Notes for Astronomy Optics It is a way to change the direction of light propagation Planck discovered quantum mechanics Reflection Refraction bending of light when going through a medium i e glass Manipulate your eye lens to control the focal point so you can see light Retina is placed at the focal point Distance from the focal point to the lens is the focal length The mirror must be very smooth almost to the atomic level for telescopes Compress all the light as it goes to the eyepiece Resolution Magnification Newtonian telescopes use mirrors but the eyepiece is a lens Light gathering power is proportional to the area of the objective lens Spectroscope dissolves light into components imagine you take light coming from the star all the light makes it to the focal point and you use this prism to divide the light into its components Difference between the continuous spectrum Refractor not used anymore because you Mauna Kea telescope uses mirrors Characteristics of the telescope 1 Light gathering power 2 Quality of the optical parts of the telescope smooth mirrors 3 Magnifying power 4 Resolving power most important The content of the universe is mostly gases The sun contains 94 hydrogen The 0 1 of the universe is what makes us alive Neither hydrogen nor helium have color Minute amounts of other elements and compounds are what give the gaseous Jupiter and Saturn are mostly hydrogen and helium planets their color Speed of molecules is relative to temperature higher temperature means higher speed Things will be moving even at absolute zero Thermal velocity Escape velocity the minimum required velocity to get out of the gravitational field Gases and Radiation Lighter atoms move faster of a planet moon or other celestial body Escape velocity is less if you are higher up Hydrogen will escape from the earth The sun s gravity keeps in the hydrogen and helium Perfect gas law If the gas is more dense the pressure gets higher If the gas is hotter the pressure is higher In order to have equilibrium you need at least two forces working against each other The gravity is balancing the pressure of the ideal gas Pressure is less as you go up in the atmosphere Blackbody radiation Wien s law The yellow is more intense when analyzing the sun The color of a star is dependent on the temperature of its surface The spectrum is part of their language The blackbody radiation curve is the reason why we talk about quantum mechanics Boltzmann discovered statistical physics Boltzmann Law E sT 4 temperature of the star Energy released by the star is proportional to the E mc 2 annihilate energy and create mass and vice versa
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