Edexcel GCSE Astronomy Topic 6 Celestial observation overview quiz quiz

Right ascension and declination

Altitude and azimuth above the horizon

Latitude and longitude on the Earth

Hour angle and the zenith point

The angle measured around the horizon from due north

The angle of an object above the horizon

The distance from the observer to the object

The apparent brightness of the object in the sky

Altitude and azimuth stay fixed

Both pairs of coordinates change over time

Right ascension and declination

Neither pair of coordinates ever changes

The stars themselves moving across the sky

The Sun slowly orbiting around the Earth

The pull of the Moon's gravity on us

The Earth rotating on its axis

A star that never sets, circling the celestial pole

A star that rises and sets again every single day

The single brightest star visible in the sky

A star that lies exactly on the line of the celestial equator

+28 degrees

+38 degrees

+52 degrees

+62 degrees

Their longitude

The time of night

Their latitude

The date

0 degrees

45 degrees

66.5 degrees

90 degrees

It brightens the sky and reduces contrast, so faint objects vanish

It completely blocks out all of the starlight from reaching us

It is the main cause of stars appearing to twinkle in the night sky

It changes the apparent colour of the stars that we observe

Wearing dark sunglasses to protect the eyes from the very bright sky

Letting the eyes adjust in darkness so they become more sensitive

Observing only the very darkest parts of the night sky

Using a dim red torch instead of a white one to read charts

A single nearby planet that shines brightly across the whole of the night sky

A single very bright star at the centre of our own Solar System

A faint hazy band of the combined light of millions of distant stars

A spectacular meteor shower of dust burning up in the atmosphere

Orion's Belt

The Summer Triangle

The Southern Cross

The Plough