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From Stargazers to Starships

Welcome!

You have reached the homepage of an introductory study course covering:

                        Astronomy of the Earth's motion in space
                        Newtonian mechanics
                        The Sun
                        Spaceflight and spacecraft

                    It also contains

                        A Math Refresher
                        Helpful Material - hints for users, glossary, questions and answers, two timelines etc.


                    You will find here;

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                    1). Stargazers
                        a. Finding the Pole Star

                    2). The Path of the Sun, the Ecliptic
                        a. Building a Sundial

                    3). Seasons of the Year
                        a. The Brightest Moon of the Century

                    4). The Angle of the Sun's Rays
                        a. The Moon: the Distant View
                        b. The Moon: A Closer Look

                    5). Latitude and Longitude
                        a. Navigation
                        b. Coordinates

                    6). The Calendar

                    7). Precession

                    8). The Round Earth and Christopher Columbus
                        a. Distance to the Horizon
                        b. Parallax
                        c. How Distant is the Moon?--1
                        d. How Distant is the Moon?--2

                    9). The central role of the Sun
                        a. Aristarchus: Is Earth Revolving around the Sun?
                        b. The Earth's Shadow
                        c. Copernicus, Galileo, and the Discovery of the Solar System

                    10). Kepler and his Laws

                    11). Graphs and Ellipses
                        a. Ellipses and Kepler's First Law

                    12). Kepler's Second Law
                        a. How Orbital Motion is Calculated

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                    13). The Way Things Fall

                    14). Vectors

                    15). Energy

                    16). Newton and his Laws

                    17). Mass
                        a. Mass Measurements aboard Space Station Skylab
                        b. Comparing Masses without the Use of Gravity

                    18). Newton's Second Law
                        a. Momentum

                    19). Motion in a Circle

                    20). Newton's theory of "Universal Gravitation"

                    21). Kepler's Third Law
                        a. Applying Kepler's Third Law

                    22). Frames of Reference: The Basics
                        a. The Aberration of Starlight
                        b. The Theory of Relativity
                        c. Airplane Flight

                    23). Accelerated Frames of Reference: Inertial Forces
                        a. Frames of Reference: The Centrifugal Force
                        b. Loop-the-Loop

                    24). Rotating Frames of Reference in Space and on Earth

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                    The Sun--Introduction

                    S-1). Sunlight and the Earth
                        A. Weather and the Atmosphere

                    S-2). Our View of the Sun

                    S-3). The Magnetic Sun

                    S-4). The Many Colors of Sunlight
                        A. Experimenting with Colors

                    S-5). Waves and Photons

                    S-6). Seeing the Sun in a New Light
                        A. Interplanetary Magnetic Field Lines

                    S-7). The Energy of the Sun

                    S-8). Nuclear Power

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                    25). The Principle of the Rocket

                    26). Robert Goddard and his Rockets

                    27). The Evolution of the Rocket

                    28). Spaceflight

                    29). Spacecraft
                        a. Satellites observing the Sun, solar system and the universe
                        b. Satellites observing Earth from above
                        c. Satellites which observe the local space environment
                        d. Satellites for commercial benefits
                        e. Missions to planets and distant space

                    30). Far-out Pathways to Space: Great Guns?
                        a. Project HARP and the Martlet

                    31). Far-out Pathways to Space: Nuclear Power

                    32). Far-out pathways to Space: Solar Sails
                        a. Early Warning of Interplanetary Disturbances

                    33). Ion Rockets

                    34). Orbits in Space
                        a. The Distance to the L1 Point
                        b. The L4 and L5 Lagrangian Points

                    35). Starships
                        a. Planetary Swing-by and the Pelton Turbine

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                    M-1). Basic ideas
                        A. Algebra Proficiency Drill

                    M-2). How it all started

                    M-3). Formulas

                    M-4). Identities

                    M-5). Deriving Approximate Results

                    M-6). The Theorem of Pythagoras

                    M-7). What is it good for?

                    M-8). How to tell sines from cosines

                    M-9). Deriving sines and cosines

                    M-10). Going past 90 degrees

                    M-11). Deriving sin(a+b), cos(a+b)

                        A. Trigonometry Proficiency Drill

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                    Questions and Answers by users of "Stargazers".

                    Hints to users.

                    A Glossary of Terms     (Cross-linked, keyed to the text)

                    Timeline          (A chronology).

                    Annotated Timeline   (With added dates from history).