Stellar Aberration 3D DocumentsThis material has 2 associated documents. Select a document title to view a document's information. Main DocumentStellar Aberration 3D
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Todd Timberlake The Stellar Aberration 3D Model illustrates the phenomenon known as the aberration of starlight, first reported by James Bradley in 1729. Aberration occurs because light has a finite speed, and thus light from a star takes a finite amount of time to travel through the tube of a telescope. During this time, the telescope moves as a result of Earth's rotational and orbital motions (in this case, the orbital motion is more important because it is faster). Therefore, if the telescope is pointed directly at the star the starlight will hit the sides of the tube before reaching the eyepiece. To see the star the telescope must be pointed forward (ie in the direction of Earth's motion) very slightly. As a result the apparent location of the star on the sky is different from its true location.
Last Modified June 12, 2014
This file is included in the full-text index. Source Code DocumentsStellar Aberration 3D Source CodeThe source code zip archive contains an XML representation of the EJS Stellar Aberration 3D Model. Unzip this archive in your EJS workspace to compile and run this model using EJS.
Released under a This material is released under the GNU General Public License Version 3.
Published May 17, 2011
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