My Astronomy Class - Exploring Lyra

[Ad Astra]

Hi Folks,

Good to be back teaching again! summer is always crazy, but things settle down in the fall when classes start up. I have about 130 in my astronomy program this fall, and as always, I will be posting lab activities here as we do them in my astronomy class at Mt. San Jacinto College in California.

Everyone here is invited to download the lab activity sheet and have a go with your own kit. All of the activities are designed with the beginning telescope user in mind, and we seldom use anything more grand than a 150mm dob and 7x50 bins, so almost everyone here should have both the kit and the know-how to do these fun activities.

Teachers, Scouting leaders, and Astro-club outreach folks are especially invited to use these astronomy activities - all are designed to be 'One-Page-Easy', so you can copy them off and hand them out, and everyone has something to take home to remind them of their big night at the EP!

This activity explores the constellation Lyra, and guides you through a double star (the famous 'Double-Double'), an open cluster (delta-lyrae), the Ring nebula, and a globular cluster (M-56). These last two objects are quite challenging for binocular users, but they can be had in dark skies.

I hope you all enjoy it, post your results if you can. Comments and questions are always welcome.

Dan

Zenithal Wonders.doc

[jason.p]

Looks good to me, just the job for beginners. I'll work through it later then await a clear sky to put it into practice.

Thanks

[Cjg]

Thanks Dan, looks great.

Great to see you back posting your lessons here again.

Chris

[sologuitarist61]

Thanks for that Dan. It will be good to go back to basics again and just explore one constellation.

[Qualia]

Brilliant work, Don and thank you for sharing your ideas and material with us.

[paul schofield]

Excellent stuff, great idea too, look forward to seeing more in the future. Thanks for sharing.

Paul.

[spacedyemeerkat]

What a lovely document. Very useful!

[Ad Astra]

Good to BE back! Spent the summer with crazy publishers and editors - they make the high school and college kids look normal!

We hope to be out for lab tonight - expecting close to 100 astronomy students in the stadium.

I'll see if I can get a picture of us all!

Dan

Thanks Dan, looks great.

Great to see you back posting your lessons here again.

Chris

[Astro Imp]

Thanks Dan

I've missed seeing your posts over the summer, good to have you back.

[Mr Q]

Excellent tutorial for a beginner! A good "hands on" activity that will surely boost any beginner's confidence in observing the night sky (as well as reminding us experienced observers to go back and enjoy some easy targets we may have forgotten to observe).

Haven't seen any of your activities before and am looking forward to more.

Well done Dan and keep up the good work.

[Ad Astra]

Nice to see over 50 downloads for this activity!

Glad to see that these little activities are still popular as ever.

For those in the Beginner's forum who are just discovering my work, I preface each post with "My Astronomy Class", so you can search for them easily. Anyone is welcome to post a question or send a PM if you prefer if you need help. Teachers, Scouting leaders, and Astro-club outreach types are especially encouraged - give me a shout if I can be of help.

Cheers,

Dan

[TractionMan]

Downloaded and printed, ready to go. Thanks!

[Pete Presland]

a nice little project to start the season with and a great part of the sky

[robbie c]

Thanks Dan downloaded and ready to go now all I need is some clear skies {You can't help out with that can you}

[lancerde]

Thanks Dan.

[Ad Astra]

Thrilled to see almost 100 downloads on this one! I took my 4 astronomy classes out last night to look at Lyra. We had over 80 people out on the astronomy pitch (formerly known as the "football stadium"). It was quite lovely and we had a family of coyotes serenading us through most of the eveing with yips and howls. Really added quite the 'Old West' feel to our outing!

Dan