Right Ascension Calculations
a) What does it mean when a star culminates?
Here is some data about some of the stars in Cygnus
|
Star |
Declination |
Right Ascension |
magnitude |
|
Alpha Cygni |
45 |
20h 41m |
1.3 |
|
Beta Cygni |
28 |
19h 31m |
3.2 |
|
Gamma Cygni |
40 |
20h 22m |
2.3 |
|
Delta Cygni |
45 |
19h 45m |
3.0 |
|
Epsilon Cygni |
34 |
20h 46m |
2.6 |
a) On a particular night which star will culminate first?
b) If Beta Cygni culminates at 8:00 p.m. at what time will Gamma Cygni culminate?
c) At what time will Beta Cygni culminate 30 days later? (show your working)
d) Which of these stars will be circumpolar from Middlesbrough (Latitude 55 degrees)
On the axes below plot these stars.
e) At what time of year would Cygnus be best viewed around midnight?
f) Explain how you could deduce this. (use a sketch of the ecliptic on a star map)