Astronomy Definition and 805 Threads

I've been relying on Wikipedia and some other questionable sources for a basic understanding of these studies, and i don't think I should rely fully on these sources. If anyone can point me to a place that is reliable I would greatly appreciate it.

Which country is best to study astronomy? To be specific which university is preferred.?

So what I want to ask is that I will be entering a university next year so career selection is one of the very tricky and difficult decisions. MY question is that what if I do Some PhD in astrophysics or astronomy what type of job can I get other then a professor.? And as an foreign I may not...

Hello every one . I am 19 years old and i can't be in olampiyad of astronomy . actully i really want to be in a international astronomy competition but i don't know whaaat ?? please help me . thanks

After all those years of doing physics, I finally get to do something that interests me :woot: Just kidding, good luck to everyone starting at uni this year!

Homework Statement Suppose you have a disk of radius r at x=y=z=0 with its normal pointing up along the z-axis. The disk radiates with specific intensity I(\theta) from its upper surface. Imagine the observer plane is at z=Z, where Z is much greater than r. Let I(\theta) = I = constant...

hello everyone, can someone help me know where I can take a course in astronomy / cosmology on the Internet where you get recognition and diploma and to get on with my passion of the universe? This means a lot to me and I want to move on in my passion. thanks

i have a doubt, how do we know far away (light years) galaxies and planets are on the right spot we see them? if light takes a lot of time to reach the Earth it means we are seeing the past of the galaxy/planet. Example: If Earth is becoming extinct and we need to find an exoplanet 30,000 light...

I'm an 18 year old scouts member; which makes me one of the "elders" of the boy scouts. My chief has asked me to prepare an astronomy session to teach to 11-16 year old boy scouts. I'll be joining them on their summer camp in 2 weeks time. So I'm supposed to wake them up in the middle of the...

Hi, Can anyone recommend some good ancient astronomy books (from around 8000BC-0) that that are historically correct (perhaps springled with a few translations from older writings) with visual images, and that show in some detail how different calculations, and observations were made? It would...

That, anyway, is the headline in today's news, regarding the interesting discovery announced by NASA overnight of the planet dubbed Kepler-452b. As I understand it, the properties of the planet are inferred from spectral analysis of its effects on the light from the star which it orbits...

I am not sure if this should be here or in Astronomy forum! I am participating for my second time in an astronomy camp for children from 8 to 16 years as a teacher. Last year I designed and prepared three workshops; one on Stargazing, one on telescopes, one on rockets. The only fault that I...

Hey guys & gals, a long time lurker here. For a variety of reasons I have failed to secure a PhD position that I wanted this year after finishing my MPhys degree in physics, so I decided to take a year away from studying, regroup, work towards publishing a paper and then come back with full...

Hello, I'm currently a philosophy major and I'm going to start my sophomore year this fall, but I've considered changing my major to astronomy. The problem with this is that I've always wanted to graduate in just 4 years, and the only way this could happen is if I filled up the next two summers...

Hi guys I'm Bruce. I'm new to this forum and I 'm currently a high school student. I was wondering if there was any good books( not too advanced) on topics such as astronomy, chemistry, biology and calculus. If you can give me one or two suggestions that will be great.

I am a career switcher who is extremely interested in getting a masters astrophysics. I have an undergraduate in English with very few science credits (I took 8 units of geology). I am currently enrolled in community college taking as many science and physics classes as I can. Does anyone know...

PLEASE HELP I HAVE COMPLETED BACHELOR IN ELECTRICAL ENGG. AND I HAVE INTEREST IN ASTRONOMY SO, WHAT IS THE PROCEDURE TO STUDY ASTRONOMY IN INDIA AS WELL AS IN ABROAD?

In the next month, I'll study about Astronomy and AStrophysics, so what are the good books for me ? Please ! I really love Astronomy !

what I should do if i want to study astronomy now?

The entire observable universe is contained rather graciously in this wonderful picture, for your admiration.

I am looking forward to joining discussions here. My Backgroud is 2 years "applied physics", 5 years education for teaching in visual communication (art), 15 years experience as a database software developer. Now I am looking for a job as a software tester. Software Testing is similar to being...

Is this realistic or really just a fantasy career that almost no one ends up doing? I would love to learn about space and the universe, but just feel those jobs a extremely rare. Can anyone give me any realistic advice on how to getting a job as an astronomer? Thank you all!

Hi all! My name is Nova and I have recently started a research project on the life cycle of planets, stars, galaxies, etc. I posted this question on reddit, but no one seemed particularly interested. Someone suggested I consult the ultimate physics community on the web, Physics Forums, so here I...

Hi all! My name is Nova and I have recently started a research project on the life cycle of planets, stars, galaxies, etc. I posted this question on reddit, but no one seemed particularly interested. Someone suggested I consult the ultimate physics community on the web, Physics Forums, so here I...

Just being very curious, what do graduates of Cosmology, Astrophysics, or Astronomy do for careers? Do some or many employers wonder if these graduates have practical or sell-able skills? These people must have had other courses and have dealt with technical, equipment, engineering skills...

Hi. 4 years ago my child asked to me a question... What will be happen, if the light is stop? I tried to answer it ... But my knowledge is insufficient. (I had been educated at social science, specially labor laws) . So I searched, tried to learn something new... So I liked physics. Of course it...

Student's Guide to the Mathematics of Astronomy, by Fleisch and Kregnow. For beginners, uses algebra, geometry, and trig applied to astronomy and cosmology. Helpful for students who get bogged down in mathematical manipulations and coming up with equations in the first place.

How can I prove to my 9 year old daughter that the moon is closer to Earth than the sun? At the moment, she has read it in books and this information has the same status as unicorns and fairy princesses!

Hi everyone. Loving the forum, don't know how I haven't stmble upon it already. I'm studying Astronomy at the OU and finding a lot of the maths tough. Especially finding the chapters on Cosmology very difficult. I've seen another post regarding Scale Factor, so hope it's ok posting this too...

PF Insights Blog https://www.physicsforums.com/insights/postindex/ Was the early universe in a disordered state? Why is the radius of the observable universe in light-years greater than its age? Where did the Big Bang happen? Would that be the center of the universe? What is the total...

Homework Statement The sun experiences a vertical gravitation acceleration of g=-4πGρz, where ρ is the density of the disk of our Galaxy. a) Assuming that d2z/dt2=-kz, express k in terms of ρ and G. b) Find the general expression for z and w=dz/dt as a function of time. c) If the total mass...

I'm new to Astrophysics but some scientists say that all time is happening at one time. How is this possible if the universe is still expanding

Homework Statement The number of stars in the galaxy is N=10^12 and the radius of the galaxy is Rgalaxy = 20 kPc Let m be the average mass of a star in the galaxy. what is the velocity of a star at the edge of the galaxy (relative to the center of the galaxy) Homework Equations The Attempt at...

Homework Statement Hi everybody, I am trying to do a numerical aplication of change of coordinate system to another; the objective is to calculate the azimut of the sun knowing the altitude, hour angle and declination . Homework Equations Cosh * Sina = Cosδ * Sin H where a is the azimut h is...

Which one let's you to have your own lab and make mind-blowing experiments without any interuption for you to think and create something new and to explore something profound ? ( I know there is something wrong but i'd like to learn)

I'm having trouble with with understanding what this is, our text, Astronomy: a physical Perspective by Kutner, uses R(t). I understand r(t) is the distance between two objects at a point in time, but what is the scale factor big R(t)?

So I've been told recently, that I will be participating in the "British Olympiad in Astronomy and Astrophysics Competition", which I am really excited about. I took the British Physics Olympiad Paper earlier this year, and feel like I could've done better.So because I am quite new to Astronomy...

Wikipedia only talks about helium and carbon-oxygen white dwarfs... I understand that on a red giant you only get fusion up to oxygen, but I though that maybe if you had a red supergiant which produced iron in its core, and when it exploded as a supernova it threw off enough mass to form a white...

I have been looking at these diagrams: From the following link http://www.astronomynotes.com/telescop/s3.htm And I just can't seem to figure out why the first telescope design doesn't show a shadow and in the second why the presence of the secondary mirror, and the hole, do not affect the...

I can't seem to find an answer to this quick question: which part of the star causes the observed spectral lines? As I understand, the photosphere is the deepest visible layer of the star, and then light passes through the chromosphere and the corona. I would think that both the chromosphere and...

I am slightly confused about what the term 'astronomical telescope' covers. My textbook seems to be implying that astronomical telescopes are refracting telescopes with an objective and eyepiece lens, and reflecting telescopes are separate to astronomical telescopes. On the other hand I have...

Hello! I am learning about refracting telescopes and am slightly confused. I have read that a refracting telescope will magnify planets, but not change their brightness, but will not magnify stars as these will remain as point objects. It just makes the stars appear brighter. I am slightly...

I run an astronomy club at my school, and I recently discovered that the robotics club gets $2000 from the school every year to build a robot. They then go on to compete in tournaments with that robot, so that justifies the $2000. It would be great if I could get the school to give us $2000 to...

I'm taking a shot that this forum might know about the software in the title, SkyX. My question is about a feature called Profile. I need some help using it.

I'm using the the Doppler formula to calculate the relative velocity between the approaching and receding filaments of the crab nebula: Δλ/λnaught = v/c Change in wavelength/ wavelength = velocity/ speed of light I have reworked the formula as v= c(Δλ/λnaught) When I plug in the values I get...

I recently changed my major to physics from business. I would be going into my senior year as a business student had I stayed, so I have all my core requirements done. While I'm catching up on some maths, I'll need to fill my schedule with electives to remain a full-time student. What courses...

Hello, Tonight, I received an email from the Harvard faculty that they wish to call me regarding their REU. I was incredibly excited, but I do not know what questions to ask. I am in total shock as I thought I would never believed I would have received an offer from Harvard of all places. What...

Well, the string theory talks about multiverse, unlike the Big Bang theory. Michio Kaku explains it by comparing it with bubbles. There are many universes. These universes are like bubbles floating around, and when they collide, they form a single bubble- a universe. When a single bubble...

I have always considered cosmologists to be physicists because I noticed that cosmologists usually apply (Correct me if I'm wrong) general relativity. They seem to take approaches similar to those of physicists. Astronomy is the study of celestial objects, while cosmology is the study of the...

Ahoy there. I am twenty years old, and have (as a result of my interest in cosmology and astronomy, and the natural sciences) developed a keen appreciation for mathematics (in physics, primarily). I have always had an interest in the sciences, but lackluster teachers and personal disinterest...