8
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Course No.
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Course Title
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No. of Units
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Pre-requisites
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Th.
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Pr.
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Credit
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Astr 331
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Spherical Astronomy (1)
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2
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3
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3
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Astr 202, Math 202
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Objectives of the course :
The aim of this course is to give the students bases for determining the positions of the celestial bodies relative to fundamental planes .
Course Description:
This course contains the following subjects : Spherical trigonometry. Celestial coordinate systems and the transformations between them. Time and seasons. Refraction. Aberration. Parallax. Precession and mutation. The effects of the various factors on the observational astrometry. Computational algorithms of the daily astronomical phenomena ( Sunrise, Sunset, Twilight ). Some applications of the spherical astronomy in the geodetic science. The geocentric motion of a planet. The phase of the planets and the Moon . Position angle of the Sun's axis of rotation. The heliocentric coordinates of a Sun-spot .
Main text and subsidiary books:
- A Guide to the celestial sphere: 1996, James, B. Kaler. Amazon, USA .
- Astronomy on the personal computer: 2000. 4th edition. T. Pfleger. Springer, Germany .
- Spherical Astronomy : R. Green, Cambridge University Press, 1985 .
- Computational Spherical Astronomy: L.G. Taff, John Wiley and Sons, 1981.
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