New Activities from My Astronomy Class

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Hi Folks,

Many of you have been very kind in responding to some of the lab activities that I have posted from my astronomy classes. The response has been very gratifying! I have over a hundred astronomy students per semester, but few of them are as enthusiastic as the folks here on SGL.

I have a couple of new activities for you all. In class, we are focusing on the Moon just now, and practicing our sketching techniques. I am also trying to teach the kids that there is a great deal to see on the Moon! We start out with binoculars, identifying the maria and some of the major craters such as Tycho and Copernicus that are easily visible because of their large ejecta regions. Then we move on to observing the terminator and looking for geological change on Luna, such as lava flows (subtly different colors often indicate successive floods), and land slides when crater walls collapse (look for concentric structures inside large craters), even central mounts and places on the maria where ancient crater rims have been flooded over. After sketching, the proof of the pudding so to speak is to try and identify the features you drew from a lunar atlas. It is often amazing how much you can do this way!

The Moon also brings with it the study of elliptical orbits, and impactors! All this will lead up to the all-night lab in mid-November when we go watch for (and record!) the Leonid meteor shower. So I've included a meteor spotter and satellite tracker activity, along with an activity on elliptical orbits. The elliptical orbit activity assumes you know a little physics - for those who don't reference the formulas below.

Let me know how you do - or if you have questions!

Dan

Changing gravitational force with distance:

F2 = F1 * (r1 / r2)^2

Changing orbital velocity with distance:

V2 = V1 * sqrt(r1 / r2)

For both of these - assume Luna's velocity and gravitational force to be 100 at perigee (F1 and V1 are 100% if you will), then see how force of gravity and speed changes as Luna orbits the Earth. The orbits as drawn in this activity are exaggerated ellipses, of course, but you will see that force and velocity decrease as the Moon moves from perigee to apogee (just as Kepler & Newton said!), then increase again as the Moon moves back from apogee to perigee.

Lab #7 - Sketching Luna.doc

Lab #8 - Sketching Luna at the EP.doc

Lab #9 - Meteor Spotter.doc

Lab #10 - Satellite Tracker.doc

Elliptical Orbital Motion - THS 2011.doc