Yerkes Visit

On Friday October 20, 2006 we visited the Yerkes Observatory for a tour. We were able to visit the world's largest Refracting Telescope- -it has a 40inch lens.

There are several articles about the wonders of this telescope. When the telescope is tracking correctly it is used in research. There is a catalogue of 100 years' worth of telescopic photo images taken through its lenses.




We also went into another smaller 24 inch telescope, we tried observing, but the skies were cloudy so we were only able to watch the dome open and the telescope move around.

StarMaps PowerPoint

We looked at some sky maps to figure out what month and year it was when we could see Jupiter, Mars, and Saturn in the sky.

Questions to investigate using skymaps:
How do stars move from one month to the next?What direction? (Keep in mind that east is left.)

Do stars move in a straight line?Is the motion of the stars the same for every part of the sky?

Are there stars that move very little or not at all?Are there stars that move more rapidly than others?
Where in the night sky would you have to look in February to find the constellation of Orion?

Where is it in April?Where is it in May?

Orion













Are there stars that are visible all year long? If so, where are they located? circumpolar stars are visible

Which planets were/are visible at 10:00 PM during the twelve-month time period?

visible planets during 2006
or check out Stardate Online

How do the planets move from one month to the next?Do they move the same way as the stars in the same region of the sky?Do all planets that were visible move the same way?

Constellations in Fall : Cassiopeia

Cassiopeia "The Queen"
"Many of the Fall constellations are connected by one Greek myth, the story of Perseus nd Andromeda. Andromeda's mother, Cassiopeia was a fabled queen who often bragged about how beautiful she and her daughter were. (Indeed she is often pictured on her throne gazing into a mirror) even though her bragging ended up causing a lot of trouble, the gods placed her in the heavens. For part of the year Cassiopeia looks very royal on her throne in the sky,but the rest of the time she appears upside down as punishment for her boastfulness! ...During the fall, Cassiopeia forms an easy to recognize "W" in the sky. This constellation is also a reliable guidepost to other fall star groups. The brightest star in Cassiopeia is Shedar , which seems to have a pale pinkish tint. Shedar pictures and more information. The next brightest star is Caph, Cassiopeia's hand. Caph
is a 2.3 magnitude blue-white giant. Gamma Cassiopeiae, the middle star in the"W" is a blue giant variable star that unpredictably varies from magnitude 3.0 to 1.6 (information)
Life Cycle of Stars
from The Stargazer's Guide to the Galaxy by QL Pearce


You can build your own sky wheel or star map to find constellations.

Cassiopeia A - a supernova event and its aftermath as seen through Hubble Telescope

There are some online teaching guides Teacher's Guide to the Star Stories available in pdf or Pictures in the Sky and for First graders in the Portable Planetarium

Some more research about Cassiopeia and here

To see the patterns in the sky

Moon Finder

I took this image tonight, Tuesday, October 3, 2006 at 10:04 pm in my front yard ( I seem to do all of my science in my own yard). with a Canon PowerShot A75...Dimensions 2048 x1536(pixels)

What we see is a Waxing Gibbous Moon--on its way to Full Moon by Friday, October 6, 2006.

Check out the Moon Phase Calendar (as recommended by our own Bernhard ).

To teach my students about the Phases of the Moon, we painted them on our Modular Unit...Of course, each year I discuss the painting with the kids and we talk about the fact that there is only one moon and not eight.


2. Address the following questions in your blog (or journal):
How could you help students overcome the following common misconceptions about the phases of the moon?

• The moon is only visible at night. You can never see it in the daytime.

If the students spend a month observing and charting the moon they will discover that the moon is out in the daytime regularly. I also point out the Moon whenever I see her, to whomever is nearby, so chances are I am showing some kid the moon during my morning duty, when I see her out.

• The phases of the moon are caused by clouds.

We can notice the Moon changing shape with and without cloud cover. There are also some good kid books which illustrate the moon changing shape.

• The phases of the moon are caused by Earth's shadow on the moon.What other misconceptions might your students have about the phases of the moon?

I have not asked them, but I will survey my class and post the results for what they think they know about the Moon.

Looking at the Moon & Measuring the Earth (finishing up with the Sun)

Eratosthenes- An Ancient Astronomer who discovered the circumference of the Earth by observing the Sun at the bottom of a well in Aswan, Egypt (24degrees North Latitude) on the Summer Solstice and then noticing there was a shadow in Alexandria, Greece--Why was there a shadow in Alexandria and not in Aswan???

One way to try this with students:
Eratosthenes Experiment

How to Measure the Earth: Astronomy On-Line

And this On-Line and pdf Teacher's Guide to Follow in the Steps of Eratosthenes

More about Magnetic North vs Local Solar Noon --Which is true North?? I redid my measurements on Sunday October1, 2006: