This document contains 25 questions for an astronomy quiz. It provides the rules that it is a written round with 25 questions, and star marked questions will be used to resolve ties. It then lists the questions and possible answer choices. The questions cover topics in astronomy such as constellations, planets, stars, astronomical phenomena, and discoveries in the field of astronomy.

1. QUIZTRONOMY 2013
The annual Astronomy flavoured quiz

2. 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

3. Q. 1
• Which constellation has Polaris, the north
star?

4. Ursa Minor

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

8. Solar eclipse

9. 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

10. X- Neil deGrasse Tyson
Y - Superman

11. 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

12. A - Orion
B - Scorpio
C - Betelguese
D - Antares

13. 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?

14. X: Constellations,
Y: Asterisms

15. 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?

16. Rotation periods of planets

17. 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

18. Piscis Austrinus/
Piscis Austrealis

19. Q. 9
• This 1965 USSR 10 kopek stamp of cosmonaut
Alexei Leonov commemorates what first in the
history of space exploration?

20. First EVA(Extra Vehicular Activity) or Space-walk

21. 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.

22. Space Shuttle Discovery

23. 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?

24. Galilean moons: Io, Europa,Ganymede, Callisto
X: Galileo Galilei

25. 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.

26. Transit of Venus

27. 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.

28. Cygnus

29. 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?

30. Carl Sagan

31. 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

32. Ceres

33. Q. 16
• If Horsehead - Orion, Eagle - Serpens, Cat's
eye - Draco; Crab - ?

34. Taurus

35. Q. 17
• Connect :
• Panchanga, Ephimerides, Tables of
Toledo, Alfonsine tables, Rudolphine tables

36. • 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

37. 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 takes
to 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 late
And they all died (they froze their asses off)
The oceans and Pangea
See ya wouldn't wanna be ya
Set in motion by the same ___ ___!

38. Big Bang

39. 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

40. Methuselah

41. 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?

42. Belt of Orion

43. Q. 21
• Connect :
1. Neil de grasse Tyson
2. A brand of a musical instrument
3. Walt Disney
4. Astro boy
5. Hydra

44. Pluto

45. 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

46. Meteor showers

47. 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?

48. VLA - Very Large Array ->
radio astronomical
observatory 80km west to
Socorro, New Mexico, USA

49. 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?

50. Vega

51. 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?