Category: Activities
AC4.2. Distance to the Moon Using Parallax
{ A Changing Cosmos Contents } { All GSS Books } Overview: We’ll observe and measure the parallax angle of a relatively distant object, such as a tree or a flagpole, and use that angle to determine the distance to the object. Geometrically, parallax shift for the Moon can be represented by this diagram: Points […]
AC4.1. Parallax
{ A Changing Cosmos Contents } { All GSS Books } There are also 4 other investigations associated with this investigation: Overview: To see how parallax works, we’ll observe and measure the parallax angle of a relatively distant object such as a tree or a flagpole and use that angle to determine the distance to […]
AC3.3. Sun Movement
{ A Changing Cosmos Contents } { All GSS Books } Originally: The Position of the Sun During the Day (A Partial Explanation for the Seasons) [see also The Solar Calendar] In this investigation you use the software Stellarium to take data of the Sun’s position over a period of a day. You’ll take the […]
AC3.2. Plate Scale of a Smartphone
Investigation 3.2 { A Changing Cosmos Contents } Materials One of the image processing (IP) apps listed for A Changing Cosmos on the GSS software page. Steps I. In order to look at “Smartphone” images with SalsaJ or JS9, you need to be able to transfer photos from your smartphone to your computer and know where to […]
AC3.1. Size and Scale of the Sun
Investigation 3.1 { A Changing Cosmos Contents } Materials: I. How Big is that Prominence? a. Use Image Processing app/software to open the image eclipse1.fts. This image of the longest total solar eclipse* of the 20th century was taken in Hawaii in 1991 by an HOU team. Look around the rim of the Sun (often called […]
AC2.3. Browsing The Universe
{ A Changing Cosmos Contents } { All GSS Books } There is a myriad variety of celestial objects. Astronomers delight in describing, classifying, and naming them, but also grapple with trying to explain why they look the way they do. Materials Part I: Browse 2.19. Using each of the files, browser1 through browser7, use and familiarize yourself […]
AC2.2. CCD Image Color Coding
{ A Changing Cosmos Contents } { All GSS Books } Materials copy of CCD simulation grid colored markers tape The images from the HOU telescopes are generated using a CCD camera. This kind of camera uses an electronic chip rather than the photosensitive chemical films used by regular cameras. The electronic chip is divided […]
AC2.1. Using Star Maps
Paper maps Three free paper (PDF) star maps that are good, produced for the current night sky, with new ones available each month are: What’s Out Tonight, Skymaps.com, Beckstrom Observatory. Planispheres A planisphere is a version of star map that is adjustable for any day and any time. Standing here on Earth which is rotating, […]
AC2. Astronomers’ Tools
Chapter 2 { A Changing Cosmos Contents } Astronomers are very limited in ability to actually visit and explore their objects of interest. Humans have personally visited only one other body in the cosmos other than Earth: the Moon. We have sent spacecraft to most of the planets in our own solar system and received […]
AN5.1 Satellite Views of Rondonia, Brazil
{ A New World View Contents } { All GSS Books } Adapted from USGS Earthshots – http://www.usgs.gov/Earthshots Satellite images used in this Investigation show a portion of the state of Rondônia, Brazil, in which tropical deforestation has occurred in the Amazon rainforest. In the Investigation, Measuring Old Growth Forest Loss (Chapter 3) you determined quantitatively […]