#stars in the Night sky...25 points

Go outside one night in the two days, and use a toilet paper tube as your viewfinder. Point your viewfinder towards three different constellations in the sky if you want(use your starmap or stellarium to identify them). Look through the viewfinder and count the number of stars you see. Text me what you see at




Part of the Sky # of Stars I Saw
1.
2.
3.
# lights w/in 100 yards

Now, take an average of those three counts, and multiply by 100. This gives you the number of stars you can see in the sky on an average night.

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How does this work? Well, the average tube is about 11.5 cm long, and about 2.3 cm across. If we calculated the Surface Area of a sphere that was made entirely of toilet paper tubes (4 pi * r^2=1667 cm^2


If we figure each tube is about 2.3 cm across, the Area of the tube is about pi*2.3^2= cm^2=16.7 cm^2. 1667/16.7 = about 100 tubes to view the entire night sky... assuming you have the same type of toilet paper I do.

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So, do you expect everyone in the class to get the same number of stars according to a range of say, +/- 100? Yes or no? Explain your rationale.

Due Date 11/3

History of the Universe

History and the Universe (25 pts)
Scale the Solar System

Compile the following information into a project that reflects your understanding of the history of astronomy. This can be a series of powerpoint slides, a music video/rap, a vlog, a youtube video, or a series of blog posts.

ASTRONOMERS:

• Aristotle,
• Hipparchus,
• Ptolemy,
• Carl Sagan,
• Stephen Hawking,
• Pope Gregory XIII,
• Albert Michelson (Michelson-Morley experiment),
• James Van Allen,
• Henrietta Leavitt,
• Copernicus,
• Tycho Brahe,
• Galileo Galilei,
• Isaac Newton,
• Edwin Hubble,
• Albert Einstein,
• Johannes Kepler,
• Clyde Tombaugh,
• Annie Cannon,
• Arno Penzias/Robert Wilson,
• S. Chandrasekhar,
• Ray Davis/John Bahcall

For each astronomer: Include the years of their birth/death dates and a picture. Hint: Google Images will be especially helpful with this.

For each astronomer: Include one or two relevant contributions in astronomy (um, Galileo has FIVE), as well as the approximate year of those discoveries. Note if the information is from your book or a website Also note that this is a survey of astronomers; as a result, not all information will be found in your book.

Slide sorter: Use the slide sorter on Powerpoint to put the astronomers into order chronologically

Resources:
Use the classroom book, Chapters 1 and 2, the index, and especially the links on pp 39 and pp. 57. While the pictures do not need to be referenced, the source for each astronomer MUST be listed at the bottom of each page.

Note: WIKIPEDIA is NOT a valid reference that can be listed. Neither is Google.com. They are starting points for future reference.

Due Date: 10/31/2008