WEEK 3~ CONSTELLATIONS ~ ANCIENT ASTRONOMERS ~ CLASSIFYING STARS

Lesson 1: Ancient Astronomers

Hipparchus was the:

A: first to see galaxies

B. first to make a detailed star chart

C. first to make a telescope that discovered Pluto

D. first to write a book about going into space using rockets

Ptolomy was a Roman citizen who:

A. wrote the oldest existing book on Astronomy complete with star charts and orbits

B. studied only the moon

C. was the first to announce that the Earth revolved around the Sun

D. discovered Neptune in 1856

LESSON 2: FAMOUS CONSTELLATONS

See how many you can identify:

A. Leo the _____________.

B. Pegasus the _______________________.

C. Orion the ____________________.

D. Draco the _________________________.

E. Cygnus the _________________.

F. Gemini the _________________.

G. Cancer the ______________.

H. What was Hercules famous for? _________________

The green lines connect the constellation Orion. In the winter sky, Orion's Belt consists of 3 stars lined up in a row. Betelgeuse is a beautiful red star while Rigel is a bright blue star.

By the way, M43 and M 42 are very special, but they are not single stars.

This is the flag of Alaska. What group of stars to do you see?

Lesson 3: Classification of Stars

We will discuss this chart in detail.

Movie: We will watch part I of "Journey to the Stars" from the Museum of Natural History next week. Stay tuned.

ACTIVITY:

Payloads for Helium Balloons

Experiment. Use helium balloons and paperclips to find out the payload for your balloon. Predict how many paperclips your balloon can lift. The concept of exact measurements for rocket payloads is an integral part of NASA's engineering department.

Why do you think this is so important to calculate?

Attach one large paperclip to the balloon string. Open it slightly so that it will hold the payload.

Now add large paperclips one at a time and check to see if the balloon will float.

After you have reached your maximum large paperclip limit, switch to small paperclips. Continue the experiment.

NASA wants to get every gram of weight they can on each rocket payload.

Now use a small bit of blue tacky and add this to your last paperclip.

Record your results on the Experiment Data Page.

Now look at all the Data Pages together.

Are all of the payloads the same?

Can you give 2 reasons why the results turned out they way they did?





GRAIL MISSION LAUNCHED ON SATURDAY MORNING!

GRAIL launched successfully on September 10th and is on it's way to the moon. GRAIL will survey  the moon's gravity using two specialized satellites. The mission is unmanned.

LAUNCH IS NOW ON YOUTUBE in case you missed it! AWESOME FOOTAGE!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PKd4hK9AU9w

POST LAUNCH INTERVIEW WITH SECOND VIEW OF  BLASTOFF!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xQ1ToQxCYno&NR=1


EARLIER LINK:
http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/grail/launch/index.html

WEEK 2~ THE SUN AND THE STARS (PART 1)

                                                         (drawing by NM 3rd grade)

NEVER LOOK DIRECTLY AT THE SUN, EVEN WITH SUNGLASSES! A VERY FAMOUS ASTRONOMER WENT BLIND BY STUDYING THE SUN AND TRYING TO VIEW IT THROUGH MIRRORS! DON'T DO IT!

Questions to answer:

1. Is the sun simply a giant ball of hot gases?  Or does it have layers and other features?

2. Does NASA have an orbiting spacecraft around the sun?

3. Why should we study the sun? What do sunspots, solar flares, and solar prominences look like?

4. Is our sun large or small compared to other stars?

5. What are galaxies? How many stars make up a galaxy?

Lesson 1: Images

Our Sun

Parts of the Sun

(For your interactive notebook)

An illustration of the structure of the Sun:
1. Core
2. Radiative zone
3. Convective zone
4. Photosphere
5. Chromosphere
6. Corona
7. Sunspot
8. Granules
9. Prominence

Photographers and Astronomers can capture some of the intracacies of the sun during a total eclipse or with a special filter and lenses (image by Luc Viatour)

Do you know what the white halo is called?

Our study of the sun continues. We need exact measurements of the sun's light in order to find planets around distant stars. This machine is called a light laser. What does it use to split light?

PART 2: OTHER STARS

Stars emit different colors. We can see yellow, blue, red, orange, and of course white stars.

On a clear night you would need to 'watch' a star for some time before it has a color. Rigel is one of the blue stars we can see. Some stars have names. Others have numbers.

Stars continue to form. This dramatic scene was taken by the telescopes at the European Southern Observatory. Try and count the stars in the photo!

Part 3: Constellations and Star Fields

From early times, many cultures have put the stars together and made patterns. Many of these are still famous and we continue the tradition of using these names. These star patterns are called constellations. The International Astronomical Union recognizes 88 constellations. This beautiful star chart dates from earlier times. What can you see?

SOHO

SOHO has been sending back early warning signals to Earth since the 1990s. This spacecraft is in a very unusual part of space. It is 1 AU from the Earth and 92 AU from the sun. This is the location of an invisible part of space where Earth's gravity and the Sun's gravity are equal. 

Projects....Making a Straw Rocket

Cut out and decorate all 3 parts from the NASA handout. Put your initials on one portion.

Roll the body of the rocket lengthwise around a pencil and tape in place.

Tape the fins and bend the fins in a plus sign formation.

Twist or pinch the top of the rocket and tape shut to form a 'nose'. The rocket body and nose must be airtight for good flights. Three pieces of tape along the body should be enough.

Bend the straw at the elbow for a proper angle. Do not point the rocket at other people.

A good rocket should fly at least 2 meters (about 6 feet).

Try it at different angles and record your results, both good and bad.

Use the tape marks on the carpet to determine the length of your flights.

PERSONAL LEARNING DEVICE:

We had two apps on view today. One took us on a tour of the Milky Way with animated orbits of the planets. The other located constellations in the night sky by pointing it at a direction overhead. Thanks to HP and MM for sharing. :-)

Mr. Petersen/ :-)