The observer's guide to planetary motion
Subtitle: explaining the cycles of the night sky
By: Dominic Ford
Series: Patrick Moore's practical astronomy series; Patrick Moore's practical astronomy series
Published: 2014
Language: eng
Number of pages: 240
ISBN-13: 9781493906284
Subjects: Observers' manuals; Popular works; Astronomy; Planets
Description: To the naked eye, the most evident defining feature of the planets is their motion across the night sky. It was this motion that allowed ancient civilizations to single them out as different from fixed stars. "The Observer's Guide to Planetary Motion" takes each planet and its moons (if it has them) in turn and describes how the geometry of the Solar System gives rise to its observed motions.Although the motions of the planets may be described as simple elliptical orbits around the Sun, we have to observe them from a particular vantage point: the Earth, which spins daily on its axis and circles around the Sun each year.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references and index.
Table of contents: title: The Earth as an Observatory; title: The Formation of the Solar System; title: Measuring Time; title: The Moon; title: The Outer Planets; title: Mars; title: The Inner Planets; title: The Deep Sky; title: Extrasolar Planets.