The Classroom Astronomer #11Lite - October 16, 2021
Today vs. Cosmos; Teachniques--Just Look Up!, Teaching Solar Motions; Observing Remotely; RAP Sheet; Black Friday Advance Sale
Cover Photo - Cosmos + 41
Dawning Words
At the same time I was attending the virtual IAU-Shaw conference on astronomy education, I’ve also been re-reading the paperback version of Carl Sagan’s Cosmos (copyright 1980) for the first time in probably decades. His literacy, of course, is always brilliant and motivating for astronomy writing. It is amazing how prescient he was, looking back now at over 40 years of history between now and then.
What is however disconcerting is noting how far we haven’t come. Especially in science literacy for the world, even in the affluent Western world. While we explore the universe to greater and greater depths, and the solar system in the next wave of landers and orbiters, exciting the always space-eager, there are still the adherents of those who push back against science today just as hard as those who pushed against Copernicus and Galileo. Even discounting the current incivilities over vaccinations and masks, the ignorance and contempt for science seems even greater now than it was when Sagan wrote his book! While certainly every new generation of students has to go through the gauntlet of how the Sun seems to move (remember, it doesn’t, we do), why the Moon phases as it does, and so on, our curricula still seem ever so locked in to the ancient ways of astronomy education and astronomy observation. Why is it so discordant to astronomy in the news, the things that excite the young minds? Sun risings over the seasonal horizons don’t make headlines or wow the minds of children— horizons of black holes do;, not why Mars loops the loops in the sky but what the Earth looks like FROM Mars. Some of these kids may be Martian colonists one day. Where the Sun rises in New Jersey in Spring won’t matter to them. Why aren’t we updating the curricular topics once we get them excited about the universe beyond those first observational topics? Why aren’t we talking about the Sun as a star at least as much as the Sun coming into view each morning because the Earth turns (do you, Mr./Ms. Teacher say that?).
I have to ask, when do we start getting astronomy education out of the ancient past and into the modern era, and when do we start getting science to be a respected part of modern society? Astronomy is often the gateway to other sciences, and to students getting into physics, chemistry, life sciences, technology, and general scientific ways of life. Astronomy pervades life even if it isn’t as obvious as technology. When are we going to start teaching it with the respect it deserves, and teaching it in as modern a way as we teach, say, computing?
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I thoroughly enjoyed the IAU-Shaw conference and will be presenting over the next few issues many of the educational ideas I saw in the sessions. Beginning this issue, I plan two ongoing series of articles. The first, under the Astronomical Teachniques column, compiling the huge mass of activities from just the seven sessions I chose to attend on the three days of the conference, and integrating the activities from multiple speakers into categories—The Sun, Moon, star stuff, etc. The second article, in its own column, will be about observing with remote telescopes. In the latter, there seems to be no up to date list of remote and/or robotic observatories/telescopes. There are several *groups* of same. Some offer free observations; some have costs. I’m going to try and hit the highlights, and then find perhaps some smaller ones available over time. I once wrote about them WAY back in their earliest days, in a computing magazine. I have some observations I’d like to get done myself. I’ll let you, Readers, know what I find out.
-LK
In The Full Issue:
Cover Photo - Cosmos + 41
Dawning Words (Cover Story)
Astronomical Teachniques - IAU-Shaw: Just Look Up; Solar Motions
Astronomy Remotely - 1. Remote Observing, Generally
The RAP Sheet – Research Abstracts for Practitioners - Programming Ozobots for Teaching Astronomy
The Galactic Times Newsletter Highlights
The Black Friday/End of Year/Holidays Sale with Ever-Increasing Discount Sale
Critical information:
Homepage and Indexes of Issues by Topic and Issue number: http://www.classroomastronomer.com/newsletter
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Publisher -- Dr. Larry Krumenaker
Astronomical Teachniques
IAU-Shaw: Just Look Up!
The one thing anybody can do is just…look. No technology required. Open your eyes. What can you see?
Quite a lot, actually. Before we get into any specific objects or realms, let’s just do a quick look at the sky as a whole. Good ideas were given by Julie Bolduc-Duval of the Canadian program “Discover the Universe”, and planetarian and astronomy teacher B. S. Shylaja of the Nehru Planetarium, India.
Ms. Bolduc-Duval’s initial purpose for her 8-part project is to “reconnect students and teachers with the sky and their environment.” (Find her materials at www.dicovertheuniverse.ca —there is also a French version.) The activities are adaptable and use very basic materials, and are meant to get students to “observe, take notes, and explain and model.”
The first activity is simply to go outside and draw everything they see in the sky (or could see if cloudy) and then share and discuss what they saw. Other activities that follow include a simple ‘draw the moon’ journal entry as it appears that evening, draw the moon several consecutive evenings on the same paper project, draw it during the day, draw the Sun’s position several times during the day, and its setting position over several days, and some sky watching, all of these we’ll discuss in later review articles.
Ms. Shylaja’s list of naked eye astronomy things-to-do is more extensive though less developed as activities.
At night, she suggests watching the Moon—particularly observing its phases and orbital parameters—observing its eclipses and especially the challenge of noting when its fainter penumbra shadow appears first and finally disappears, comparing sky brightness and how faint a star you can see on Full Moon nights versus total lunar eclipse nights, and how the crescent moon is oriented in different months. Can you observe differences in lunar appearance during lunar apogees and perigees? Watch for bright star occultations and conjunctions and even photograph them with phone cameras.
With planets and other solar system objects, just finding them is a first plus. Then watching them having conjunctions with each other and the Moon, monitoring retrograde motions, seeking heliacal risings (when do you first see them in the dawn) or conversely, their last evening views, and meteors—inside of meteor showers or just at random. Keeping tracks of the dates of visibility of planets and constellations is a good observing log exercise.
Star and constellation identification require only maps and can even be done as group activities. It is suggested that a fun activity is using the ISS as an attractant and identifying the constellations it passes through as a good naked eye challenge. Using star counts, such as from the Globe at Night, and monitoring light pollution, is also a good first scientific exercise. Allied with that might be estimating how long it is between the moment of sunset and the very end of evening twilight (or the converse in the dawn).
For some other activities of deeper study, it is necessary to have familiarity with the constellations, and finding stars and planets. Starting out with just the naked eye and no tech is a nice and easy way to get started with the sky.
IAU-Shaw: Solar Motions
One of those things done ‘universally’ in schools is the motion of the Sun, both its daily and seasonal/annual motions. This starts from the earliest grades, primarily because it is fairly obvious, students notice the Sun changes positions over the day, and their shadows caused by the Sun’s light change too, all from as soon as they can make observations outside of themselves. Thus, one of the two largest sets of activities collected at the conference were on solar motions.
(details are available only for Full Subscribers)
The teaching activities fall into three types.
The first type is recording what is seen over time.
(screenshot of photo credit to T. V. Venkateswaran)
A second type was a demonstrator, useful in areas and classrooms where going out all day every day is just not a feasible option.
(This and previous two courtesy A. Tomita, Wakayama University)
The last motion type needs a bit more understanding of spatial geometry. It requires a globe and placing a ‘person’ or a stick as a gnomon in the local position on the globe, and a horizontal board or sheet to represent the horizon. Several different forms of these were shown.
(screenshots, credits [left] Nicoletta Lanciano, [right] B.S. Shylaja)
Astronomy Remotely
Remote Observing, Generally
<This article is only for Full Subscribers.>
TCAN plans to look at the networks and in more depth in future issues, to help you get started.
The RAP Sheet – Research Abstracts for Practitioners
What’s in the scholarly astronomy education journals you can use NOW.
M. Balaton, J. Cavadas, P. S. Carvalho, and J. J. G. Lima (2021). Programming Ozobots for Teaching Astronomy, Physics Education, 56 (8pp), July. https://doi.org/10.1088/1361-6552/abfb44
One thing that is surprisingly hard to demonstrate is the cause of retrograde motion. It is easy to say it happens because we are viewing us passing an outer planet, but convincing a skeptical audience by viewing it is hard (just ask Galileo). These Portuguese instructors came up with a novel way to do that: program some small robots to move in circular orbits and view the scene as they passed each other!
Ozobots are little circular robots that sense lines and colors, small, versatile and programmable with sequences of colored lines (red, blue, green and black) or by using programming blocks with dedicated online software called Ozoblockly. The mini-robots can move with speeds of 20 to 120 mm s−1. To make the robot move with very specific speeds, one has to use the programming code. The authors videotaped four ‘planets’ moving around a ‘Sun’ and used Tracker software to generate positional data as to how each planet would appear from any other planet. [Ed.—But couldn’t it be a lot more interesting to have a webcam or light weight cell phone ride along the Ozobot or some other robot and actually watch the retrograde motion?]
Additional observations they made included watching retrograde motions observed from looking outward from Mercury or Venus, or inward from Mars. They also were able to demonstrate Kepler’s Third Law.
In Issue 11 of The Galactic Times Newsletter:
Cover Photo — The Neighborhood as it Once Was?
This Just In — Exploration of Hot Venus Heating Up
How our Solar System Will Look in 5 Billion Years Plus
Moons Around an Exo-Jupiter, and Water Around One of Ours
Where is Planet 9?Sky Planning Calendar — Moon-Gazing; Observing—Plan-et —Two planets visit the Sea Goat; a dim view of bright meteors; Border Crossings; For the Future
Astronomy in Everyday Life — Ouch!; Signs of the Times?
The Classroom Astronomer Newsletter Highlights
The Black Friday/End of Year/Holidays Sale with Ever-Increasing Discount Sale
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The Black Friday/End of Year/Holidays Sale with Ever-Increasing Discount Sale.
Every year, Hermograph Press tries to clear its inventory shelves with an End of Year Etc. sale, in which a discount coupon nets you a discount off the sale. Sort of like Hermograph Roulette. With each issue of The Galactic Times and The Classroom Astronomer, the discount increases, but historically, the inventory goes down on some items so quickly that if you wait too long, there isn’t left on an item you want to buy at a greater discount!
For this initial run, the discount off any item in the Hermograph Store:
12.5%
Use Code EOY1, good until October 31st, 2021.
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