Two amateur astronomers at Berkeley

TL;DR

This paper discusses amateur astronomers' efforts to determine the Sun's diameter and mass, analyzing problems from a physics book and exploring historical and modern solar system studies.

Contribution

It provides an analysis of amateur astronomy methods for measuring solar parameters and reviews related historical and modern astronomical research.

Findings

Amateur astronomers can estimate the Sun's diameter and mass using simple methods.

Historical and modern studies offer context for amateur measurements.

The paper discusses the educational value of amateur astronomy exercises.

Abstract

The book on Mechanics of the Physics at Berkeley, by C. Kittel, W.D. Knight and M.A. Ruderman, is proposing at the end of its first chapter some problems of simple astronomy within the solar system. The discussion begins with two amateur astronomers who set for themselves the goal of determining the diameter and mass of the Sun. Here we discuss the problems proposed by the book and some other matters on ancient and modern astronomical studies of the solar system.