A teacher's adventures into astronomy

Eclipse from a different angle

2009-07-07T17:36:00.000-07:00

Using Stellarium, travel to the sun (ctrl g) then change the time to 1976, 23 of October, the time of the solar eclipse. Lock on to Earth then advance to around 4pm, then watch the moon travel in front of the Earth.

Wonderful!

cegsa conference

2009-07-07T17:09:00.001-07:00

This annual conference is a great opportunity for educators to get together and get new ideas and learn how others are implementing ICT across the curriculum. My first workshop focussed on web 2.0 tools... tag galaxy, bubbl.us, slideshare, glogster, dipity and dvolver. If you want to check out some more, try picnik (a web 2.0 photoshop) and or of course blogspot, wikispaces etc etc.

If you want the handout for the first workshop click here

The second workshop was very full and very enjoyable. A quick tour of some resources... images, powerpoints and videos, then we got down to the point end - Stellarium. We covered all the basics then finished with watching a lunar and solar eclipse. Find the handout here.

Afterwards I was kicking myself I should have shown everyone that you can go to other planets etc. Select the object (those red cross hairs) and then ctrl "G". You can then look at the Earth. If you go to the Sun (not as hot as you would expect) watch Australia come into view (sun rise) and spin out of view (sun set). Then advance a week at a time "]" to watch the tilt of the Earth change with the seasons.

For all those people in my workshops thank you for your participation... just make sure you take the word back to your schools and share your knowledge with your colleagues. Perhaps run your own session and a staff or faculty meeting. Feel free to use my worksheets, powerpoints etc and modify them how ever you want.

Science hack science videos

2009-07-05T21:06:00.000-07:00

Try using Science Hack for science youtubes. The "space" category runs the gamut from a video about space toilets to massive solar storms.

Astronomy Images

2009-07-05T05:45:00.000-07:00

From The Earth to the Universe provide images and text via its RSS feed. For those that don't know how to use RSS, I have made this powerpoint using their images and text. I have put some other great slideshows in the side bar to the left (scroll down).

Use it in the classroom to stimulate discussion about the Year of Astronomy.

400 Years Of The Telescope

View more documents from Cyberspaced Educator.

Glogs in the Cosmos

2009-07-02T17:11:00.000-07:00

Glogster is a great online poster site. Students can make glogs on any topic... this is my take on the International Year of Astronomy. Right click to get the fullscreen option. Register your class today - free!

Stellarium

2009-06-30T04:38:00.000-07:00

Stellarium http://www.stellarium.org/ is a FREE planetarium program, quick to download, quick to install, works on any computer. Enables you (and your students) to look at the night sky, pick out planets, stars, nebulas, galaxies. Go backward and forward in time, speed time up, slow it down, watch the phases of the moon, or watch Europa orbit Jupiter. Find the larger asteroids in the asteroid belt, or even look at Hubble's photos of distant heavenly bodies.

ISS IMAX Movie

2009-06-29T05:53:00.000-07:00

Tom Cruise narrates this IMAX movie made about the International Space Station ... but apart from that it is good! Also available in HD.
Read my youtube blog on how to save youtubes.

Track Satellites and the Space Shuttle

2009-06-26T04:27:00.001-07:00

This tracking map pings your IP address (yes it knows where your children live!) and places a house where you live. Then you can magic up satellites in your area, specific satellites, even get a view of the space shuttle and the space station whizzing overhead. The buttons are a bit user unfriendly, but once you get the hang of it - way cool.

Astronomy channels on Youtube

2009-06-26T04:25:00.000-07:00

Well poking around there are some pretty great Youtube channels around...AtlantisSaturn has some great astronomy documentaries, as does the Apollo Channel.
Numerous space programs have channels like the European Space Agency and NASA.

From the Earth to the Universe

2009-06-26T04:24:00.001-07:00

I have stumbled upon an awesome astronomy site celebrating the year of astronomy called From the Earth to the Universe. It is designed so people can organise their own exhibition showcasing breathtaking images of astronomical bodies. I will be using the images in the classroom to stimulate learning... I am coming up to teaching the EM spectrum and this fits beautifully as the images are from many areas of the spectrum. Perhaps during science week you could encourage your IT people to put on a new desktop image every day for your students. Download or just play their trailer.

Check out what people have done all over the world to use these amazing images. Perhaps you can apply for funding to set up your own exhibition by applying to ASTA to run an event during science week. Or just grab some students, laptops and projectors some extension leads and head down a dark alley with a white wall to put on a show that costs next to nothing. Mentioned on the site are approximate costs of Platinum, Gold and Silver events... these costs are not paid to FETTU but approximate costs that they figure you will have to fork out to host your own exhibition... personally i can't see why it couldn't be done on a shoestring.

(I have been very quiet of late, apparently life can get in the way of blogging rather than the other way around! Looking forward to CEGSA!)

Stellarium Update

2009-06-26T04:22:00.000-07:00

Stellarium has been changing since last year, the interface looks more complex, but you can do more with it. (see previous posts on Stellarium)
Good changes
Just press F1 and you get instructions for all the keystrokes (this helps as the more complex button arrangement can be avoided completely). The keystrokes remain the same as previous versions.
You are no longer tied to Earth. You can view the Earth from another planet, moon, or just as an observer of the whole solar system. This is a screenshot I took (shift+prntscrn to take, then paste into windows Paint program) of Earth from Mars.

You can also look at the night skies from different cultural perspectives, by selecting the culture (eg Chinese, Egyptian, Norse etc) and viewing their constellations and star names... however indigenous Australians are not yet included. It may be tricky as there are many indigineous cultures and they all have different stories.

Big Moon, Small Moon

2009-06-26T04:21:00.000-07:00

One of the RSS feeds i am subscribed to on my Google Start Page is science@NASA which told me to be on the look out on the 10th of January (2009) for the full moon that is "fuller" than usual. The Moon orbits the Earth in an elipse, and it happens to be at perigee - it's closest point, so looks a lot larger.

It looks even larger when rising or setting. Now I say it looks a larger... this is an illusion created by our brains... not by the atmosphere or our eyes. You can measure it's angular size near the horizon and when it is at it's zenith and your measurements will be the same, so the cause is an optical illusion. For an explanation of this trick of the eye, read this.

2009 - The International Year of Astronomy

2009-06-12T18:39:00.000-07:00

It is the UNESCO International Year of Astronomy this year as it is the 400th anniversary of the first recorded astronomical observations with a telescope by Galileo Galilei and the publication of Johannes Kepler's Astronomia nova in the 17th century. Science teachers need to get on board and lift the profile of astronomy.

There are events happening all over the globe... but so far things look a bit sparse in South Australia. However don't despair!

To get into the spirit of the year-

Download Stellarium, an easy to use planetarium simulation that makes astronomy a snap.

Have a look at the way Stellarium can be used to achieve the SACSA objectives or look at a powerpoint by Velma Beaglehole to put the night sky into an indigenous context.

Get your students into it by utilising your school computer room, your data projector or students laptop and even if you don't have astronomy in your curriculum early in the year, spend a lesson showing the students how they can use this software and easily run it at home.

100 Hours of Astronomy will take place from 2–5 April. The Moon is at first quarter on 2 April, so it is at a good phase for early evening observing over this period.
This event consists of two parts:

Live observatory webcasts, observing events and other activities connecting large observatories around the world, coordinated by the European Southern Observatory(ESO).
A 100-hour “sidewalk” observing event to allow as many people as possible to look through a telescope, and see what Galileo saw, managed by Astronomers Without Borders (AWB).