Ast/PS 367M: Planets and their Motions
Corections for Unit 5

page 41. In the right column, Halley's comet is referenced but not marked in Figure 4.

page 45. In Figures b and d, the larger star symbol is used to represent the star of smaller mass; this may be confusing. Actually, the symbols were not meant to suggest any properties of stars, but many students automatically take the larger symbol as signifying more mass. Larger mass objects have smaller orbits.

As a modification, you may substitute data from the "Moons of Jupiter" or from the "Starry Night" program that is resident on the computers in RLM 13.116 for the actual observations of Jupiter required in the last section of the unit if you have at least one actual observation of Jupiter and its moons.
You can also get data on Jupiter from Heavens-Above website.

On April 1, 2006 Jupiter rises about 9:30 PM and is visible for the remainder of the night. At that time, Mars is about 36 degrees above the horizon and setting., while Saturn is about 70 degrees above the horizon.

You may borrow an Astroscan telescope for making your Jupiter observations.

Compare Jupiter to the Earth with this fact sheet from NASA.


Last modified on 30 January 2008