QUIZTRONOMY 2013The annual Astronomy flavoured quiz

Elims:• This is a written round• 25 questions• Star marked questions will be used to resolve

ties• The decision of the Quizmaster will be final

Q. 1

• Which constellation has Polaris, the north star?

Ursa Minor

Q. 2

• Connect:

• 1. The tintin comic strip • 2. The person whose head is seen • 3. Edmund Halley • 4. King Solomon's Mines

Solar eclipse

Q. 3

• Apparently even superheroes need astronomers’ help. X is a quite famous science communicator and he appears in a recent DC Comics issue to help Y, a legendary superhero find his homeplanet. Identify X and Y

X- Neil deGrasse Tyson

Y - Superman

Q. 4

• Mythological stories help us understand many things. Take for example Constellations A and B; having peculiar red giants C and D in them. Greeks say B killed A and thus A hides from B. Chinese say C and D are rival brothers Shen and Shang who don't even see each others face. All lead to the conclusion that A and B are never together in sky due to being placed diametrically opposite to each other. Give either the pair A-B or C-D

A - Orion B - Scorpio

C - Betelguese D - Antares

Q. 5

• In modern astronomy, ___X___ is an internationally defined area of the celestial sphere. These areas are grouped around ___Y___s (which themselves are generally referred to in non-technical language as ___X___), What are we talking about?

X: Constellations,Y: Asterisms

Q. 6

• Following is a exhaustive list of something in order:

• 58.64, -243.02, 1, 1.03, 0.41, 0.43, -0.72, 0.67

• What is it that we are talking about?

Rotation periods of planets

Q. 7

• X is an asterism no longer classified as constellation officially, though Ptolemy considered it a constellation. Literally it is southern __. It's shape is rather fishy with the Chinese describing it as the Celestial Money. ID X

Piscis Austrinus/Piscis Austrealis

Q. 9

• This 1965 USSR 10 kopek stamp of cosmonaut Alexei Leonov commemorates what first in the history of space exploration?

First EVA(Extra Vehicular Activity) or Space-walk

Q. 10• Which spacecraft takes its name from four British ships

which include the following:• 1) A ship commanded by Captain James Cook during his

third and final major voyage from 1776 to 1779• 2) Henry Hudson's ship, which he used in 1610–1611 to

search for a Northwest Passage. This ship had previously been used in the 1607 founding of Jamestown, the first permanent English settlement in what was to become the United States.It's last mission was in 2011 when it was launched carrying the Permanent Multipurpose Module (PMM) Leonardo, the ELC-4 and Robonaut 2 to the ISS.

Space Shuttle Discovery

Q. 11

• X initially called his discovery the Cosmica Sidera ("Cosimo's stars"), in honour of Cosimo II de' Medici. At Cosimo's suggestion, the name was changed to Medicea Sidera ("the Medician stars"), honouring all four Medici brothers (Cosimo, Francesco, Carlo, and Lorenzo). The names that eventually prevailed were chosen by Simon Marius, who also discovered them independently at the same time as X: he named them after the lovers of the god Zeus. What discovery?

Galilean moons: Io, Europa,Ganymede, CallistoX: Galileo Galilei

Q. 12• X is among the rarest of all predictable astronomical

phenomena and occurs in a pattern that generally repeats every 243 years, with pairs of its occurrences eight years apart separated by long gaps of 121.5 years and 105.5 years. Its most recent occurrence was on June 5&6, 2012 and was the last of the 21st century. Prior to that it took place on June 8, 2004. The original scientific interest in observing X was that it could be used to determine the distance from the Earth to the Sun, and from this the size of the Solar System, by employing the parallax method and Kepler's third law. The observation of X also led to the conclusion that there was an atmosphere on a planet named after the Roman Goddess of love and beauty. Give me X.

Transit of Venus

Q. 13• The story of a 2-part song titled "______ X-1" by the band Rush

goes like this:• A black hole, titled "______ X-1", lies in the constellation of

______. An explorer is drawn in by the black hole. He then emerges into Olympus, where he witnesses the gods Apollo and Dionysus caught up in the struggle between Mind and Heart. The logical thinkers are led by Apollo and the emotional people are ruled by Dionysus. When he reflects on what he sees, he becomes tormented in the lack of balance of the people who insist on one extreme or the other. The people rethink their struggle and unite together. The gods recognize the explorer as a nascent new god and name him ______, the God of Balance. Fill in the blank.

Cygnus

Q. 14• ____X____, during his time as an honours program undergraduate, worked in

the laboratory of the geneticist H. J. Muller and wrote a thesis on the origins of life with physical chemist H. C. Urey. He used the summer months of his graduate studies to work with planetary scientist Gerard Kuiper (thesis advisor), physicist George Gamow, and chemist Melvin Calvin. He was an astronomer, astrophysicist, cosmologist, author, science populariser and science communicator in astronomy and natural sciences. He pioneered exobiology and promoted the Search for Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence (SETI). One of his famous quotes is: "The idea that God is an oversized white male with a flowing beard who sits in the sky and tallies the fall of every sparrow is ludicrous. But if by God one means the set of physical laws that govern the universe, then clearly there is such a God. This God is emotionally unsatisfying… it does not make much sense to pray to the law of gravity" His saga has been carved indelibly in the history of astronomy and astrophysics. Who?

Carl Sagan

Q. 15

• Image depicts a book cover which outlines discovery of X. X is the only dwarf planet in the inner solar system. Identify X

Ceres

Q. 16

• If Horsehead - Orion, Eagle - Serpens, Cat's eye - Draco; Crab - ?

Taurus

Q. 17

• Connect :

• Panchanga, Ephimerides, Tables of Toledo, Alfonsine tables, Rudolphine tables

• All are famous ephimeris - tables which give positions of astronomical objects at given time. Panchanga is by hindu jyotishis, Ephimerides by greek, Toledo by arabs, alfonsine by spanish and rudolphine by Johannes Kepler

Q. 18• Lyrics to a popular theme song: Fill in the blanks.

"Since the dawn of man" is really not that long,As every galaxy was formed in less time than it takesto sing this song.A fraction of a second and the elements were made.The bipeds stood up straight,The dinosaurs all met their fate,They tried to leap but they were lateAnd they all died (they froze their asses off)The oceans and PangeaSee ya wouldn't wanna be yaSet in motion by the same ___ ___!

Big Bang

Q. 19

• This star HD 140283, in the constellation of Libra with a birthdate around 14.5 billion years ago and a margin for error of 0.8 billion years has been identified as the oldest known star whose age we can reliably estimate. It has been given the slightly more memory-friendly name "the X star". X, according to the Bible was the oldest person to live at 969 years. He was the son of Enoch and the grandfather of Noah. The phrase "old as X", is commonly used to refer to any living thing reaching great age. Give me X

Methuselah

Q. 20

• 1. Alnitak is approximately 736 light years away from Earth and, taking into consideration ultraviolet radiation, which the human eye cannot see, it is 100,000 times more luminous than the Sun.

• 2. Alnilam is is approximately 1340 light years away from Earth and shines with magnitude 1.70. Considering ultraviolet light it is 375,000 times more luminous than the Sun.

• 3. Mintaka is 915 light years away and shines with magnitude 2.21. It is 900,000 times more luminous than the Sun. It is a double star. Both stars orbit around each other every 5.73 days. What are they collecting known as?

Belt of Orion

Q. 21

• Connect :1. Neil de grasse Tyson2. A brand of a musical instrument3. Walt Disney4. Astro boy5. Hydra

Pluto

Q. 22

• Rocks that rain, spend energy in vain air is our hero, that protects you again

• moon is the traitor, hides them so well oh leo, oh perseus just why did they fell

This self-made poem depicts a phenomenon easily observable during fixed certain periods. Identify

Meteor showers

Q. 23

• When life becomes difficult we are left in disarray. While computer scientists love to use it other way; for us the astronomers we don't just want it opposite we want it very big, huge, large. Our colleagues in New Mexico, USA believe the same and have taken this love to telescopes. What exactly do they work with that we are talking about?

VLA - Very Large Array ->radio astronomical

observatory 80km west toSocorro, New Mexico, USA

Q. 24

• Hindus always present detailed complex accounts of historic events. Each Yuga has its own saptarshis who govern dhruv-loka (dhruv - pole star, saptarshi - 7 stars of Ursa Major). Abhijeet was once a mighty king who even dared to challenge gods. Contesting against him Krittika (Pleides) went to forest to have him slipped and thus ultimately dethroning and defeating him. This also enabled Saptarshis to ascend dhruv to its position which Abhijeet was occupying during his conquest. This event actually signifies shifting of pole star position which happened during 12000BC. The story further states Abhijeet prayed to gods and gods forgave him thus allowing to take the position back in next yuga. This also matches with the fact that star corresponding to Abhijeet will replace Pole star as the north star in around 13,127 AD. Arguably next most important star in sky after sun, 5th brightest star of night sky; Well lyres have already started playing, who could it be?

Vega

Q. 25

• V838 Monocerotis (V838 Mon) is a red variable star in the constellation Monoceros about 20,000 light years from the Sun, and possibly one of the largest known stars for a short period following the outburst. The previously unknown star was observed in early 2002 experiencing a major outburst. Originally believed to be a typical nova eruption, it was then realized to be something completely different. Recently some of its images taken by the Hubble Space Telescope went viral due to the similarity in its appearance to X, a popular free and open source software which is used in conjunction with a system of interlinked hypertext documents which was the brainchild of Sir Tim Berners-Lee. What?