Week 1 Lecture 1
Solutions at the bottom.

1)  In-video quiz at timepoint 05:22.

"In astronomy, an asterism is a pattern of stars recognized on Earth's night sky. It may form part of an official constellation, or be composed of stars from more than one. Like constellations, asterisms are in most cases composed of stars which, while they are visible in the same general direction, are not physically related, often being at significantly different distances from Earth. The mostly simple shapes and few stars make these patterns easy to identify, and thus particularly useful to those learning to familiarize themselves with the night sky."  - Wikipedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asterism_(astronomy)
 

2)  In-video quiz at timepoint 06:18.

The night sky is broken up into many different regions, each associated with a constellation. How many separate regions are there in modern astronomy? 

a) 88
b) 53
c) 4
d) 144

3)  In-video quiz at timepoint 09:52. 

Oops! This should have been labeled 'M15', not 'M13'.

 4)  In-video quiz at timepoint 12:06.

Which of the following are objects that might be visible to all of us in the night sky with either the human eye or a telescope?

Select all answers that apply.

a) the Big Bang
b) Earth
c) galaxies
d) star clusters
e) the Sun
f) stars
g) nebulae
h) mythical Greek heroes

5)  In-video quiz at timepoint 12:59.

Which of the following statements is the most accurate?

Select all answers that apply.

a) Star positions do not change in the sky.
b) Star positions change in the sky as the Earth rotates beneath the stars, but the relative distances between stars do not change, or change very, very slowly.
c) Star positions change in the sky as the stars revolve around the Earth, and the relative distances between stars changes noticeably every day.
d) Star positions change in the sky as the Earth rotates beneath the stars, and the relative distances between stars changes noticeably every day.

Solutions:

2)  Correct answer is a) 88

4)  Correct answer is c) d) f) g)
Visible in the night sky:  galaxies (like Andromeda), star clusters (either open clusters like the Pleiades or globular clusters like M15), stars, and nebulae (like the Orion nebula).
Not visible in the night sky:  the Big Bang (we cannot see that far back in time and space), Earth (because we are standing on it, it isn't in the sky), the Sun (otherwise it wouldn't be the night sky), and mythical Greek heroes (only there in our imaginations).

5)  Correct answer is b)