Teacher Activity Packet: Observation Guide www.globeatnight.org March 22-April 4, 2011
Encourage your students to participate in a world-wide Five Easy Star-Hunting Steps: citizen science campaign to observe and record the (www.globeatnight.org/observe.html) magnitude of visible stars as a means of measuring light pollution in a given location. Because the data collec- 1) Find your latitude and longitude tion occurs in the evening, this is an excellent opportu- by using any of the following methods: nity to get parents involved in a learning activity with a. Use a GPS unit where you take a measurement. their child. Participants will learn how to locate the Report as many decimal places as the unit provides. b. Visit http://eo.ucar.edu/geocode/ on-line. Input constellation Leo. They will learn stars have different your location. Or input your city; zoom in/out and magnitudes of brightness in the night sky and that this pan around until you find your location. Double-click information is of interest to scientists studying light pol- and the latitude and longitude will be displayed. lution. Using the information provided your students c. Use topographic map of your area. will collect data and report their findings to the GLOBE d. Determine your latitude and longitude with the at Night online database. The data will then be ana- interactive tool when reporting observations on the lyzed and mapped for participants to see the results of GLOBE at Night Web site. this global campaign. 2) Find Leo by going outside an hour after You may choose to have GLOBE at Night be a part of sunset (approximately between 8-10 pm local time) your planned curricula or a completely independent ex- a. Determine the darkest area by moving to where tracurricular activity. Note that an activity packet has the most stars are visible in the sky toward Leo. If you have outside lights, be sure they are all off. been designed for parents and families to help them b. Wait outside for at least 10 minutes for your eyes successfully participate with their child. to adapt to the darkness. This is called becoming “dark-adapted.” Learning Objectives - Students will be able to: c. Locate Leo in the sky. For help use the appropriate • Use latitude and longitude coordinates to report the Leo Finder Chart (www.globeatnight.org/observe_ location of their observation finder.html) for your latitude. • Locate the constellation Leo using stellar maps • Determine the magnitude of the faintest visible stars 3) Match your nighttime sky to one of our in their location magnitude charts (pages 3-4) • Analyze the spatial data collected a. Select the chart that most closely resembles what • Draw conclusions from studying the mapped observa- you are seeing. b. Estimate the cloud cover in the sky. tions c. Fill out the Observation Sheet (page 5).
Materials Needed: 4) Report your observation online at: • GLOBE at Night Teacher or Family Activity Packet www.globeatnight.org/report.html • Something to write on (clipboard or cardboard) a. Your observation can be recorded any time • Something to write with (pencil or pen) between March 22-April 15, 2011. • Red light to preserve night vision (A red light can be b. From March 22-April 4, feel free to do it again made by covering a flashlight with a brown paper bag from a different location! or red cellophane and securing the covering with a rub- ber band to be sure it doesn’t slip while making the ob- 5) Compare your observation to thousands servation.) around the world at: • Optional: GPS unit, or topographic map to determine www.globeatnight.org/analyze.html your latitude and longitude
GLOBE at Night Teacher Activity Packet - Page 1 Teacher Activity Packet: Observation Guide www.globeatnight.org March 22-April 4, 2011
U.S. Education Standards: Geography for Life: The National Geography Standards This activity meets the following U.S. educational stan- Essential Element 1: The World in Spatial Terms dards: • How to use maps and other geographic representa- tions, tools, and technologies to acquire, process, and National Science Education Standards report information. Earth and Space Science Standards- • How to analyze the spatial organization of people, • K-4: Objects in the sky places, and environments on Earth’s surface. Science in Personal and Social Perspectives- Essential Element 5: Environment and Society • K-4: Changes in environments • How human actions modify the physical environ- • 5-8: Populations, resources, and environments, ment. Science and technology in society • 9-12: Environmental quality, Science and technology in local, national, and global challenges Remember Safety First! Please remind students of the following safety guide- Mathematics Standards lines: Numbers and Operations: Understand numbers, ways • Be sure you ask for permission from your parent(s) or of representing numbers, relationships among numbers, guardian to go outside after dark to do this activity. This and number systems is designed to be a family activity, invite all your family • Pre-K-2: Count with understanding and recognize members to do the activity with you. “how many” in sets of objects; Understand and repre- • Depending on your location, be sure to wear suitable sent commonly used fractions, such as 1/4, 1/3 and 1/2 clothing for the weather and for being outside at night • 3-5: Develop understanding of fractions as parts of (light colored and/or with reflective unit wholes, as parts of a collection, as locations on colors). number lines, and as divisions of whole numbers • Remember safety first! When choosing the darkest • 6-8: Work flexibly with fractions, decimals, and per- area in your location, be sure the location is not close cents to solve problems to traffic, the edge of a balcony, or near any other type Geometry: Use visualization, spatial reasoning, and of danger. geometric modeling to solve problems • Pre-K-2: Recognize geometric shapes and structures in the environment and specify their location Multiple Observations: • 3-5: Recognize geometric ideas and relationships and You can enter more than one observation by mov- apply them to other disciplines and to problems that ing to a new location at least 1 km away from your arise in the classroom of in everyday life original location. Don’t forget to get new latitude • 6-8: Recognize and apply geometric ideas and rela- and longitude coordinates. This can be done on tionships in areas outside of the mathematics classroom, the same night or on another night any time during such as art, science, and everyday life March 22 - April 4, 2011.
Note for higher latitudes (>45 N or S): astronomical twilight will occur later and Leo will be low on the ho- rizon; so you may need to do your observation closer to 9:00 pm rather than 8:00 pm or 10:00 pm.
The credit for all maps in this document go to Jan Hollan from the Ecol. Inst. Veronica and http://www.astro.cz/darksky.
GLOBE at Night Teacher Activity Packet - Page 2 Teacher Activity Packet: Magnitude Charts www.globeatnight.org March 22-April 4, 2011 Please orient this page with the arrows up according to your location (e.g., in the Northern Hemisphere, near the equator or in the Southern Hemisphere). The vertical size of the maps on this page are 100 degrees which is the same in length as 10 closed fists at arm’s length in the direction of Leo. Northern Hemisphere View
Magnitude below 1 Magnitude 1
Betelgeuse
Pollux Rigel
Procyon
Sirius Sirius
Arcturus
Saturn
< 0.50 mag < 1.50 mag Hint: You can’t see the stars in Leo because the sky is Hint: The stars in Leo should be between Arc-
too bright. The only nearby star you might turus (alongside planet Saturn) and the Dog stars, Near Equator see is Sirius, the Dog Star. Procyon and Sirius, but the sky is still too bright.
View
Big Dipper Big
Magnitude 2 Dipper Big Magnitude 3
Betelgeuse Betelgeuse
Pollux Pollux
Rigel Rigel
Procyon Procyon
Sirius Sirius Regulus Regulus Arcturus Arcturus Denebola Denebola
Saturn Saturn
< 2.50 mag < 3.50 mag Hint: You can see Regulus and Denebola (the 2 brightest Hint: You can see the brightest 3 stars in the “Sickle” stars in Leo). Regulus is part of the “Sickle” or Leo the and the 2 brightest stars in Leo’s back end.
Lion’s mane. Denebola is part of Leo’s back end. Southern Hemisphere View Hemisphere Southern
GLOBE at Night Teacher Activity Packet - Page 3 Teacher Activity Packet: Magnitude Charts www.globeatnight.org March 22-April 4, 2011 Please orient this page with the arrows up according to your location (e.g., in the Northern Hemisphere, near the equator or in the Southern Hemisphere). The vertical size of the maps on this page are 50 degrees which is the same in length as 5 closed fists at arm’s length in the direction of Leo. Northern Hemisphere View
Magnitude 4 Magnitude 5
Procyon Procyon
Regulus Regulus
Denebola Denebola
< 4.50 mag < 5.50 mag Hint: You can see the brightest 6 stars in the “Sickle” or Hint: You can see more stars between the
the mane of Leo plus the triangle of stars representing “Sickle” and Leo’s back end. Near Equator his back end. View
Magnitude 6 Magnitude 7
Procyon Procyon
Regulus Regulus
Denebola Denebola
< 6.50 mag < 7.50 mag Hint: You can see many more stars within and Hint: You can’t count that many stars!
between the “Sickle” and Leo’s back end. Southern Hemisphere View Hemisphere Southern
GLOBE at Night Teacher Activity Packet - Page 4 Teacher Activity Packet: Observation Sheet www.globeatnight.org March 22-April 4, 2011 Only fields marked by * are required.
*Date: March / April (circle month) ______, 2011 *Observation Time: ____:____ PM local time (HH:MM) *Country: ______*Latitude (in deg/min/sec _____ deg ____min_____sec (North / South) or decimal degrees): ______decimal degrees circle direction *Longitude (in deg/min/sec _____ deg ____min_____sec (East / West) or decimal degrees): ______decimal degrees circle direction
Comments on location: (e.g. There is one street light within 50 m that is shielded from my view.)
*Match your nighttime sky to one of our magnitude charts :
Big Dipper Big Big Dipper Big
Betelgeuse
Betelgeuse
Betelgeuse
Pollux
Pollux Pollux
Rigel
Rigel Rigel
Procyon Procyon Procyon
Sirius Sirius Sirius Sirius Regulus Arcturus Arcturus Arcturus Regulus Denebola Denebola
Saturn Saturn Saturn
< 0.50 mag < 1.50 mag < 2.50 mag < 3.50 mag Stars in Leo Magnitude 1 Chart Magnitude 2 Chart Magnitude 3 Chart not visible
Procyon Procyon Procyon Procyon
Regulus Regulus Regulus Regulus
Denebola Denebola Denebola Denebola
< 4.50 mag < 5.50 mag < 6.50 mag < 7.50 mag Magnitude 4 Chart Magnitude 5 Chart Magnitude 6 Chart Magnitude 7 Chart
Reading from the Unihedron Sky Quality Meter (if applicable): ______Serial number from the Unihedron Sky Quality Meter (if applicable): ______
*Estimate the cloud cover in the sky: Clear Clouds cover ¼ of sky Clouds cover ½ of sky Clouds cover > ½ of sky
Comments on sky conditions: (e.g. a little haze to the north)
Report online at www.globeatnight.org/report.html
GLOBE at Night Teacher Activity Packet - Page 5