Study Guide: Wonders of the Day Sky1. What factors affect how blue the sky can get?

2. Below what height must the sun be to produce a visible rainbow?

3. What is Alexander’s dark band?

4. What are supernumerary colors in a rainbow?

5. What is the most common halo?

6. What are sundogs?

7. What is the parhelic circle?

8. Describe the circumzenithal arc.

9. What is a sun pillar?

10. What is a corona?

11. Where is a glory often visible?

12. What is heiligenschein?

13. What events create the rare corona named the Bishop’s Ring?

14. How can concentric rings be seen?

15. How is dappled light produced?

16. Which solar system objects are often visible during the day?

Wonders of the Sunset Sky

1. Describe the distorted way in which the sun appears when it is about to set.

2. Which locations are best for observing the green flash?

3. What effect produces crepuscular and anticrepuscular rays?

4. What events can produce dramatically red sunsets?

5. When can you see commonly the earth’s shadow?

6. What is the Belt of Venus?

7. Where are summit shadows visible?

8. When is the Harvest Moon?

9. Describe the behavior of the Harvest Moon.

10. What effect does the moon illusion create?

Wonders of the Darkening Sky

1. What is another term for the period of darkening sky?

2. What is earthshine?

3. What is the best season for seeing young moons?

4. Which planets are “inferior?” When are they visible?

5. Which two planets create the most impressive conjunctions?

6. Which planet has often been reported to be a “UFO?”

7. What do satellites resemble?

8. Why are satellites visible during twilight and early evening?

9. What are noctilucent clouds?

10. When and where are noctilucent clouds visible?

Wonders of the Dark Sky

1. What is scintillation?

2. What is the term for how steady the air overhead is?

3. What produces a typical meteor?

4. What is a fireball? A bolide?

5. How are meteor showers named?

6. What is a radiant?

7. What is the meteor shower in August named?

8. What meteor shower can produce a meteor storm every 33 years?

9. What is the zodiacal light??

10. Where in the sky is the gegenschein in relation to the sun?

11. Where are the northern lights (aurora borealis) visible?

12. What causes the green color of auroras?

13. Why do we see the Milky Way band at night?

14. Where and when can the Milky Way be seen well?

15. What is a major problem for people interested in observing the sky?

Study GuideWonders of the Sky: Eclipses

1. What are the two basic types of eclipses?

2. Label the earth, moon, and sun in the solar eclipse diagram.

3. What is the photosphere?

4. What are Bailey’s Beads? The Diamond Ring effect?

5. For a solar eclipse, what is totality? What is the corona?

6. What is the chromosphere? What interesting features are often visible in the chromosphere during solar eclipses?

7. What is the 360-degree “sunset?”

8. What are shadow bands?

9. List three methods to safely observe partial eclipses.

10. How does an annular total eclipse compare to a regular solar eclipse?

11. Label the earth, moon, and sun in the lunar eclipse diagram.

12. How does the moon appear when totally immersed in the earth’s shadow?

13. List the two zones of the earth’s shadow. 14. How does a penumbral eclipse appear?

15. What happens to the surrounding sky during a total lunar eclipse?

16. List the next eclipses for America:Solar Lunar