 1 year?  What is an "eclipse year" and how is it related to the "line of nodes"?  What is the Saros cycle?

18.  Discuss some examples of early Greek astronomical ideas and early Greek astronomers.  Specifically, what were some of the contributions of Aristotle, Aristarchus, Eratosthenes and Hipparchus?  Draw and explain a diagram of Eratosthenes' measurement of the circumference of the Earth.

1.  Describe the Ptolemaic model of the solar system.  The Ptolemaic model is also called the _______________ model or _____________ theory.  What are epicycles and deferents in Ptolemy's model?  What is retrograde motion of the planets and how does his model explain retrograde motion?  After Ptolemy published his 17 volume work describing his model of the solar system (...actually whole universe), how long did it remain the unquestioned authority on Astronomy?

2.  What was Copernicus' model (or theory) of the solar system called?  Describe Copernicus' solar system model.  List and describe the planetary configurations possible in his model.  Can you give an example of how it is possible to map out the relative sizes of the orbits using Copernicus' model?   What's the name of the work that Copernicus published explaining his solar system model?  When was it published?

3.  How does Copernicus' model explain retrograde motion?  In the end, did Copernicus' model predict the exact positions of the planets any better than Ptolemy's?  Why do you think Copernicus' ideas caused so much controversy?

4.  Give a brief overview of the "characters" involved in the Copernican Revolution.  What part did each play and when did they play it?  Who were contemporaries, who came first, last?

5.  State Kepler's 3 laws of planetary motion.  Describe each law as it relates to planetary motion.

6.  Define vector quantity, scalar quantity, use the terms magnitude and direction. Define position vector, displacement vector, velocity vector, and acceleration vector.  Is mass a vector quantity?  If the speed of an object remains constant but its direction of motion changes, would the object be accelerating?

7.  Define uniform circular motion.  What direction is the acceleration on a body undergoing UCM?  What is the formula for the magnitude of this acceleration?  What is this acceleration (for UCM) called?

8.  State Newton's three laws of motion.  Which law was originally developed by Galileo?  What was Newton's original version of his 2nd law?  (Define linear momentum.)  Which law is the main principle behind rocket propulsion?

9.  State and describe Newton's universal law of gravity.  Why is the word "universal" important when describing Newton's gravity law?

10.  When Kepler's 1st law is derived from Newton's motion and gravity laws, what more general result about the shape of orbits does Newton get?  What are the conic sections?  Use "Newton's cannon" to discuss "weightlessness" in orbit, the circular orbit velocity (state the equation), and the escape velocity (relate to the circular orbit velocity).

11.  What is angular momentum?  Show how conservation of angular momentum for the case of a planet orbiting the Sun results in higher speeds near perihelion and lower speeds near aphelion.

12.  State Newton's version of Kepler's 3rd law.  Define the parameters and variables in Newton's version.  What's the difference between this equation and the "real version" of Newton's version of Kepler's 3rd law.  ("real version" = more detailed analysis using center of mass/conservation of momentum considerations)

Section 3:  Exploration of the Solar System

1.  What is a "Hohmann transfer orbit"?  How could you determine the "time of flight" from the Earth to Jupiter using the definition of the Hohmann orbit and Kepler's 3rd law?  What are "sling shot" or "gravitational assist" trajectories and how do they work?  Give an example of a space probe that used this gravitational assist trajectory.

2.  Which one of Newton's laws of motion is the main principle on which rocket propulsion is based?  State the rocket equation as presented in the outline.  What are the variables or parameters in this equation?  (ie:  What's thrust, exhaust vel., etc.)  What does  the "specific impulse" of a rocket engine measure?

3.  Describe a Solid Fuel Rocket Engine.  What are some examples of solid fuel rockets?  What did a solid fuel rocket have to do with the Challenger disaster in 1986?  Describe a Liquid Fuel Rocket Engine.  What particular fuel system (currently) has the highest specific impulse for a liquid fuel rocket engine?  Give one example of a liquid fuel rocket.

4.  What sort of engine will likely power a "spaceplane" replacement for the Space Shuttle?  What kind of propulsion will most likely be needed for any manned mission to Mars?  What is an Ion Engine and have any spacecraft to date used an ion engine?  Pick one of the "other advanced concepts" and see if the book has any info. about that concept.

5.  Describe four major general characteristics of the solar system.

6.  List the major planets in order from the Sun.  Give the approx. semimajor axis lengths in AU and their approx. planetary diameters in "Earth diameters".

7.  Name and describe the different classifications of the major planets and the different locations or main concentrations of minor bodies in the solar system (asteroids, comet nuclei, etc.).

8.  Describe at least one particular characteristic of each major planet.  (biggest diam., least dense, closest to Sun, etc.)

9.  What are "proplyds"?  Describe how they result from the formation processes of stars.  How do we think the temperature structure in these proplyds effects the formation of planets around the newborn star?

10.  What does conservation of angular momentum have to do with the distribution of planets around a newborn star?  How are planets' orbits predicted to be distributed in a "solar system" and does this prediction describe our solar system correctly?  How come the Sun is not spinning extremely rapidly considering that conservation of angular momentum alone would predict rapidly spinning stars at the center of solar systems?

11.  Define the "accretion process".  Describe how this process forms planetary bodies around newborn stars.  Use the terms "planetesimal" and "proto-planet" in your description.  What is the "differentiation" process and how is it related to the accretion process?

12.  How do we think the final interactions between proto-planets shaped the final configuration of the solar system and explains some of the irregularities of some of the planets?

13.  Describe how the asteroid belt formed.  How did the Oort cloud and Kuiper belt form?  Comment on the controversy over the classification of Pluto.

14.  Discuss how the discovery of several dozens of extra-solar planetary systems have supported or not supported our present model of solar system formation.

1.  Describe the general interior structure of a terrestrial planet.  (Use Earth's structure as the example.)  Talk about chemical layering and physical layering.  How does the surface to volume ratio affect the interior structure?

2.  What is the mean density of a planet and how is it measured?  What can the mean density tell us about a planet?

3.  What are seismic waves?  Describe the two types of seismic waves.  How are seismic waves used to determine detailed structure of a planet?  What planets have we studied using seismic waves?

4.  Name and describe two other methods or measurements that can be used to determine more details about a planet's interior structure.

5.  Describe the specific characteristics of the interior structure of Earth.

6.  Describe the specific characteristics of the interior structures of Venus and Mars.  Compare them with Earth and each other.

7.  Describe the specific characteristics of the interior structures of Mercury and the Moon.  Compare them with Earth and each other.

8.  What is the general "rule of thumb" about surface feature development that applies to terrestrial planets?

9.  Describe the basic concept of radiometric dating.  What do the terms "half-life", "isotope", "radioactive" mean?  How old would a rock which contains a radioactive element with a half-life of 0.5 billion years be if it is determined that 1/8 of the original number of this radioactive element is left in the rock?

10.  Describe how "crater counts" can establish the age of a planetary surface.  Can this technique be used on the Earth's surface?

11.  Describe the specific characteristics of the surface structure of Earth.  What are the 3 primary processes which have shaped the Earth's surface?

12.  Describe "plate tectonics" and how it unifies the study of geology on the Earth.  What was the name of a precursor idea to plate tectonics and how come this idea was not accepted by the scientific community?

13.  List and describe some of the features and processes of plate tectonics.  How do different plates interact and what surface features to they cause?

14.  Describe the specific characteristics of the surface of Venus and compare them with Earth's surface features.  What can we say about plate tectonics on Venus?

15.  Describe the specific characteristics of the surface of Mars and compare them with Earth's surface features.  What can we say about plate tectonics on Mars?

16.  Describe the specific characteristics of the surfaces of Mercury and the Moon.  Compare them with Earth and each other.  What processes may have caused these surface features?

17.  Did the terrestrial planets all begin with about the same atmospheric composition?  What was the 1st atmosphere made up of and where did this gas come from?  What made up the "secondary" (1st robust) atmospheres of the terrestrial planets?  What are the two main processes that we believe created these atmospheres?

18.  Several types of atmospheric loss processes contributed to the final form of the terrestrial planets atmospheres.  List a few of these processes and describe in more detail the process of thermal escape.

19.  Which of the terrestrial planets have the "greenhouse effect"?  Which one has a "runaway greenhouse effect"?  Describe how the greenhouse effect causes the surface temperature of a planet to be higher than if it had no greenhouse effect.

20.  Describe the atmospheric layers in the Earth's atmosphere.  (Generic planetary atmosphere structure.)  What is the UV absorbing layer in the Earth's stratosphere called?  Which two terrestrial planets can be said to have only the topmost layer of atmosphere?  Which planets have little or no stratosphere?  How come?

21.  Describe how the Earth evolved its present atmosphere.

22.  Describe how the Venus evolved its present atmosphere.

23.  Describe how the Mars evolved its present atmosphere.

24.  Describe how the Mercury evolved its present atmosphere.

25.  Describe how the Moon evolved its present atmosphere.

1.  Describe the general interior structure of Jupiter and the other Jovian planets.  How have we determined the interior structure of these worlds?

2.  Describe and compare the interior structures of Jupiter and Saturn.  What is "weird" about the transition from the liquid hydrogen mantle of Jupiter to its gaseous hydrogen atmosphere?  What is metallic liquid hydrogen and how is it related to Jupiter's and Saturn's strong magnetic fields?  Both Jupiter and Saturn give off more energy than they receive from the Sun.  What are two possible mechanisms that could cause this?

3.  Describe the interior structures of Uranus and Neptune and compare them with the interiors of Jupiter and Saturn.  Uranus and Neptune can be labeled as Jovian planets, but in recent years another term has been applied to them to highlight the differences between them and the other two Jovian worlds.  What is this term?

4.  What is the composition of the Jovian planet clear atmospheres?  (Including Uranus, Neptune.)  When we observe these worlds, are we seeing their surfaces?  Explain.

5.  Discuss the temperature structure of the Jovian planet clear atmospheres.  What is the main heating mechanism for the atmospheres?  Comment on the scale of these giant planet atmospheres.

6.  What is the Coriolis effect?  How does this affect the wind and cloud patterns on the Jovian worlds?  How does it affect the wind patterns on the Earth?

7.  Describe the cloud layers and other specific characteristics of Jupiter's atmosphere.  What is the Great Red Spot?  Considering the temperature structure and composition of Jupiter's atmosphere, speculate on the possibility of life on Jupiter.

8.  Describe the cloud layers and other specific characteristics of Saturn's atmosphere.  What are some reasons for the differences in the visible appearance of clouds in Saturn's and Jupiter's atmospheres.

9.  Describe the cloud layers and other specific characteristics of Uranus' and Neptune's atmospheres.  How come we don't see the colorful clouds we see on Jupiter and Saturn?  What gives these two worlds their blue or blue/green colors?  Which planet (Uranus, Neptune) seems to have the more active atmosphere?

10.  Give an overview of the satellite systems of the solar system.  Define small, medium, and large moons, summarize how these types of moons formed, and state the numbers of these moons in the solar system (as of mid 2002).

11.  Define tidal forces and describe how they come about.  Give several examples of tidal forces in the solar system.  (Including Earth.)

12.  Describe Jupiter's satellite system overall.  Describe the four large Galilean moons in detail, describing their surface features and interior structure.  Describe mechanisms for the internal heating of the moons, especially as it relates to Io.

13.  Describe the satellite systems of Saturn, Uranus and Neptune.  Describe Saturn's one large moon, Titan in more detail.  Uranus doesn't have any large moons, but it does have some interesting medium sized moons.  Describe Miranda's surface features and what some hypothesize happened to this moon to cause those surface features.  Describe Neptune's moon Triton and compare it to Pluto.

14.  Give an overview of the ring systems of the Jovian worlds.  How do ring systems originate and what do we think happens to them over time?  Given what we think happens to ring systems, how come Saturn has its broad spectacular ring system?  How are the narrow rings of Uranus and Neptune thought to be maintained?

15.  Uranus, Neptune and Pluto are all too faint to be discovered as planets by the unaided eye.  Relate the story of how these three planets were discovered and how their discoveries are related.  When and how was Charon (Pluto's moon) discovered?  (News flash:  there is new info. on the discovery of Neptune - go to: http://SkyandTelescope.com/printable/news/current/article_935.asp to find out.)

16.  Describe Pluto and Charon.  Why do some say Pluto should be "demoted" to minor planet from major planet?

17.  Name and describe the three major concentrations of minor bodies in the solar system.  Give a brief overview of their origins.

18.  Describe how an Oort cloud body might become a comet that we would see from Earth.  Describe the components (or structure) of a comet and how some components are formed by the action of sunlight and the solar wind.

19  Define the following terms:  meteoroid, meteor & meteorite.  What is a meteor shower and how is it related to comets?  What is the radiant of a meteor shower and how does that relate to a shower's name?  What meteor shower has been in the news (very active) for the last several years, but is expected to become much less active in the near future?