Measure Solar System Objects and Their Movements for Yourself!
Instead of taking somebody's word about the basic size and distances for the solar system's objects, this book shows amateur astronomers how to measure these things for themselves. This is an enriching experience for any amateur astronomer - to understand
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Measure Solar System Objects and Their Movements for Yourself !
John D. Clark
John D. Clark 323 Wootton Road King’s Lynn, Norfolk PE30 3AX United Kingdom [email protected]
ISBN 978-0-387-89560-4 e-ISBN 978-0-387-89561-1 DOI: 10.1007/978-0-387-89561-1 Library of Congress Control Number: PCN Applied for # Springer Science+Business Media, LLC 2009 All rights reserved. This work may not be translated or copied in whole or in part without the written permission of the publisher (Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, 233 Spring Street, New York, NY 10013, USA) except for brief excerpts in connection with reviews or scholarly analysis. Use in connection with any form of information storage and retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar methodology now known or hereafter developed is forbidden. The use in this publication of trade names, trademarks, service marks, and similar terms, even if they are not identified as such, is not to be taken as an expression of opinion as to whether or not they are subject to proprietary rights. Printed on acid-free paper. springer.com
Preface
Until two-and-a-half years ago I had done no astronomy for 30 years. I had messed about with a home-made telescope as a kid, and taken an astrophysics class which barely mentioned the Solar System as part of my physics major, but that was it. This course inspired me enough that I thought about studying astrophysics in graduate school, but I chickened out, figuring I would never get a job. So I did a PhD in semiconductor theory instead, only to find that there were no jobs in that either; so I washed up in medical device development, and pretty well forgot about astronomy. In January 2006, my wife offered to buy me a 6-in. reflecting telescope. I knew so little about it that for almost a year I had the equatorial mount pointing south instead of toward Polaris. The “local” astronomy club met 70 miles away, so I rarely went, and in desperation I founded one locally. At last I had some friends to teach me the basics. Gradually I noticed that although these folk knew much more about constellations, telescopes, and photography than me, I did look at the planets in a different way from them. I got little flashes of insight such as noticing that if Venus is at half phase, the angle between us, it, and the Sun must be a right angle, so the Sun, the Earth, and the Venus at that time made a right angle triangle, from which you can work out the distance to Venus. I do not think they were quite sure what to make of me and my mad ideas. One or two were unreceptive, but most club members seemed interested. I began to realize that I had a slightly different story to tell. This book is it. You do not need a PhD in physics or astronomy to understand the Solar System. You can work out the basic layout of the Solar System from your backyard, even if you live in a brightly lit town like me.
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Preface
At one level, this book is my colle
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