Lesson Plans Measuring Astronomical Distances (HighWired.com) Provides "some of the more common techniques for measuring the distance of stars and galaxies and how and why astronomers developed them." 3-01 Spectral Wavelengths (University of California) Provides a lesson to study spectral wavelengths, using data from four different satellite observatories. 3-01 Star Properties (University of California - Keys and Hawkins) Provides a lesson to study the properties of stars using analysis of light. 3-01 Temperatures of Stars (University of California) Provides a lesson to study stellar temperatures. 3-01 Materials Earth from Far, Far Away and Very, Very Close (Florida State University - Davidson) "View the Milky Way at 10 million light years from the Earth. Then move through space towards the Earth in successive orders of magnitude until you reach a tall oak tree just outside the buildings of the National High Magnetic Field Laboratory in Tallahassee, Florida. After that, begin to move from the actual size of a leaf into a microscopic world that reveals leaf cell walls, the cell nucleus, chromatin, DNA and finally, into the subatomic universe of electrons and protons." 9-02 Nebulae - Dust of Stars Search (University of Michigan) Planetarium - Create a Planetarium From a Position on Earth (Walker) Provides "Your Sky," a view of the stars from a position on Earth. 8-01 Stars Search (University of Michigan) Stars and Nebulae - Printable Pictures (NASA - Spaceplace) Provides printable color pictures of stars, galaxies, and nebulae. Includes the Butterfly, Carina, Eagle, Hourglass, Eskimo, Orion, Stingray, Trifid, and the NGC3132 nebula. (The files are rather large and will take a while to load on a 28.8k modem) 9-01 Papers Antimatter Space Ships (HowStuffWorks.com) Describes how an antimatter space ship might produce a great deal more energy than any other source now known and even allow interstellar travel, travel to other planets from distant stars. 11-00. Astronomy Search Engine (Fourmilab) Provides an astronomy search engine (in partnership with Google). 8-01 Brightest Stars (Dolan) Provides a list of the 26 brightest stars, in order of brightness from the Earth. 1-02 Constellations (Royal Observatory) Provides a history of using constellations, or patterns of stars, to describe the night sky. 10-00 Dying Star Image (Yahoo) Provides a dramatic photo of a dying star, Menzel 3 or Mz3, that looks like a rainbow-colored ant and challenges theories about how stars die. 2-01 Gamma Ray Observatory (NASA - Compton Gamma Ray Observatory) Describes the work of the Observatory. 1-02 Hypernovae or Death Stars (NASA - Dooling) Describes a new type of explosion, one of the most powerful in the universe, that releases enormous amounts of gamma rays. Provides drawings. 1-02 Hypernovae or Death Stars (NASA - Imagine the Universe) Describes a new type of explosion, one of the most powerful in the universe, that releases enormous amounts of gamma rays. 1-02 Hypernovae or Death Stars (PBS - Bonnell) Describes a new type of explosion, one of the most powerful in the universe, that releases enormous amounts of gamma rays. 1-02 Light-Years (Discovery.com) Describes light-years, a unit of measurement to stars and other distant bodies in space. Visitors sometimes call it light years. 3-02 Messier - List of 100 Objects Visible in the Night Sky (NCats.net) "Charles Messier was a French astronomer who lived from 1730 to 1817. Charles compiled a list of over 100 deep-sky objects with the original purpose of providing a resource to identify objects that were often mistaken as comets. Today, the Messier catalog stands for a collection of almost all of the magnificent deep-sky nebula, galaxies, and star clusters that can be seen through a small amateur telescope." 7-02 Messier Catalog of Objects in the Night Sky (NCats.net) Provides a list and description (including small picture) of objects visible in the night sky with a small amateur telescope. 7-02 Nearest Stars (Harrington) Provides information on stars nearest to our solar system, such as Alpha Centauri, Barnard's Star, Sirius, Wolf 359, Luyten 756-8, and Ross 154. 8-01 Precession of the Earth (NCats.net) Describes and diagrams precession. "Due to precession, the earth wobbles and in the process causes the vernal equinox to slowly move through the celestial sphere." 7-02 Pulsars (Royal Observatory) Discusses pulsars. 10-00 Right Ascension and Declination of Stars (NCats.net) "Right ascension and declination are what astronomers use to precisely locate objects on a celestial map, and are equivalent to the imaginary lines of longitude and latitiude used in maps of the earth." 7-02 Solar Sail Powered Space Ships 1 (NASA) Describes how solar sail powered spacecrafts might be best for long space missions. 11-00. Solar Sail Powered Space Ships 2 (NASA) Describes how solar sail powered spacecrafts might be best for long space missions. 11-00. Star Magnitudes or Brightness (NCats.net) Lists the magnitudes of the brightest stars, including Sirius -1.54, Canopus -0.73, Rigel Kent -0.10, Arcturus -0.06, Vega 0.04, Capella 0.08, Rigel 0.11, Procyon 0.35, Achernar 0.48, Hadar 0.60, Altair 0.77, Betelgeuse 0.80, Aldebaran 0.85, Acrux 0.90, Spica 0.96, Anteres 1.00, Pollux 1.15, Fomalhaut 1.16, Deneb 1.25, and Mimosa 1.26. "Magnitudes were first placed on stars by the Greek astronomer Hipparchus, more than two thousand years ago. He listed stars from first magnitude (the brightest) to sixth magnitude (the faintest) with a one magnitude increase corresponding to a star one-half as bright. In the mid-1800's astronomers made a more precise definition of magnitude, determining that the intensity difference between magnitudes was 2.512." "The most important thing to remember is that as magnitude decreases a star's brightness increases." (The four stars with a negative value are brighter than the first magnitude, for example.) 7-02 Star Map (KidsAstronomy.com) Provides a map of the major stars as they currently appear. Allows rotation of the map and identifies specific stars by clicking on them. 11-00. Star Map - 3D (KidsAstronomy.com) Provides maps around major stars and allows zooming in and out. 11-00. Star Mythology and Constellations Across Cultures (SPARC) Provides mythologies of different cultures. 3-02 Stars (Royal Observatory) Provides basic information about the 25 brightest stars, the 30 closest stars, supernovae, pulsars, white dwarfs, black holes, and constellations. Also discusses the star of Bethlehem, how a star is defined, and how stars are named. 10-00 Supernovae Explosions (Royal Observatory) Discusses supernovae explosions. 10-00 Trigonometry and Astronomy (Javed) Provides formulas for calculating distances to stars. 6-01 Types of Stars (NCats.net) Describes stars in terms of temperature, brightness, and type. 7-02 White Dwarfs (Royal Observatory) Discusses white dwarf stars. 10-00 Worksheets Astronomy - Stars Worksheet (KidsAstronomy.com) Provides a worksheet on the stars. 11-00.

Return to Teachers, Kids, Teens, Parents, Librarians, or Community.