My Astronomy Class - Angular Separation

[Ad Astra]

Hi Folks,

The weather this time of year is often rotten for actual observing, but Stellarium can provide a handy learning tool, even on cloudy nights. One of the things I emphasize in class as a practical observing skill is being able to determine the angular separation between objects in the sky. It is very useful to be able to say: "Point the telescope 5 degrees south of Aldebaran", but if the student can't find Aldebaran and doesn't know how large 5 degrees is - the situation deteriorates into frustration rather quickly!

This activity asks you to find positions of stars using Stellarium by left clicking on them, then recording the Altitude and Azimuth readings from the screen. Once you do this, we must convert the degrees/minutes into decimal degrees, then use the Pythagorean theorem to find the separation. (Yes friends, you should have paid attention in math class!!!)

An interesting activity for a cloudy night - but you will learn more if you later take your results out and compare your results to the night sky.

"Oh ho! So THAT's what 5-degrees looks like!!!"

Have a go and let me know how you do.

Lab 5 - Angular Separation.doc