The Scale of the Cosmos & The Sky

Chapter Summary

The first chapter The Scale of the Cosmos ' leads us into the journey out to the end of the Universe . The central argument is that astronomy is complex study and it should not be regarded as simply study of the stars and moon . Astronomy is the study of the Universe and its influence on human lives . It is known that we are affected by the Moon shifts starts shifts and astronomy is also interested in identifying such influence . Astronomy involves distances which are far beyond our Earth and `scale ' should

be considered when trying to understand those distances . Therefore , the author compares objects of different sizes provides pictures of entire planet and discusses other planets as Mars Venus , etc . Our galaxy has graceful spiral arms winding outward through the disk (Ch .1 ) Astronomy is very important study because it aims at helping us to understand what we are , where we have come from as it places us in the physical universe . It is astronomy that helps us to survive in the whirling complex universe with numerous stars , planets and galaxies

The second chapter The Sky ' discusses the very details associated with the sky , stars and Moon . We see the sky everyday and it is changing from the dusk till the dawn . The stars are scattered around us in the night and our planet rotates on its axis . The author writes that the sky above mountaintop observatories far from lights is the same sky you see from your window (Ch .2 ) The chapter tends to answer the following questions : how do astronomers refer to the stars ? How the brightness of the stars is compared ? How does the sky moves with Earth 's rotations on the axis ? The sky is divided into 88 constellations and the names of the stars are usually of Greek and Arabic origins . The magnitude system is the brightness scale for astronomers . When astronomers compare distances , they don 't consider visual magnitude . The celestial sphere is regarded as the model of the sky and it is known that the Earth is rotating eastward , whereas celestial sphere is rotating westward

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