Astro Unit 1.3 and 1.4

When looking in the night sky in the northern hemisphere, you notice that one star is hardly moving at all, we call these polestars. What is the name of our polestar?

• Polaris
• Ursa major
• Alpha Centauri
• The Sun

As you watch the polestar, you also notice some constellations, such as the Big Dipper, move around the polestar. What are these stars known as?

• Northern Lights
• Circumpolar Stars
• Peripolestars
• Chasers 

The polestar wasn't always the polestar. The Earth's axis traces out a small circle over 26,000 years. What do we call this wobble of the Earth's axis?

• Axis Wobble
• Tilt
• Precession
• Seasons

Ursa major is an example of a pattern found in the stars for which stories arose from ancient cultures. What do we call these patterns?

• The Big Bear
• Old Wives Tales
• Folk Tales
• Constellations

Within Ursa Major we find the Big Dipper. What do we call patterns of stars found within larger images?

• Small Constellations
• Asterisms
• Ursa Minor
• Little Stars

Which grouping of stars do we find our current polestar?

• Ursa Major
• Ursa Minor
• Booties
• Draco 

There are 12 patterns of stars, such as Aries and Leo, that move across an imaginary extension of our equator called the ecliptic. What do we call these patterns, which were though to give Astrological predictive powers?

• Constellations 
• Ecliptic Stars
• Zodiac
• Astrological Predictors

Why is it impossible to see the constellation Orion, a winter constellation, in the summer?

• Orion is in opposition to Earth during the summer
• Orion's brightness fluctuates
• Trick question: Orion is always visible
• Orion is a southern constellation during the summer

Sometimes Mars appears to reverse directions in the night sky due to the fact that is beyond the orbit of Earth. What do we call this backward motion?

• Wondering
• Retrograde Motion
• Reverse
• Extrasolar reversal

Assuming this image was taken in the Norther Hemisphere, what directions do you think this photo was taken?

• North
• East
• South
• West