Fun With Astronomy

So far this class is as much fun as I had hoped!

I have 8 high schoolers and I am cramming stuff into every minute of our two hour classes, so I haven't been able to take many pictures.


Our first class was on star gazing.  That's usually done last in most Astronomy classes, but I feel that looking up with wonder is how kids start Astronomy in real life.

It helped that we were able to go to the University of Maryland's observatory, attend a talk by an actual astronomer, get a tour, and look through their telescopes the day after the star gazing class!

We also used a celestial globe and made planispheres (adjustable star charts).

I've used planispheres, but this was my first time using a celestial globe, and it's amazing!  I had a hard time wrapping my head around it at first because all the models I've ever used were showing me how things actually are: the celestial globe shows how things look from Earth.  The little yellow ball is the sun, not the moon: remember that the sun and the moon are the same apparent size from Earth.

You wouldn't think"how things look" would be very useful, but I finally gut level understand what is happening at the equinox!  I mean, I knew that was when the ecliptic crossed the celestial equator, but I didn't really "get" it until I saw it on the celestial globe.  Also, it really is the easiest way to demonstrate seasons and the zodiac, humanity's first calendar (no astrology here!).

The next class was on actual stars and we did a more detailed space time model to explore gravity wells, and we did a fair bit with spectroscopes and special candles with colored flames. Lots of star cycle stuff and lots of stuff on black holes.

I've always enjoyed doing the Kids' Astronomy classes, but it's been really fun to go into it with more depth.  And the questions these kids have!  I just love it!

Today we are off to visit the planetarium down at the Air and Space Museum - hopefully I'll have pictures up on Wednesday.