DOCSLIB.ORG

Astr 130: Intro to Archaeoastronomy Review

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Astr 130: Intro to Archaeoastronomy Review ASTR 130: INTRO TO ARCHAEOASTRONOMY REVIEW QUESTIONS Tuesday, Dec 1, 2009 Review the context for the following terms 1. planisphere 2. tzolkin 3. circumpolar stars 4. culmination 5. zenith star 6. zenith passing 7. gnomon 8. ceque 9. calendar round 10. haab 11. supernumber 12. precession 13. heliacal rising 14. solstice 15. lunar standstill 16. stone island 17. star compass 18. synodic month 19. eclipse year 20. long count 21. saros cycle 22. pole star 23. solstice 1 24. place-value notation 25. Mul-Apin 26. Dresden Codex Egyptian Astronomy: Egyptians were primarily builders and engineers, who were interested in applying astronomy or interpreting the layout of the sky in astrological symbolic relations. There are a few famous examples of astronomical orientation and alignments, and in the influence of astronomy on time-keeping and calendar systems. 1. A famous example of early astronomical calendars in Egypt is the use of the star, Sirius, to predict the yearly flooding of the Nile. Outline the method that was used and the principle behind it. 2. Star clocks found on the lids of coffins outlined a way to mark the different hours of the night. Briefly outline how the visible ‘decan’ stars could be used to estimate time. 3. The present-day pole star is Polaris, in the constellation of Ursa Minor, but at the time the first pyramids were constructed around 2600 B.C. the pole star was Thuban, in the constellation of Draco. What effect is responsible for this? Roughly when will Thuban agan be the pole star? 4. The pyramids are oriented to the cardinal directions. What is the evidence that the Egyp- tians might have used the rising and setting positions of stars to orient the pyramids? 5. In the Osiris myth, what constellation represented the reborn god? How was this myth reflected in the alignment of the passages from the King’s Chamber in the Great Pyramid towards points in the sky? Babylonian Astronomy: The Babylonians were responsible for much of our present traditions of time-keeping and units: the 60 divisions of minutes within an hour, or in the angular measurement of a degree, the 360 degree round of a full circle, and the designated constellations of our zodiac. They made accurate estimates of the non-uniform motion of the Sun and Moon, and were able to deduce a detailed system to predict eclipses and the motions ofplanests from their long-standing records. 1. The Babylonians used a sexegesimal system of mathematics. Give a brief description of how this worked. 2. The early records of the Babylonians allowed them to make fairly precise estimates of both the length of the lunar cycle (synodic month) and the motion of the Sun along the ecliptic. Using the formula of 235 lunar synodic months = 19 years, determine the number of fractional lunar months in the year. Why is a 19 year cycle used as a baseline? 3. The Babylonians were able to deduce that the Sun did not move uniformly in its orbit throughout the year. When did it move fastest? 2 4. The Mul-Apin tables give early positions of stars in a rough arrangement (that can also be depicted on a planisphere). Briefly describe this arrangement. Chinese Astronomy: The Chinese maintained the longest stretch of continuous written records of astronomy, includ- ing such diverse topics as comets, sunspots, novae, and eclipses, as well as star maps and the records of the orderly motions of the planets. They recorded the famous supernova of 1054 A.D. in the Crab Nebula. A number of technological innovations, such as armillary spheres and observatories such as the one at Gao Cheng, allowed them to perform precises observations. 1. One of the contributions of early Chinese astronomers was a precise system of positional astronomy and accurate star maps. How did they specify the position of stars (e.g., for the Suchow planishere)? 2. What cultural issues led the Chinese to make royal astronomers civil service appoint- ments? How was this reflected in the type of observations they recorded? 3. What factors may have led the Chinese, Koreans, and their neighbors to emphasize the pole star in their astronomy? In what way did this show up? 4. A technological achievement that predated the clock drive of modern telescopes was the use of a mechanically driven armillary sphere in Su Song’s clock tower at Kaifeng to show the current positions of objects in the heavens. Briefly describe the principle behind this device (i.e., what was the model for the armillary sphere)? European Megaliths: The most famous of these megalithic structures is Stonehenge, which was constructed on an existing burial site starting some few centuries before the pyramids were built. These seem to have largely symbolic value. The orientation of the avenue and heelstone with the summer solstice sunrise is well known. A number of other alignments with lunar rise and set positions at major (and minor) standstill have been proposed. 1. What is the evidence that Stonehenge may have been oriented for reasons of symbolism, rather than being an observatory for the Sun, Moon, and eclipses as Hawkins proposed? 2. Aligned structures such as Stonehenge, Kintraw, and other megalithic sites present chal- lenges for modern astronomers and archaeologists. What are the reasons for these diffi- culties? 3. Newgrange is an example of another neolithic site with a solsticial orientation. Describe how it is oriented. Why do we not believe it is an observatory? 4. In an attempt to look for broad alignment trends, Clive Ruggles studied recumbent stone circles in the UK. What were the results of his studies? How does this fit in with our notions of lunar alignments among megaliths? 3 The Astronomy of the Maya: The Maya were sophisticated astronomers and mathematicians who invented a unique calendar system that reflected interlocking cycles of time. The 260-day tzolkin is the primary calendar. The Dresden Codex records detailed astronomical tables for the planets, especially Venus, and for eclipses. 1. List the three calendar systems used by the Maya. How were they related? 2. Describe the mathematical system of the Maya. (Compare it to the Babylonian system). What was different about the way it was used for calendar calculations? 3. The five aspects of Venus shown in the Dresden Codex are based on an astronomical relation between Venus’ synodic period and the solar year. Describe this relationship, and its implications for a Venus observer who makes regular observations of the planet. 4. What is the evidence that the Maya used Venus to schedule their ‘star wars’? 5. The eclipse tables in the Dresden Codex use intervals of typically 5 or 6 lunar months to predict the next eclipse. What is the astronomical basis for considering this interval a good choice? (What conditions must apply for an eclipse?) 6. Discuss the way that cultural aspects impacted the astronomical tabulations in the Dresden Codex such as: (1) the recorded intervals for the stations of Venus and (2) the correction scheme for the long-term Venus cycles 4.
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Gerbert of Aurillac: Astronomy and Geometry in Tenth Century Europe
    October 25, 2018 15:56 WSPC/INSTRUCTION FILE Sigismondi-Gerbert International Journal of Modern Physics: Conference Series c World Scientific Publishing Company GERBERT OF AURILLAC: ASTRONOMY AND GEOMETRY IN TENTH CENTURY EUROPE COSTANTINO SIGISMONDI Sapienza University of Rome, Physics Dept., and Galileo Ferraris Institute P.le Aldo Moro 5 Roma, 00185, Italy. e-mail: [email protected] University of Nice-Sophia Antipolis - Dept. Fizeau (France); IRSOL, Istituto Ricerche Solari di Locarno (Switzerland) Received 6 Feb 2012 Revised Day Month Year Gerbert of Aurillac was the most prominent personality of the tenth century: as- tronomer, organ builder and music theoretician, mathematician, philosopher, and finally pope with the name of Silvester II (999-1003). Gerbert introduced firstly the arabic num- bers in Europe, invented an abacus for speeding the calculations and found a rational approximation for the equilateral triangle area, in the letter to Adelbold here discussed. Gerbert described a semi-sphere to Constantine of Fleury with built-in sighting tubes, used for astronomical observations. The procedure to identify the star nearest to the North celestial pole is very accurate and still in use in the XII century, when Computa- trix was the name of Polaris. For didactical purposes the Polaris would have been precise enough and much less time consuming, but here Gerbert was clearly aligning a precise equatorial mount for a fixed instrument for accurate daytime observations. Through the sighting tubes it was possible to detect equinoxes and solstices by observing the Sun in the corresponding days. The horalogium of Magdeburg was probably a big and fixed- mount nocturlabe, always pointing the star near the celestial pole.
    [Show full text]
  • The Dunhuang Chinese Sky: a Comprehensive Study of the Oldest Known Star Atlas
    25/02/09JAHH/v4 1 THE DUNHUANG CHINESE SKY: A COMPREHENSIVE STUDY OF THE OLDEST KNOWN STAR ATLAS JEAN-MARC BONNET-BIDAUD Commissariat à l’Energie Atomique ,Centre de Saclay, F-91191 Gif-sur-Yvette, France E-mail: [email protected] FRANÇOISE PRADERIE Observatoire de Paris, 61 Avenue de l’Observatoire, F- 75014 Paris, France E-mail: [email protected] and SUSAN WHITFIELD The British Library, 96 Euston Road, London NW1 2DB, UK E-mail: [email protected] Abstract: This paper presents an analysis of the star atlas included in the medieval Chinese manuscript (Or.8210/S.3326), discovered in 1907 by the archaeologist Aurel Stein at the Silk Road town of Dunhuang and now held in the British Library. Although partially studied by a few Chinese scholars, it has never been fully displayed and discussed in the Western world. This set of sky maps (12 hour angle maps in quasi-cylindrical projection and a circumpolar map in azimuthal projection), displaying the full sky visible from the Northern hemisphere, is up to now the oldest complete preserved star atlas from any civilisation. It is also the first known pictorial representation of the quasi-totality of the Chinese constellations. This paper describes the history of the physical object – a roll of thin paper drawn with ink. We analyse the stellar content of each map (1339 stars, 257 asterisms) and the texts associated with the maps. We establish the precision with which the maps are drawn (1.5 to 4° for the brightest stars) and examine the type of projections used.
    [Show full text]
  • Chapter 3: Familiarizing Yourself with the Night Sky
    Chapter 3: Familiarizing Yourself With the Night Sky Introduction People of ancient cultures viewed the sky as the inaccessible home of the gods. They observed the daily motion of the stars, and grouped them into patterns and images. They assigned stories to the stars, relating to themselves and their gods. They believed that human events and cycles were part of larger cosmic events and cycles. The night sky was part of the cycle. The steady progression of star patterns across the sky was related to the ebb and flow of the seasons, the cyclical migration of herds and hibernation of bears, the correct times to plant or harvest crops. Everywhere on Earth people watched and recorded this orderly and majestic celestial procession with writings and paintings, rock art, and rock and stone monuments or alignments. When the Great Pyramid in Egypt was constructed around 2650 BC, two shafts were built into it at an angle, running from the outside into the interior of the pyramid. The shafts coincide with the North-South passage of two stars important to the Egyptians: Thuban, the star closest to the North Pole at that time, and one of the stars of Orion’s belt. Orion was The Ishango Bone, thought to be a 20,000 year old associated with Osiris, one of the Egyptian gods of the lunar calendar underworld. The Bighorn Medicine Wheel in Wyoming, built by Plains Indians, consists of rocks in the shape of a large circle, with lines radiating from a central hub like the spokes of a bicycle wheel.
    [Show full text]
  • Comparative Studies of Ancient Chinese and Greek Astronomy
    S-88 – Comparative Studies of Ancient Chinese and Greek Astronomy Ancient & Medieval Science Organizers: 1) Sun Xiaochun, (University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, China), [email protected] 2) Efythymios Nicolaidis, (Institute for Neohellenic Research, National Hellenic Research Foundation, Greece), [email protected] Abstract: This symposium is about ancient Greek and Chinese astronomy. The focus will be on the relationship between cosmological ideas, observations, and computational techniques in both traditions. The Greek astronomy arose from Babylonian antecedents and was developed into a tradition characteristic of geometrical models, culminating in Ptolemy’s almagest. Greek philosophical thought about universe, such as by Plato and Aristotle played an important role in the development of astronomy. The Chinese were good observers of celestial phenomena. They independently developed an arithmetical tradition of astronomical computation. Its connection with cosmological ideas was not as tight as that in Greek astronomy. The two traditions had encountered through various ways in pre- modern times, but still maintained their own characters. Speakers in this symposium will use original texts to compare cosmos, measurement, and computation in the two astronomical traditions. Keywords: Ancient Greek and Chinese Astronomy – Comarative Studies – Astronomical instruments – Cosmological ideas – Computational Techniques. Participants: • Fotini Asimakopoulou • GoEun Choi, GoEun Choi, Ki-Won Lee, Byeong-Hee Mihn, Youg Sook Ahn • Kim Sang Hyuk, Kim Sang Hyuk, Mihn Byeong-Hee, Ham Seon Young • Dirk L. Couprie • Wang Guangchao • Eun Hee Lee • Mao Dan, JIANG Xiaoyuan • Christopher Cullen • Xiaochun Sun, Fan Yang • Dmitri Panchenko • Fung Kam Wing • Liu Weimo .
    [Show full text]
  • Plotting Variable Stars on the H-R Diagram Activity
    Pulsating Variable Stars and the Hertzsprung-Russell Diagram The Hertzsprung-Russell (H-R) Diagram: The H-R diagram is an important astronomical tool for understanding how stars evolve over time. Stellar evolution can not be studied by observing individual stars as most changes occur over millions and billions of years. Astrophysicists observe numerous stars at various stages in their evolutionary history to determine their changing properties and probable evolutionary tracks across the H-R diagram. The H-R diagram is a scatter graph of stars. When the absolute magnitude (MV) – intrinsic brightness – of stars is plotted against their surface temperature (stellar classification) the stars are not randomly distributed on the graph but are mostly restricted to a few well-defined regions. The stars within the same regions share a common set of characteristics. As the physical characteristics of a star change over its evolutionary history, its position on the H-R diagram The H-R Diagram changes also – so the H-R diagram can also be thought of as a graphical plot of stellar evolution. From the location of a star on the diagram, its luminosity, spectral type, color, temperature, mass, age, chemical composition and evolutionary history are known. Most stars are classified by surface temperature (spectral type) from hottest to coolest as follows: O B A F G K M. These categories are further subdivided into subclasses from hottest (0) to coolest (9). The hottest B stars are B0 and the coolest are B9, followed by spectral type A0. Each major spectral classification is characterized by its own unique spectra.
    [Show full text]
  • Dhruva the Ancient Indian Pole Star: Fixity, Rotation and Movement
    Indian Journal of History of Science, 46.1 (2011) 23-39 DHRUVA THE ANCIENT INDIAN POLE STAR: FIXITY, ROTATION AND MOVEMENT R N IYENGAR* (Received 1 February 2010; revised 24 January 2011) Ancient historical layers of Hindu astronomy are explored in this paper with the help of the Purân.as and the Vedic texts. It is found that Dhruva as described in the Brahmân.d.a and the Vis.n.u purân.a was a star located at the tail of a celestial animal figure known as the Úiúumâra or the Dolphin. This constellation, which can be easily recognized as the modern Draco, is described vividly and accurately in the ancient texts. The body parts of the animal figure are made of fourteen stars, the last four of which including Dhruva on the tail are said to never set. The Taittirîya Âran.yaka text of the Kr.s.n.a-yajurveda school which is more ancient than the above Purân.as describes this constellation by the same name and lists fourteen stars the last among them being named Abhaya, equated with Dhruva, at the tail end of the figure. The accented Vedic text Ekâgni-kân.d.a of the same school recommends observation of Dhruva the fixed Pole Star during marriages. The above Vedic texts are more ancient than the Gr.hya-sûtra literature which was the basis for indologists to deny the existence of a fixed North Star during the Vedic period. However the various Purân.ic and Vedic textual evidence studied here for the first time, leads to the conclusion that in India for the Yajurvedic people Thuban (α-Draconis) was Dhruva the Pole Star c 2800 BC.
    [Show full text]
  • Pole Star Used Finding Directions
    Pole Star Used Finding Directions cold-shouldersHazel is tuppenny: some she Deuteronomy antiquate issuably docilely, and however question prudential her fumblers. Pace Noncontroversialprologising somnolently Pattie beveror or glisteringly,slumbers. Isidorian he retroceded Jakob infiltrateso latest. discriminately while Harry always stylising his pronotum entrusts When no typewriters in direction or pole star chart now show a man stopping to find directions for other stars called for fun or ursa minor inaccuracies due south. You find directions from hurting themselves using stars is used stars called the. Thus become less accurate. Amazon marketplace for finding east will find star is used celestial pole star, use the uses true? Look through that uses cookies that are setup and constellations made from true north pole star is a compass, but not always move asap, many sections of. Hi all stars and rotate about its n pole star used finding directions? After days of a line will often the easiest if you are unique sound. How stars using stars that direction from us today to use the pole descends toward the constellation ursa major constellations in lyra, used for free thesaurus. North pole using stars are used by finding direction is a bar magnets are you find. Make sure you find star or pole stars than true north poles and use a shadow will be changed its axis is. Html does this star indicates the stars! Now it if you find. This article on this is the constellations from charged by ancient middle of? The eighth largest declination is mobile, they could be made from the stick is not have both over.
    [Show full text]
  • BABYLONIAN ASTRONOMY* by W.M. O'neil Though the Modern Western
    o BABYLONIAN ASTRONOMY* By W.M. O'Neil Though the modern western world had heard of the Chaldaeans in the Old Testament as soothsayers and astrologers and students of Hellenistic astronomy knew of references to Babylonian observations of eclipses and the like, it is only during the last three quarters of a century but especially during the last half century that modern scholars, following the decipherment of the cuneiform writing on clay tablets, have begun to reveal the richness of Babylonian astronomy. They have, however, a long way yet to go. First, only a fraction of the materials scattered throughout the western world have been studied and interpreted. Fragments of the one tablet are sometimes in different museums; this adds to the difficulty. Second, the materials are usually fragmentary: a few pages torn from a book as it were or even only a few parts of pages (See Plate 1). Otto Neugebauer, perhaps the greatest scholar recently working on Babylonian astronomy, says that it is impossible yet to write an adequate history of Babylonian astronomy and suggests that it may never be possible. How many of the needed basic texts have crumbled into dust after acquisition by small museums unable to give them the needed care? , how many are lying unstudied in the multitudinous collections in the Middle East, in Europe and in North America? or are still lying in the ground?, are questions to which the answers are unknown. Nevertheless, through the work of Neugebauer, his predecessors and younger scholars taking over from him, some outlines of the history and the methods of Babylonian astronomy are becoming clearer.
    [Show full text]
  • The History of the Russian Study of Chinese Astronomy
    The history of the Russian study of Chinese astronomy Galina I. Sinkevich Saint Petersburg State University of Architecture and Civil Engineering [email protected] Abstract. The first relations between Russia and China date to the 13th century. From the 16th c., Russia sent ambassadors to China, who made a description of the country. In the 17th century, a Russian Orthodox mission was founded, led by Father Maxim Tolstoukhov. In the 18th century, the scholars of St.-Petersburg Academy of Sciences took a great interest in the history of Chinese astronomy in letters sent by the Jesuit mission in China. In the 19th c., the Orthodox mission in China began to carry out many functions – trade, diplomacy, science. Petersburg academy sent students to study various aspects of life in China, laying the foundations of Russian sinology. In 1848, St-Petersburg academy founded in Beijing a magnetic and meteorological observatory headed by K. Skachkov. He lived in China for 25 years and made extensive studies of the history of Chinese astronomy. He not only mastered Chinese but also studied many old manuscripts on astronomy. He wrote the research “The fate of astronomy in China” (1874). After Skachkov, Chinese astronomy was studied by G.N. Popov (1920), A.V. Marakuev (1934), and E.I. Beryozkina, who translated “Mathematics in nine books” into Russian (1957) and published a monograph on the history of Chinese mathematics, 1980. In 1995-2003, Beryozkina’s post-graduate student at Moscow University, Fang Yao (Beijing), made a partial translation of the “Treatise on the Gnomon” (Zhoubi Suanjing) into Russian.
    [Show full text]
  • Astronomy and Its Instruments Before and After Galileo
    INTERNATIONAL ASTRONOMICAL UNION INAF ASTRONOMICAL OBSERVATORY OF PADOVA, ITALY ASTRONOMY AND ITS INSTRUMENTS BEFORE AND AFTER GALILEO Proceedings of the Joint Symposium held in Venice, San Servolo Island, Italy 28 September - 2 October 2009 Edited by LUISA PIGATTO and VALERIA ZANINI CONTENTS Preface xm OPENING CEREMONY WELCOME ADDRESSES KAREL A. VAN DER HUCHT, Opening address on behalf of the International Astronomical Union 3 ENRICO CAPPELLARO, INAF Osservatorio Astronomico di Padova, Italy, welcome address 5 SESSION 1 GALILEO AND HIS TIME THE VENETIAN CULTURAL ENVIRONMENT Chair: Il-Seong Nha GINO BENZONI, Culture and Science in Venice and Padova between the end of 16th and the beginning of 17th century (in Italian) 9 MICHELA DAL BORGO, The Arsenal of Venice at Galileo's time 29 LUISA PIGATTO, Galileo and Father Paolo. The improvement of the telescope 37 MAURO D'ONOFRIO AND CARLO BURIGANA, Questions of modern cosmology: a book to celebrate Galileo 51 SESSION 2 ASTRONOMY AND WORLD HERITAGE INITIATIVE Chair: Gudrun Wolfichmidt CLIVE RUGGLES, Implementing the Astronomy and World Heritage Initiative 65 KAREL A. VAN DER HUCHT, Memorandum of Understanding between the International Astronomical Union and the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization on Astronomy and World Heritage 69 VIII CONTENTS ILEANA CHINNICI, Archives and Astronomical Heritage 77 LUISA PIGATTO, Astronomical Instruments and World Heritage 81 GUDRUN WOLFSCHMIDT, Acknowledging the cultural and scientific values of properties connected with astronomy - observatories from the Renaissance to the 20th century 85 SESSION 3 ASTRONOMICAL STRUCTURES THROUGH THE AGES FROM STONE MONUMENTS TO MODERN OBSERVATORIES Chair: Clive Ruggles GEORG ZOTTI, Astronomical orientation of neolithic circular ditch systems (Kreisgrabenanlagen) 91 YONG BOK LEE, The alignment of dolmens and cup-marks on capstone as star map at Haman area in Korea 101 IL-SEONG NHA AND SARAH L.
    [Show full text]
  • Babylonian Astral Science in the Hellenistic World: Reception and Transmission
    CAS® e SERIES Nummer 4 / 2010 Francesca Rochberg (Berkeley) Babylonian Astral Science in the Hellenistic World: Reception and Transmission Herausgegeben von Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München Center for Advanced Studies®, Seestr. 13, 80802 München www.cas.lmu.de/publikationen/eseries Nummer 4 / 2010 Babylonian Astral Science in the Hellenistic World: Reception and Transmission Francesca Rochberg (Berkeley) In his astrological work the Tetrabiblos, the astronomer such as in Strabo’s Geography, as well as in an astrono- Ptolemy describes the effects of geography on ethnic mical text from Oxyrhynchus in the second century of character, claiming, for example, that due to their specific our era roughly contemporary with Ptolemy [P.Oxy. geographical location „The ...Chaldeans and Orchinians 4139:8; see Jones 1999, I 97-99 and II 22-23]. This have familiarity with Leo and the sun, so that they are astronomical papyrus fragment refers to the Orchenoi, simpler, kindly, addicted to astrology.” [Tetr. 2.3] or Urukeans, in direct connection with a lunar parameter Ptolemy was correct in putting the Chaldeans and identifiable as a Babylonian period for lunar anomaly Orchinians together geographically, as the Chaldeans, or preserved on cuneiform tablets from Uruk. The Kaldayu, were once West Semitic tribal groups located Babylonian, or Chaldean, literati, including those from in the parts of southern and western Babylonia known Uruk were rightly famed for astronomy and astrology, as Kaldu, and the Orchinians, or Urukayu, were the „addicted,” as Ptolemy put it, and eventually, in Greco- inhabitants of the southern Babylonian city of Uruk. He Roman works, the term Chaldean came to be interchan- was also correct in that he was transmitting a tradition geable with „astrologer.” from the Babylonians themselves, which, according to a Hellenistic Greek writers seeking to claim an authorita- Hellenistic tablet from Uruk [VAT 7847 obv.
    [Show full text]
  • Educator's Guide: Orion
    Legends of the Night Sky Orion Educator’s Guide Grades K - 8 Written By: Dr. Phil Wymer, Ph.D. & Art Klinger Legends of the Night Sky: Orion Educator’s Guide Table of Contents Introduction………………………………………………………………....3 Constellations; General Overview……………………………………..4 Orion…………………………………………………………………………..22 Scorpius……………………………………………………………………….36 Canis Major…………………………………………………………………..45 Canis Minor…………………………………………………………………..52 Lesson Plans………………………………………………………………….56 Coloring Book…………………………………………………………………….….57 Hand Angles……………………………………………………………………….…64 Constellation Research..…………………………………………………….……71 When and Where to View Orion…………………………………….……..…77 Angles For Locating Orion..…………………………………………...……….78 Overhead Projector Punch Out of Orion……………………………………82 Where on Earth is: Thrace, Lemnos, and Crete?.............................83 Appendix………………………………………………………………………86 Copyright©2003, Audio Visual Imagineering, Inc. 2 Legends of the Night Sky: Orion Educator’s Guide Introduction It is our belief that “Legends of the Night sky: Orion” is the best multi-grade (K – 8), multi-disciplinary education package on the market today. It consists of a humorous 24-minute show and educator’s package. The Orion Educator’s Guide is designed for Planetarians, Teachers, and parents. The information is researched, organized, and laid out so that the educator need not spend hours coming up with lesson plans or labs. This has already been accomplished by certified educators. The guide is written to alleviate the fear of space and the night sky (that many elementary and middle school teachers have) when it comes to that section of the science lesson plan. It is an excellent tool that allows the parents to be a part of the learning experience. The guide is devised in such a way that there are plenty of visuals to assist the educator and student in finding the Winter constellations.
    [Show full text]