Astronomy 101 Problem Set #2

This Problem Set is due by 1:00 pm on Thursday, 8 September

Problem #1: One night during a full Moon, you notice that the Moon subtends an angle of 0.46 degrees. Look up its size (be careful here) in the back of your book, and use it to calculate the distance to the Moon on that night.

Problem #2: At around 9:00 pm during this time of year, the star Vega appears almost directly overhead in our skies here in Lewisburg. If you were to call a friend in Santiago, Chile (which is nearly due south of here at a latitude of 33.5 degrees south) and asked him the altitude of Vega from his location, what would he say?

Problem #3: The time interval between noon on 1 July and noon on 31 December is 183 solar days. How many sidereal days would that be?