Learning Astronomy, Teaching Astronomy
In this post we will learn how to use one bright star of Orion’s belt to visualize the Earth’s equator.
When you look up at the winter sky in the northern hemisphere, Orion and his famous belt are impossible to miss. The belt is made up of three stars of equal brightness.
One of these stars is called Mintaka and it is a guidepost for finding the Earth’s equator in space. Click here to continue reading…
Here is a quiz – what time of night is the best time to see the planet Venus? Is it sunset, midnight, sunrise? None of these? All of the above?
Think about it for a few minutes before you click to show the answer.
In this exercise called “The Sky Below Us” you will learn to see the Earth as a giant ball and understand that the Earth is floating in space. This will allow you to see the sky below us.
The Speed of DayThe “speed of day” is the speed of Earth’s rotation: 1600 kilometers per hour (kph) which is about 1000 mph.
1600 kph is fast. Most people have never experienced anything moving at this speed. Commercial jet airplanes fly at 1000 kph (600 mph). Click here to continue reading…
Learn to see the ecliptic
The sun follows the same path through the sky every day.
Sun up. Noon. Sun down.
The sun starts the day in the east in the morning, rises high in the sky at noon, and settles down again in the west for a nap at night.
Here is an exercise to discover that path – the ecliptic.
Examine this image of Moon phases made from emojis.
Reading left to right, which row shows the correct sequence of Moon phases?
Did you guess yet?
The answer is below.
A “Life Star” is a visible star that could host life. This is a name I came up with in February 2017 (around the time of the TRAPPIST announcement) to describe visible stars with confirmed planets orbiting in the habitable zone. “Life Star” is easier to say and explain. I hope it catches on!Click here to continue reading…
See the Earth’s Orbit in the MoonYou can use the moon to “see” the Earth’s orbit in the sky and the space beyond.Click here to continue reading…
What better way to celebrate Groundhog Day than to Build your own Groundhog Day Shadow Tracker
UPDATE: We now sell an astronomy gift called the Sun Tracker that teaches you the same Basic Astronomy Lesson that the Ground Hog does! You can learn all about the apparent movements of the Sun and the analemma.
It’s called the Sun Tracker and you can purchase one right from this website.
Let’s do some Physical Astronomy. The experience will help you to understand the movement of the earth and sun through the seasons. You will build a scientific instrument that is also a fun garden decoration and you will be able to track the Groundhog’s Shadow all Spring!
An amazing thing is about to happen! A Star in a Star will be born.
EDIT (Nov. 19, 2021): It turns out that the underlying observation data had a timing flaw that makes it “unlikely” that the new star will be born in 2022. See this Wikipedia page about the new Star for more information.
You can witness the birth of a new star in the night sky. The new Star already has a birthday: 2022!
According to scientists, the new star will form when two stars that are orbiting each other grow so close that they merge into one.
The new star will appear in the constellation Cygnus. You can see the approximate location marked by a red circle in the Stellarium screenshot here:
The image of the two blue stars on the home page of this Star in a Star site shows what scientists think it looks like now. This impressive video shows an artist’s rendering of the star merge.
In the pair, one star is larger than the other so in the end, there will be a new star… A Star in a Star.
