1) Know the planets in our Solar System.

Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune

2) Define the following:
Milky Way Galaxy: a collection of several hundred billion stars, along with billions of
solar masses of gas and dust, gathered into a flattened disklike shape.
M31: Andromeda galaxy
Super clusters: a cluster of galaxy groups(two to several dozen galaxies held
together by their gravity) and clusters(a set of hundreds or thousands of galaxies
held together by their gravity).
stellar evolution: the gravity-driven changes in stars as they are born, age, and
finally run out of fuel
density: the mass of a body divided by its volume
scientific method: observing phenomena, proposing hypotheses to explain them,
and testing the hypotheses
atom: a submicroscopic particle consisting of a nucleus and orbiting electrons
electron: a low-mass, negatively charged subatomic particle
proton: a positively charged subatomic particle. number in a nucleus determines the
type of atom.
photon: a particle of visible light or other electromagnetic radiation.
constellation: an officially recognized grouping of stars on the night sky.
Astronomers divide the sky into 88 constellations.
circumpolar star: a star close enough to a celestial pole that always remains above
the horizon. Circumpolar stars are closer to the celestial pole than the latitude of
the observer.
zodiac: a set of 12 constellations along the ecliptic, in a band around the celestial
sphere. The Sun, Moon, and planets move through the constellations of the
zodiac from our vantage point on Earth.
arctic circle: the latitude line of 66.5 north, marking the position farthest from the
North Pole where the Sun does not rise on the date of the winter solstice (the
start of winter in the Northern Hemisphere).
blue moon: either the third of four full moons in a season or, recently, a second full
moon in a month of the common calendar
3) Know that Galaxies are accelerating away from each other but galaxies in our local
cluster are moving toward each other.
4) Understand scientific notation

5) Be able to discuss Precession

The slow change in the direction of the pole (rotation axis) of a spinning body.
Precession is caused primarily by the Moon's gravitational pull trying to
straighten out the direction of the Earth's spin

6) Understand Solar and Lunar Eclipses

solar eclipse: the passage of the Moon between the Earth and the Sun so that
our view of the Sun's photosphere is partially or totally blocked.
During
a total eclipse of the Sun we can see the Sun's
chromosphere and corona.
Lunar eclipse: the passage of the Earth between the Sun and the Moon so that
the Earth's shadow falls on the Moon.
7) Explain Kepler's three laws and understand eccentricity
1. Planets move in elliptical orbits with the sun at one focus of the ellipse.
2. planets move faster when near the sun, and slower when farther from the
sun.
3. The amount of time a planet takes to orbit the sun (its period)P is related
to its orbits size, a, by P2= a3
Eccentricity: how round or stretched out an orbital ellipse is. A circular orbit
has zero eccentricity, while extremely elongated orbits have eccentricities
close to one.
8) List Galileo's discoveries
Using a Dutch-designed telescope that he built himself, he made several startling
observations that disproved ancient thinking about the Universe:
found sunspots, showing that the sun was not a perfect sphere
found craters on the moon, showing that the moon was not a perfect sphere
discovered four moons of Jupiter, showing that not everything revolved around
the sun
observed the rings of Saturn
observed that Venus passed through all phases, just as the moon does. In a
geocentric model, the phases of Venus were limited to crescents.