Kevin Krisciunas, Erika DeBenedictis, Jeremy Steeger, Agnes Bischoff-Kim, Gil Tabak, Kanika Pasricha
It is straightforward to determine the size of the Earth and the distance to
the Moon without making use of a telescope. The methods have been known since
the 3rd century BC. However, few amateur or professional astronomers have
worked this out from data they themselves have taken. Here we use a gnomon to
determine the latitude and longitude of South Bend, Indiana, and College
Station, Texas, and determine a value of the radius of the Earth of 6290 km,
only 1.4 percent smaller than the true value. We use the method of Aristarchus
and the size of the Earth's shadow during the lunar eclipse of 2011 June 15 to
derive an estimate of the distance to the Moon (62.3 R_Earth), some 3.3 percent
greater than the true mean value. We use measurements of the angular motion of
the Moon against the background stars over the course of two nights, using a
simple cross staff device, to estimate the Moon's distance at perigee and
apogee. Finally, we use simultaneous CCD observations of asteroid 1996 HW1
obtained with small telescopes in Socorro, New Mexico, and Ojai, California, to
derive a value of the Astronomical Unit of (1.59 +/- 0.19) X 10^8 km, about 6
percent too large. The data and methods presented here can easily become part
of a beginning astronomy lab class.
View original:
http://arxiv.org/abs/1109.4957
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