HW001204

due in 2 weeks

1. What is the difference between a sidereal month and a synodic month?   Which is longer?  Why? 

2. During a lunar eclipse, does the moon enter the earth's shadow from the east or the west?  Explain why. 

3. What is precession and how does it affect our view of the sky? 

4. The orbit of a spacecraft about the sun has a perihelion distance of 0.5 AU and a aphelion of 3.5 AU.   What is the spacecraft's orbital period?  How fast does the spacecraft travel in average?