School Project

[astro man]

Hey Guys 

I have to do a school project and essay and I was going to do on Astronomy. However the problem I have is that the project has to be a comparison. I did have an idea of Comparing a GOTO and manual telescope and then recording the difference in time to set up and finding objects ETC. However that did not work as I cant get my hands on a second scope. So has anyone got ideas of a comparison I could do involving Astronomy.

Any Ideas really would be appreciated 

Astro man 

[ArmyAirForce]

There's the difference between visual astronomy and imaging, or imaging planetary verses deep sky.

[John]

How about well known deep sky objects as viewed from a dark site v's from a light polluted one ?. You could compare the effects of LP on the visual appearance of different object types, eg: a nebula, a galaxy and a star cluster.

[Bizibilder]

How about the view of each of the planets?

[Tinker1947]

How about EP's........

[ronl]

What about telescopes, different types from visual, radio and satellite,

and comparing them through the years, there are so many, it would keep

you busy for a while.

[Mrlangston]

How about the colour of stars and their temperatures? Or magnitudes? I suppose it depends on how much detail you need to go into for your project and how much time you need to observe. If you don't have any clear skies for a while then it could take ages!

Michael

[Pig]

Or

Visible light versus infrared and the effect it has had on our understanding of the cosmos

[AstroTux]

Many, many, many years ago I also did a school project on astronomy, I won't tell you how old I am but the project was written in the early '70s . Fortunately, we did not have to compare things back then, just write about them.

The obvious subject that springs to mind is why some observations are best done with a refracting telescope whilst others require a reflector. Just recall all the different 'scopes that Sir Patrick used in his observatories. That gives you enough space ( please excuse the pun ) to get into such things as focal length and the effect it has on magnification vs light gathering power and the effect it has on visibility to the naked eye. Some objects are bright and can withstand magnification, others are quite faint but are huge.....

I don't want to give you too much help as it sounds as if this should be treated as a research project, but along the way you could look at why many of the smaller, cheaper reflectors have such high f ratios ( clue: they gather a fair amount of light but need extremely short focal length eyepieces to give them what some would consider a satisfactory result ).

Hope this helps, and good luck,

Alan

[Naemeth]

Compare the views of the Moon in different phases?

[knobby]

I think you have some great ideas here to get you thinking, I was going to say compare city veiwing with dark site viewing... But John has already... So 2 votes for that one.

Its pretty relevant too as quite a few councils are discussing turning lights off after midnight.

good luck

[Lee M]

I'm not sure if it's what ArmyAirForce was intending but you could sketch your own visual observations of some objects and compare with astrophotographic images of the same object and explain why the difference.

[ArmyAirForce]

I'm not sure if it's what ArmyAirForce was intending but you could sketch your own visual observations of some objects and compare with astrophotographic images of the same object and explain why the difference.

Yes, pretty much spot on. What you see and what you photo look very different, and there's lots of reasons why.

[Lee M]

Yes, pretty much spot on. What you see and what you photo look very different, and there's lots of reasons why.

Yes, a pretty good call I'd have thought.

I was going to list what I'd include then but I suddenly thought 'Do your own homework!'

[cantab]

If you can make the journey's, I reckon urban vs dark sky sites and effects of light pollution would be best. I don't know what the project wants, but this is something you could get into social considerations of, rather than being purely a physics and technology project.

Otherwise, maybe compare celestial objects. Could do either specific ones, say three different galaxies, or different sorts of objects. Perhaps open cluster, globular clusters, and galaxies - they're all groups of stars in space, but on different scales and with different appearances through the scope. Add in the historical issue of determining whether "spiral nebulae" were in the Milky Way or beyond it, and perhaps the disputed or in-between objects like Omega Centauri.

[astro man]

Hey Guys 

Thanks for getting back so quickly wasnt expecting so many ideas !!!  

  I really like the dark site VS light Polluted site seems like a really good idea

Thanks for this 

Astro Man