Chapter 15: Key Words

You should be familiar with the following terms:
  • refracting telescope
  • reflecting telescope
  • chromatic aberration
  • spherical aberration
  • interferometer
  • artificial guide star
  • very long baseline interferometers (VLBI)
  • ionosphere
  • magnitude scale
  • brightness
  • logarithm
  • logarithmic
  • apparent magnitude (\(m\))
  • absolute magnitude (\(M\))
  • inverse square law of light
  • stellar parallax
  • distance ladder
  • arcsecond (arcsec)
  • parallax angle (\(p\))
  • parsec (pc)
  • light-year (ly)
  • astronomical unit (au)
  • right ascension (RA; \(\alpha\))
  • declination (dec; \(\delta\))
  • luminosity (\(L\))
  • center of mass
  • Harvard spectral classification scheme
  • Edward Pickering
  • Williamina Fleming
  • Antonia Maury
  • Annie Jump Cannon
  • Henrietta Leavitt
  • Henry Draper
  • OBAFGKM
  • Cecilia Payne-Gaposchkin
  • Meghnad Saha
  • Ejnar Hertzsprung
  • Henry Norris Russell
  • Hertzsprung–Russell diagram (H-R diagram)
  • main sequence
  • main-sequence stars
  • giant stars
  • supergiant stars
  • white dwarf stars
  • luminosity classes
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