AstronomyTeacher

Douglas Adams wrote the "Hitchhiker's Guide to the
Galaxy," an SF classic.

Sci Fi Wire -- The News Service of the Sci Fi Channel

We construct a scale model solar system
More planet reports

More planet presentations

Damage= yes, fatalities = no (thank goodness).

Science News Article | Reuters.com

Today's agenda

Grades posted, corrections dealt with
Time permitting, we'll begin doing presentations
While waiting for grade information, you can work on your presentations.

Mars Rover takes its own picture. Looks like some sort of mecha walking around on Mars.

JA
SPACE.com -- Best Mars Rover Images

What do you suppose those three lines represent?

PhysOrg: Long-lost star catalog discovered on Roman statue

If you have a copy of photoshop, perhaps you can blend these and improve them. People already are.

Huygens raw images

Titan in color, more pictures than last week

Loads slow, but it's worth it.


anthony.liekens.net >> Main >> Huygens

Wind noise and radar data recorded as sounds from Huygens.

ESA - Cassini-Huygens - Sounds of an alien world

This is the page I showed today in class.


ESA - Cassini-Huygens

Could be a meteorite. Sure looks like one. If so, it would be the first time a meteorite was identified on another planet.

Opportunity Spots Curious Object On Mars

The Starry Night software includes a movie about the solar system. Part I is about the inner solar system. Part II is about the outer solar system. Part III is about the moons of the solar system. Part IV is everything else, including Pluto.

Watch the movie and take notes.

HOW TO SET UP THE COMPUTER AND PROJECTOR.

COMPUTER:
The computer is already connected to the projector and stereo.
Start the computer. Make sure it is plugged in so it doesn't lose power.
Start "Apple DVD Player" on the desktop. The movie disk is already in the computer.

PROJECTOR:
Turn the projector on with the Power button. If the picture is not centered on the screen, rotate the mirror until it is.

STEREO:
Turn the stereo power on. The record player turntable may begin spinning. Ignore it.

When the movie starts, the computer screen will be blank. You have to look at the screen to see the movie.

Choose:Earth Zone.
Choose Each movie and let it play. Then choose the next.

If you move the mouse on the laptop, a cursor will appear and so will the DVD controls if you need them.

Today you should prepare notes for your open notes test. I would like for you to prepare Jeapordy-style questions for your review activity.

Working in groups of 5, please prepare questions in the following categories:

The Sun
The Moon
Kepler's Laws and Ellipses
The Solar System
Experiments and Science

Each category should have 5 questions at the $100,200,300,400,and 500 dollar level.

This means you will prepare 25 questions, or five each. Identify each question with the name of the person who wrote it.
You can split the work up any way you like, as long as each person writes 5 questions.
Questions should be written Jeapordy style, with answers demanding questions, or as multiple choice.

You can then present the game to another group and play to help review. Turn in the game questions when you are finished.


After this activity, Ms. Poole will assign this extra credit homework, which you can begin in class, and you should bring back to class on Wednesday.

Intrepid explorer Spaceman Spiff finds himself marooned on a planet far from earth. Like Tom Hanks in "Castaway," he begins to assemble clues to indicate where he is in the universe. If he sends off a distress signal with an accurate description of the planet, the Space Patrol can find him again.

Here are the clues Spiff has to work with:
1. Stars in the planet's night sky seem to rotate around a star called Poleaxe, which doesn't move and is 40 degrees above the horizon.
2. After having been marooned for many months, Spiff notes that it takes the planet's sun 298 days to return to the same position on the horizon at sunrise.
3. The planet's sun is identical to our sun.
4. Using a stick in the ground and observing it's shadow, Spiff notes that the maximum altitude of the sun is 60 degrees at noon and the minimum is 40 degrees at noon.
5. Looking at the stars, Spiff notes that the Milky Way is all on one side of the sky. In the other direction, there are very very few stars to see. The sky is blank.
6. Spiff's new home has a moon, which orbits the planet in 12 days. Through geometry and triangulation, Spiff determines that the moon is in a circular orbit with is 100,000,000 meters from the planet.
7. Spiff sees a lunar eclipse and notes the diameter of the shadow of his planet indicates that it has a radius of 15,000 km.
8. Spiff's planet has oceans, which experience tides.
9. Spiff notes three other planets he can see with his eyes. One of them never seems to wander far from the sun. Another one does a curious loop against the stars every couple of planet years. One of them moves so slowly it's hard to tell if it is a planet.


Given these clues, compose a description of Spiff's World for his rescue message.
A. What does Spiff's solar system look like?
B. What are the orbital characteristics of Spiff's World? (orbital period, semimajor axis, axial tilt.)
C. What are the physical characteristics of Spiff's World? (mass of the planet, density)
D. What is it like where Spiff is located? (What is his latitude? How often do tides occur?)

Agenda

1. How to find comet Macholz if it clears up.
2. APOD
3. Puzzles due EOC
4. Work time for presentations
5. Anyone who is ready can present today and get it over with.
6. Final Exam review Guide (see next blog entry)

Don't ask me to point my laser pointer at an airplane.

Pricey green lasers are pranksters' choice / Jersey man accused of zapping pilots bought his online

This is how the comet was discovered.
The Discovery of Comet Machholz (Comet 2004 Q2)

Here are the topics which will be on your final exam.

Final Exam is OPEN NOTES, CLOSED BOOK, CALCULATORS ENCOURAGED.

Experimental Design
independent, dependent, interfering variables
double-blind design
standard graph setup

Nature of Science
fact, theory, law, hypothesis
how to write a lab report

The Sun
Sun's motion through the sky (daily, annually)
The seasons
The analemma
Noon
Sundials
What is the Sun
nuclear fusion
Einstein's equation
Structure of the sun
Age of the sun

The Moon
Surface features of the moon
Evolution of the moon
lunar phases
eclipses of the sun and moon
gravity and tides
the Apollo missions
Analysis of lunar photos: crater sequence, height of mountains, etc.

The Planets
Models of the solar system
Critical observations to help us understand how we know the sun is in the center
retrograde motion
inferior/superior
phases of venus
Kepler's Laws
Computing planetary transfer orbits
Planet classifications, especially gas giant/terrestrial
Rough scale of the solar system
Surface gravity of the planets


APODs
Kinds of objects in the sky and their general appearance
Supernova remnants
Planetary Nebulae
Emission Nebulae
Reflection Nebulae
Dark Nebulae
Galaxies

If anyone's ready, I'd like to start giving the presentations this week.

An architects' view of the astronomy needed to design a building considering the direction of sunlight.

Includes several interesting graphics, especially the first one with yellow lines on a black background.

Also includes java applets and all the math equations for computing the sun's position depending on date, time of day, latitude, etc.

| SQUARE ONE | environmental design, software, architecture, sustainabilty...

When's all that book-learnin' ever gonna do you any good?


Yahoo! News - British 'angel' saved hundreds from tsunami with classroom knowledge