Astronomy C

[astroblue]

So I know that having notes about DSOs and equations is worthwhile, but what kinds of notes should we include on like H-R diagrams, spectra, light curves, etc. Is it worthwhile to just take a bunch of notes on those to have or just learn whatever you can and ctrl+f through a giant list of wikipedia articles.
In short, does anyone have any suggestions for formatting their notes for this test

[syo_astro]

So I know that having notes about DSOs and equations is worthwhile, but what kinds of notes should we include on like H-R diagrams, spectra, light curves, etc. Is it worthwhile to just take a bunch of notes on those to have or just learn whatever you can and ctrl+f through a giant list of wikipedia articles.
In short, does anyone have any suggestions for formatting their notes for this test

Well, as usual also I suppose any other opinions are good. So, you're asking what types of notes to take, and how to organize them? Well, for the types of notes you should certainly have all that and more. Sometimes the tests can be incredibly specific on DSOs or the general info, so it's always good to have both.

As for organizing. Have you found out whether you prefer the binder or laptop? If not I'd say look at the wiki/Alpha and my blog which have a section for that. The organization becomes slightly different from there. I don't personally use a laptop, but for my docs I'd think it would be a balance between how much you separate your notes or put them into one doc.

For a binder I have it as figure out whether you go better by topic or alphabetically for tabbing. Also, I put a larger divider between my DSOs and general info. After that, for the DSOs I sort of split it between long notes and short notes. The long notes are just a bunch of sites I copy online with tons of pictures at the end. The short notes or "quick sheets" basically summarize all info I can find on the DSO (like start off at the top centered, go to next line and type constellation: [constellation], next line and type distance: [distance], etc for other facts you can find). As for general info I guess just section your formulas and try to just put in the rest in what you find most logical.

Hope that helps, but I find that notemaking is sort of a bit of personal preference as to what's easiest. In the end, though, you should be able to know most of your notes and just be able to find the info you don't know quickly, which of course requires you to somewhat know the info.

[Smithy0013]

Alright so what i know about astronomy
1) there was a big bang that spread all the stuff up there around
2)...
Maybe thats a bit of an exageration but yeah I don't know much at all and whenever i try to start studying i feel completely swamped. Anyone know a good place to start that starts real basic and gets into what were doing? Help would be very much appreciated

[AlphaTauri]

Search around for college "Intro to Astronomy" courses to get an idea of the general concepts (most will also cover the solar system and galaxies, which you don't really need):

http://csep10.phys.utk.edu/astr162/lect/
http://abyss.uoregon.edu/~js/ast122/
http://www.astronomynotes.com/evolutn/s2.htm
http://www.uni.edu/morgans/astro/

And in a shameless display of self-promotion: http://onwardtotheedge.wordpress.com/2012/08/

Unfortunately, for DSOs, you'll just have to suck it up and look them up, but if you have the background knowledge, they shouldn't be too bad.

[syo_astro]

To add! It does help to make your notes organized in a way you understand it best. So, if the sites don't exactly work for you maybe try to copy paste it, read it, and resummarize it so you can better understand it. It is also true that starting with the basics and using that as a foundation can work well. People in general also like to refer to the wiki: http://scioly.org/wiki/index.php/Astronomy
But now, the DSOs are a thing of its own. I'd recommend looking around AAVSO.org, apod.com, and Chandra X-ray. But what I mean by that is, when you google them and see those sites they are usually good. This year seems to be somewhat annoying with finding resources for certain ones per usual, so sometimes you may just have to read research papers and whatnot.

[EastStroudsburg13]

A video series for Astronomy has been posted on YouTube:

Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4
Part 5

Note that you will need to do additional research in order to excel. This provides the basic knowledge, but those of you who have taken Cicc's tests know that basic knowledge needs to be supplemented. However, it's very good as a background, so if you're new to the event, then I highly suggest going through these. Even if you're experienced, i'ts still interesting to listen to.

[astroblue]

Why do the rules say Antares/Rho Ophiuchi cloud complex? Are they supposed to be together or something...?

[syo_astro]

Why do the rules say Antares/Rho Ophiuchi cloud complex? Are they supposed to be together or something...?

The question was actually asked on the first page by XJcwolfyX (you can look there if you want), but I'll answer again. Basically, I believe Antares is within the complex. Definitely study both. I guess if somebody wants to they can add.
Hmmm, still curious how killer the tests will be this year...oh so much to do...

[Orange714]

Does anyone have some good pictures or information on NGC 3582? I'm having a hard time finding anything about it and even most of the pictures seem to be of the same one.

Thanks in advance

[EastStroudsburg13]

From doing a Google search, I'm getting a decent amount of information and different pictures. If I were you I'd start with the NASA APOD entry they have on NGC 3582 and then go from there. However, you're going to have to do some digging to get really good stuff, and since that's one of the main aspects of Astro, I'm a little reluctant to just give you a whole bunch of websites. Just keep working at it and you'll get there.