**Astronomy Class Notes**

*Introduction to Astronomy*

**Key Concepts:**

1. **What is Astronomy?**
- Astronomy is the scientific study of celestial objects, such as stars, planets, galaxies, and the
universe as a whole.

2. **Historical Development**
- Astronomy has a rich history, with ancient civilizations like the Babylonians, Greeks, and
Mayans making significant contributions.

3. **Tools of Astronomy**
- Telescopes: Instruments that magnify distant objects.
- Spectroscopes: Used to analyze the light from celestial objects.
- Space Telescopes: Like Hubble, which observe space from outside Earth's atmosphere.

**The Night Sky**

1. **Celestial Objects**
- Stars: Luminous balls of gas.
- Planets: Rocky or gas giant bodies that orbit stars.
- Moons: Natural satellites that orbit planets.
- Galaxies: Vast collections of stars, gas, and dust.

2. **Constellations**
- Groups of stars that form recognizable patterns in the night sky.

3. **The Celestial Sphere**

- Imaginary sphere surrounding Earth, used to map the positions of celestial objects.

**The Solar System**

1. **The Sun**
- Our nearest star, the source of light and energy for the solar system.

2. **Planets**
- Terrestrial (rocky) planets: Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars.
- Gas giants: Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune.

3. **Asteroids and Comets**

- Asteroids: Rocky objects orbiting the Sun, mostly found in the asteroid belt.
- Comets: Icy bodies that develop tails when approaching the Sun.