Night Sky

Night sky

The night sky is not completely dark. If the sky were absolutely dark, one would not be able to see the silhouette of an object against the sky. The intensity of the sky varies greatly over the day.

Light Pollution

Light pollution, or artificial light at night, is the excessive or poor use of artificial outdoor light, and it disrupts the natural patterns of wildlife, contributes to the increase in carbon dioxide (CO2) in the atmosphere, disrupts human sleep, and obscures the stars in the night sky.

Clouds

Clouds obscure the view of other objects in the sky, through varying thicknesses of cloud cover have different effects. A very thin circus cloud in front of the moon might produce a rainbow coloured ring around the moon. Stars and planets are too small or dim to take on this effect and are instead only dimmed, often to the point of invisibility.

Constellations

Astronomers use constellations as a map of the night sky. Astronomers divide the sky into 88 areas each containing a constellation. This means every point in the sky belongs to one of those 88 constellations.

The Big Dipper is helpful for navigation in the northern hemisphere because it points to Polaris the north star.

Planets

A planet is a large astronomical body that is neither a star nor a stellar remnant. There are competing scientific definitions of a 'planet’.

Planets are large natural objects that orbit or travel around, stars.

Planets shine due to light being reflected off their surface.

Comets

Comets come to the night sky only rarely. Comets are illuminated by the sun. A comet is an icy, small Solar System body that, when passing close to the Sun, warms and begins to release gases, a process that is called outgassing. This produces a visible atmosphere or coma, and sometimes also a tail.

Meteors

Meteors streak across the sky infrequently. During a meteor shower, they may average one a minute at irregular intervals.

A meteorite is a solid piece of debris from an object, such as a comet, asteroid, or meteoroid, that originates in outer space and survives its passage through the atmosphere to reach the surface of a planet or moon.

Satellites

In the context of spaceflight, a satellite is an object that has been intentionally placed into orbit. These objects are called artificial satellites to distinguish them from natural satellites such as Earth's Moon.

Zodiacal Lights

The zodiacal light (also called false dawn when seen before sunrise) is a faint, diffuse, and roughly triangular white glow that is visible in the night sky and appears to extend from the Sun's direction and along the zodiac, straddling the ecliptic. Sunlight scattered by interplanetary dust causes this phenomenon.

Reflection:

I feel the presentation was slightly rushed but well done. The presenters kept me engaged, and I learnt about the night sky and more. We also learned about comets and meteors. Overall it was interesting, and they made jokes along to way to keep it interesting.

The presentation was equally split in terms of work as well, in my opinion. We also learned about different milestones and interesting facts.