The smaller of Mars moons is Deimos, also rises in the east but much slower than Phobos, it takes thirty hours to orbit Mars, it is also tidally locked to Mars. It is difficult to determine the surface detail due to its covering of thick dust which has filled the craters and covers the surface. It is believed that Phobos does not have this thick dust covering its surface because it orbits Mars much closer than Deimos and the gravitational pull takes such debris away from its surface.

Both of the Mars moons are thought to be about two million years old and comprise of materials similar to meteorites, rich in water and organic materials, known as carbonaceous chondrites. It is know that carbonaceous chondrites form it the asteroid belt and therefore it is highly probable that both Mars moons are captured asteroids which originated between Mars and Jupiter, however, it is most likely that the powerful gravity of Jupiter threw both Deimos and Phobos out near Mars where they were ‘caught’, to spending their lives orbiting Mars.

Phobos and Deimos are both very small; Phobos is just over twenty two kilometres and Deimos about twelve and half kilometres. Their small size causes their gravity to be extremely weak, due to this weakness they are unable to pull themselves into a spherical shape, and hence they are both oddly shaped moons.

Both of the Mars moons were discovered by Asaph Hall in 1877 and were given the names of Phobos, which means panic or fear and Deimos, terror and dread, who according to Greek mythology both accompanied their father Ares (known as Mars to the Romans) into battle.

Objects which are relatively small and travelling at slow speeds when they hit the moon’s surface form what are known as simple craters. The majority of the craters on the moon are simple craters with dimensions of less than fifteen kilometres and a bowl shaped form. The crater known as Moltke is a simple crater with a diameter of seven kilometres.

Larger impact craters are formed as a result of collisions between an asteroid, comet or meteorite travelling at different speeds and colliding with the moon The moon’s surface is covered with millions of this types of craters. Unlike the earth there is no atmosphere on the moon and therefore it has no protection from being hit by these impactors, the moon also has no erosion caused by wind or rain and once the moon craters have been made they remain in exactly the same place and form until another impactor changes it. Some impact craters can hundreds of kilometres in diameter, however, the very largest craters have been filled with lava and only the outlines of them are visible.

The Maria seas have the least amount of craters, this is due to these areas being formed more recently than other parts of the moon’s surface and have had less time to be hit.

Enormous impacts can also cause secondary cratering as eject debris falls back onto the surface of the moon forming new craters or a series of small craters. Aristarchus is a huge circular impact crater with a diameter of forty kilometres and a depth of over three and half kilometres from the floor to the rim.

Craters which have a diameter in excess of fifteen kilometres have more complex forms than smaller craters; they are often seen with shallow flat floors which are made of solid lava, with a peak or multiple peaks and terraces on the inner rim of the walls. Euler is an example of a complex crater which has a diameter of twenty eight kilometres and a depth of two and a half kilometres.

The moon’s surface also has many lines of mountainous cliffs or scarps which are known as rupes. These are the remains of the rims of ancient moon craters. The Rupes Altai is a mountain range on the moon which is some fifty kilometres long.

Until the early twentieth century astronomers did not realise that there were other galaxies other than the Milky Way. When they looked through their telescopes they observed blurred patches in the sky which they called nebula and believed that these were part of the Milky Way. Further observations and studies carried out by Edwin Hubble discovered that the nebulas were in fact full of billions of stars which were also held together by gravity and it is now known that the Milky Way is just one galaxy among billions in the universe.

Star galaxies are made up from gases, dust and millions of stars which have different shapes such as the disc shaped Milky Way, which is included in a group of galaxies known as the Local Cluster. The disc of the Milky Way is one hundred times longer that it is deep, Spiral and Galactic galaxies are relatively thin and dense which rotate extremely fast.

Giant elliptical galaxies are the largest galaxies in the sky. They are made up of old stars and have very little or no dust in them. The elliptical galaxies which have been probed all have massive black holes in their centre, they do not have disks around them and more regularly found in the most crowded parts of the universe. Astronomers widely accept that the elliptical star galaxies are formed from the merger of smaller galaxies and have found that some of the mergers can be very violent with galaxies colliding together at speeds of over one million miles per hour!

When the star galaxies begin to merge the stars and dark matter in each become affected by the approaching galaxy and during the later stages of the merger the shape of the galaxy begins to change very rapidly due to the stars being affected by the gravitational forces. The complexities of these galaxy mergers changes the shape and size of the galaxies which are colliding as the ordered motion of the stars is transformed into random energy, giving elliptical galaxies stars which are on unordered orbits.

Astrology is considered to be a very spiritual thing. The horoscopes that appear in newspapers and those small scrolls for sale at grocery store checkouts are samples of how astrology works in society. This is essentially a way of looking into the stars and space patterns to see how things will change for people of different astrological signs.

The division between these two forms of science became evidence in the first century. Tetrabiblos, a book on astronomy by Ptolemy, was written at this time. Ptolemy suggested here that astronomy should be separate and that science and religion should not be partnered. This led to his theory that the earth is not the centre of the universe and that there is more than what is found on the planet.

Ptolemy’s work would become a turning point for studies into the world and a change of thought among many.

One of the main arguments about astrology is that it does not offer scientific proof of things. Astronomy offers scientific proof, but instead of proving that certain things will happen in other peoples’ lives it is used to prove and accurately predict tides and other weather conditions over the course of the year. These are all scientific forces and not mystical things.

Of course, astrology is not something to completely frown upon. While it is true that there is a notable difference from science and religion it should be noted that astrology can be an important part of a person’s spiritual life and that it should not be frowned upon. Besides, astrology is, like other forms of study, evolving, and for this it should be one that people can follow if they want to. Besides, who knows what discoveries on astrology will be made in the future. Plus, when both science and religion are able to unite in harmony many great things can happen and people will not be so argumentative in terms of which side is greater.

Astrology compatability is much disputed and both astronomy and astrology are completely different forms of study, though Both deal with the stars and other places in the universe. Astronomy is more of a scientific study while astrology is more of a spiritual study. However, the link between the two has broken up over time but they are still both notable studies that individual work on every day.

Shooting stars are essentially meteoroids. They are small parts of space rubble. The rubble is generally composed of dust or rocks from a comet that has broken up from an asteroid that will eventually land somewhere or break up to the point where they will become nonexistent. The pieces here will be considered to be ones that fall towards the earth because there are lights that can caused because of the friction of the atmosphere as these pieces from space burn up. What is the most unique about this is that the meteoroid will break up and explode when in entry, and the pieces from the explosion are bolides.

Comets are the most common sources of these materials. That is because of the long tails of these comets. Dust, ice and other space materials will get into the tail of the comet which can be especially long. When the comet moves from the sun when in orbit the matter on the tail will be thrown off course into space where it can disintegrate. In many cases the earth will pass through clouds of this material during its natural orbit. A meteor shower will result here.
Shower stars do not have to be too large to be one. The meteoroid can be as small as a millionth of a gram. In fact, the speed of the meteoroid can be incredibly high. The average speed of one will be about ten to seventy kilometres per second, even faster than a bullet shot from a gun!

Many people believe that these types of stars are unique astronomy events that may not be happened very often. This is not the case though, as there are about two hundred thousand tons of space matter that will get into the atmosphere every year to burn up as it reaches the atmosphere.

Predicting when these stars will come around is easy for astronomers. There are certain times in the day where people will need to look into certain areas. Various astronomy magazines or websites will have details on where to look and when. Of course, this is a phenomenal astronomy event, so it should be noted that there are radiant’s where meteoroids will occur in, a notation system involving looking into certain constellations for these showers; for instance, when a shower occurs near the Leo constellation the Leonid radiant should be observed.

Shower stars are impressive and beautiful astronomy events. They are amazing scenes of nature where the meteoroids of comets will burn up into earth. They are indeed unique and great to watch.

The Hubble telescope first came around in the 1970s. In 1977 construction began on the telescope and after years of research and improvements on the telescope it was launched in 1990. The telescope was named after Edward Hubble, the scientist who discovered that the universe is not at a set size and that it is expanding. This is a fact known as Hubble’s Law.

Although the Hubble did begin working as it was first launched the telescope was not working as well as hoped. That was because the curvature of the lenses of the telescope were not as good as what was expected. This was especially the case in the main lenses of the telescope. However, thanks to the Space Shuttle program run by NASA repairs and improvements could be easily made on the telescope. In 1993 new lenses were put onto the Hubble and as a result resolution of the images from the telescope was vastly improved.

Since that first repair there were two other repairs used, and both of them took place in 1997. The first was to upgrade and replace older equipment. The other was to use retrofitting on the telescope so that the life of the telescope would extend to at least the year 2010. Since then there has been no maintenance needed, as the telescope has been working especially well over time.

What makes the deep Hubble impressive among NASA technology is that it is used to explore various parts of outer space that can’t be observed normally. About ten percent of the entire universe can be seen by the use of conventional observation methods. Much of this involves the limited atmosphere of the earth. Because the Hubble is able to get out of the atmosphere it will be able to see more than what can normally be found.

The deep Hubble telescope is indeed not only one of the greatest parts of NASA technology but it is also one of the most impressive things in the history of astronomy. With this telescope more parts of outer space can be seen and more discoveries about the universe can be made.

The light that comes from stars that can be seen visually will generally be thousands of years old because it can take a very long time for the light emitted by a star to fully reach the planet for viewing. The light is a unique part of a star but what is more interesting is that light is a type of energy that only exists in a certain frequency. This is where radio astronomy comes into effect. Being able to channel the frequencies that light comes in from is useful in that it can help to pinpoint the location of a star and where other sources of light are coming from.

The range of frequency that is used for light is relatively small when compared to other parts that use certain radio frequencies. Sensors are used here, making this one of the more interesting methods of astronomy in that the materials will help to get an idea of where the stars will locate. Not only will information on the appearance of the stars be found but the behaviour of these stars and a look at how these stars will behave in the future can be found.

There are certain parts of space that cannot be seen easily through standard telescopes or from plain vision. These include black holes. Radio astronomy is used to help find light frequencies to see where these black holes are located. It makes this one of the most important methods of astronomy in that it can be used to find certain things that other methods cannot get.

Another of the more unique parts of this form of astronomy is the SETI system. This is the Search for Extra Terrestrial Intelligence part of the study. It is only a small part of the use of radio astronomy though.

Those are just some of the basics of this field of astronomy. Radio astronomy is one of the most unique parts of astronomy, it can be used to find information on where stars are located and how they will act in the future. Not only that but it can be used to find certain parts of space that are harder to get to. Some studies even look into finding outside life in space. It is unique and an important part of the study of space.

His works and theories are considered to be some of the most influential of the time, with many of his mathematical concepts still in use today and taught in schools and educational establishments throughout the world include experiments from which he determined the theory of the speed of falling objects, mechanics and pendulums.

Galileo’s mathematical descriptions ‘the Laws of Inertia’ was used by Isaac Newton as the basis for his ‘First law of Motion’.

His works included using his new telescope to convince him of the Copernican theory, that the sun was the centre of the universe and that the earth and all of the other planets revolved around the sun not the earth, which was proposed to him by Nichols Copernicus. This work was very controversial at the time as people believed that the earth was the centre of the universe and led to him being accused of heresy by the Catholic Church, as such he was forbidden from teaching or discussing his theories.

Galileo Galilei also renowned for his applied science and technology including improving the design of the geometric and military compass which was used by gunners to elevate guns more safely and surveyors used the compass to construct regular polygons.

Another invention for which Galileo is famous for designing is the Galilean thermometer (named after him) which is also known as a thermoscope.

Galileo’s book ‘Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems’ discussed the arguments for and against the Copernican theory and he was again accused of heresy. Galileo was sentenced to life imprisonment after appearing before the Inquisition in Rome. This conviction was later reduced and he spent the rest of his life under house arrest at his villa near Florence. Galileo was made to publicly withdraw his support for the Copernican theory.

In 1638 Galileo Galilei wrote another book, ‘Discourses Concerning Two New Sciences’ it contained his ideas on the laws of motion and the principles of mechanics. Arguably his most widely used invention is the Galileo telescope, which is the basis for most moderation telescopes today.

What makes the moon impressive in astronomy viewing is the ease to see various parts of the moon. The craters of the moon are among the most impressive things to see on the surface. However, there are various seas and rivers on the moon that can be found when looking at a good lunar map. Various astronomy stores that serve in astronomy viewing will have these lunar maps available for sale.

There are some others cool things to see about the moon, but there are some tips to use for viewing the moon. When there are few clouds in the sky and the weather is good enough for a good long study of the moon it will be easier to see the moon.

The first quarter will generally be the best time to see it. That’s because even though the moon is not a full moon there can be a good sense of earthshine that is shown on the surface. This can allow for the viewer to see a part of the darkened portion of the moon with some details. This makes for an impressive display of the surface.

Having a good pair of binoculars will be useful so that more details of the land can be found. The binoculars should have a wide setting so that more can be seen with consistent detail. Of course, it can be tough to get the binoculars to be held for an extended period of time. A good tripod should be used so that it will be easier to hold onto the binoculars in a steady position.

Telescopes are especially great for astronomy viewing. The more advanced telescopes will allow for better geometrical views but a starter telescope will be best for those who are new to the field of astronomy viewing.

Some astronomy facilities will have telescopes and other materials available to the public for use. These are set up by professionals in the field of astronomy. Some groups even have ways of combining telescopes and synchronizing them with computers to help get a better view of the moon and other parts of space.

There are many useful tips to use for viewing the moon. There are various great times of the year to see the moon, but there should always be considerations about the materials that are used for seeing it. Some professional groups will have items that can be used for astronomy viewing as well. These moon facts will be great for being able to see one of the most amazing, and closest, parts of our solar system.

Astronomy for kids should be both informative and fun. Building scale models of solar systems and encouraging them to look at the night sky to discover for themselves the enormity and beauty of the galaxies and stars will open their minds to enable them to grasp basic conceptions such as the lunar cycles, as well as incorporating how these effect the sea tides here on planet earth.

Children are exposed to a variety of films, TV programmes and video games which are based around spacecraft and other galaxies, by introducing them to the universe through astronomy it will enable them to distinguish between fact and fiction! Latest ‘buzz’ words such as cosmos, dark energy, and dark matter should all be put into relative context for them to easily understand. Many countries have observatories and information centres where children can have hands on experiences and the opportunity to look through telescopes. Many of these educational places also have virtual reality space trips which will grab the interest of boys and girls alike.

Summer camps and camping vacations are also an ideal opportunity of introducing astronomy to kids. Sitting around camp fires and gazing up at the different constellations can a great way to spend the evenings.

Astronomy for kids needs to be aimed at their appropriate age levels otherwise it may become too complicated and they will become frustrated and lose interest. Even toddlers are fascinated with aliens so introducing the subject of astronomy will engage and interest kids of all ages. There are some wonderful books aimed at kids who are interested in astronomy, such as ‘Kingdom of the Sun: A book of Planets’, in which the author uses the names of the planets and associates them with gods they were named after. ‘The Stars-A New Way to See Them’ is a brilliant book for introducing the topic of astronomy for kids and can be used to look for and name the most common star formations.

Older kids will be introduced to astronomy in school as an aspect of both their science and mathematics sessions and by already having an insight to the fascinating subject of astronomy for kids, which will enable them to further broaden their understanding and horizons!