Chapter 1: Our Place in the Universe

• The relative distance of the nearest star on the 1-10 billion scale
• Zooming out 26 orders of magnitude

Chapter 2: Seasons, Constellations, Eclipses

• Daily motion of the local sky
• Zoom out showing a person's horizon
• Position of Sun w.r.t. horizon vs time of day
• The Sun's apparent path through the zodiac

• Harvard students' misconceptions about seasons
• Oblique and direct flashlights
• Varying angle of sunlight throughout the year
• The reason for the seasons

• The relation between angular diameter, diameter, and distance

• How Moon's illumination becomes observed phase
• A woman simulating phases of the Moon
• Phases of the Moon
• Lunar Phase Quizzer
• Phases of the Moon with location in the sky
• When the Moon rises or sets vs phase
• Moon rotates once per orbit
• Animation of Moon lunation

• Lunar eclipses
• Evolution of a total solar eclipse
• Annular vs. total solar eclipses
• Geometry of eclipses
• The ecliptic plane
• Moon's orbit is tilted relative to the ecliptic plane
• Eclipses occur only at nodes of Moon's orbit, where the Moon's orbital plane crosses the ecliptic plane
• Clickable graphic eclipse table also showing "eclipse seasons".

Chapter 3: Planetary Motion

• Retrograde motion of Mars
• Ptolemaic (geocentric) model for retrograde motion
• Full Ptolemaic model for planet including eccentric and equant
• Planetary configurations in the heliocentric model
• Drawing an ellipse
• Ellipses: eccentricity and semimajor axis
• Kepler's 2nd Law: equal areas in equal times
• Kepler's 3rd Law: orbital period vs. distance from Sun
• Planet orbit simulator using Kepler's laws
• Phases of Venus

• Orbit trajectories around the Earth
• Galileo's experiment on the Moon

The Nature of Light

• Anatomy of a wave
• Visible light waves
• The electromagnetic spectrum: frequency and wavelength
• The electromagnetic spectrum: examples
• How to remember the electromagnetic spectrum
• An example of hearing the Doppler effect as a car passes
• A demonstration of how the Doppler effect arises.

Telescopes

• Explore the properties of a telescope.

Energy, Momentum, Matter, and Light

• Temperature and the States (Phases) of Water
• Radiative energy increases with the brightness of the light.
• Thermal Spectrum of a Heated/Melting Nail
• Thermal Spectrum Explorer
• Surface Temperature Determined by Thermal Equilibrium
• Movie of Ice Skater Effect (Conservation of Angular Momentum)
• Movie of the Physics Roller Coaster (Conservation of Energy)

Solar System Formation

• Zoom in on the Orion Nebula
• Computer simulation of the collapse of an interstellar gas cloud making multiple stars
• Artist conception video of the formation of a protoplanetary disk around a star
• Artist conception video with two views of the formation of a protoplanetary disk around a star
• Demonstration of why a collapsing cloud forms a disk
• Demonstration of why in a rotating disk ends up on circular orbits
• Video describing ALMA observations of the protoplanetary disk around the star HL Tau (and press release)
• Video describing ALMA observations of the protoplanetary disk around the star TW Hydrae, indicating the presence of a protoplanet in an Earth-like orbit (and press release)

Terrestrial Planets

• Mantle convection on Earth
• Flight Into Mariner Valley; simulated flight through Valles Marineris on Mars based on real data
• Temperature and the Phases of Water
• Demonstrate how day length affects difference between day and night temperatures, but not the average planet temperature.
• Explore some of the concepts related to the retention of planetary atmospheres.
• Short movie of dust devils on the Martian surface.

Comets, Asteroids, and Impacts

• Videos of a bright fireball over the mid-Atlantic US on Oct. 9, 1992
• Compilation of videos from the Cheylabinsk airburst, Feb. 15, 2013

Extra-Solar Planets

• Analogy between hammer thrower and planet orbiting a star.
• How the position of the Sun is affected by orbiting planets.
• Shows how the observed radial velocity of a star changes as it and a planet orbit the common center of mass.
• How the spectrum of a star changes due to the Doppler effect as it orbits the center of mass
• How the velocity vs time (velocity curve) of a star depends on the mass and orbital radius of the planet
• Example of how a planet transiting a star affects the observed brightness

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Last updated: April 14, 2017 swj