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Astronomy
Resources, Classroom Activities, Papers from Physics Teachers' Conferences,
IT Applications, Useful Websites
Resources
Text Resources
- Davidson, N 1993, Sky Phenomena: A guide to naked-eye observation of the stars, Lindisfarne Press, New York.
- Ellyard, D 2001, Sky Watch: A Guide to the Southern Skies, ABC Books, Sydney.
- Freedman, RA & Kaufmann, WJ 2002, Universe, 6th edn, CD incl, WH Freeman and Company, New York.
- Wyatt, P 1996, Astronomy for the Southern Hemisphere, CSIRO Series, Cambridge University Press, Melbourne.
Audiovisual Resources
It is recommended that teachers should view any video before purchase.
Marcom Projects: How Telescopes Work
Classroom Activities
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A list of books and lab resources that may be of use in implementing the Astronomy and Astrophysics Detailed Studies in the new curriculum. | |||
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A list of websites that may be of use in implementing the Astronomy and Astrophysics Detailed Studies in the new curriculum. | |||
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How to construct a very rudimentary altitude finder using an old CD. | |||
Victorian Space Science Education Centre
At Strathmore Secondary College offers programs for VCE Physics students.
Swinburne Centre for Astrophysics and Supercomputing
Offers virtual 3D tours; a regional program is available.
Papers from Previous Conferences
>Papers from the 2013 Physics Teachers Conference
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Workshop B6 by Paul Natoli, Ballarat High School at 2013 Physics Teachers' Conference (A pptm file). | |||
Paul Fitz-Gerald's Files
At the 2008 Physics Teachers Conference Paul presented a session on teaching the Astronomy Area of Study. These are the documents that he supplied to the Conference Proceedings.
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A presentation on Astronomy without a telescope. An extensive range of Paul's material can be found at here. | |||
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List of web links and resources including references to articles in teacher periodicals and the words to the Python's "The Galaxy Song". | |||
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Explanatory document. | |||
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Tne projection enables the image to be cut out and pasted on a tennis ball. | |||
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The grid is used to plot stars of the southern sky | |||
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A grid to plot stars of the northern sky. | |||
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IT Applications
Applets from Demos and Animations for Teaching Astronomy
Demonstrations and Animations for Teaching Astronomy (DATA) is a collection of Java applets and Flash animations. It is being developed at the Astronomy Department at the University of Illinois. It includes applets on the Lunar phases, Kepler's laws, retrograde motion, Doppler effect, Spectral lines and Kirchoff's laws and the Seasons.
Stellarium - open source planetarium
Stellarium is a free open source planetarium for your computer. It shows a realistic sky in 3D, just like what you see with the naked eye, binoculars or a telescope. It is being used in planetarium projectors. Its features include: default catalogue of over 600,000 stars, extra catalogues with more than 210 million stars, illustrations of the constellations, images of nebulae (full Messier catalogue), realistic Milky Way, very realistic atmosphere, sunrise and sunset, the planets and their satellites. The interface has: a zoom, time control, fisheye projection for planetarium domes and spheric mirror projection for your own low-cost dome. It also features equatorial and azimuthal grids, star twinkling, shooting stars and eclipse simulation.
Neave Planetarium
Explore the sky and stars through your web browser. Click and move your mouse to look around the sky. Point at a star or planet to reveal its name, its constellation, its brightness and distance in light years or astronomical units. You can adjust your time and your viewing location to view the sky from any part of the world.
Celestia: free space simulation program
This free space simulation that lets you explore our universe in three dimensions. Celestia runs on Windows, Linux, and Mac OS X. Unlike most planetarium software, Celestia doesn't confine you to the surface of the Earth. You can travel throughout the solar system, to any of over 100,000 stars, or even beyond the galaxy. All movement in Celestia is seamless; the exponential zoom feature lets you explore space across a huge range of scales, from galaxy clusters down to spacecraft only a few meters across. A 'point-and-goto' interface makes it simple to navigate through the universe to the object you want to visit. Celestia is expandable. Celestia comes with a large catalog of stars, galaxies, planets, moons, asteroids, comets, and spacecraft. You can download dozens of easy to install add-ons with more objects.
Cybersky
Cybersky for Windows is a planetarium program. It can be purchase for about US$34, but a trial version is available. Some of its features are: * View maps of the sky as seen from any location on the Earth at any moment from 15,000 BC to 15,000 AD. * Display constellations, about 2.5 million stars, over 5,500 deep-sky objects, the Milky Way, the Sun and Moon, planets, moons of other planets, asteroids, comets, and meteor showers. * Display proper-motion vectors. * Display the cross-section of the Earth’s shadow at the distance of the Moon, which lets you see the circumstances of lunar eclipses. * Display the paths of the Sun and Moon, planets, asteroids, and comets with respect to the background stars and the horizon. * Display equatorial, horizontal, ecliptic, and galactic coordinate-system lines. * Save maps to files. * Use night-vision mode. * Use the animation feature to watch objects move across the sky, solar and lunar eclipses take place.
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A free astronomy sky program providing a view of the sky from anywhere at any time. It enables fast forward to show the motion of the planets and stars over any time period. This version opens up with the view from Melbourne. Although originally shareware the originators seem to have vanished so it is effectively free. Unfortunately there is an intermittent error that occurs on opening. If this occurs close the program and try again, it should open after a few tries. If you know how to fix the problem send us an email. | |||
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This app simulates the conjunctions of Mercury and why they are not regular. | |||
Useful Websites
Astronomical Society of Victoria
The Astronomical Society of Victoria is based in Melbourne, Australia and includes city and many country members. The Society attracts people with astronomical interests, from a wide range of ages and with a wide range of abilities and interests.
Faulkes Telescope Project
The Faulkes Project provides access to a global network of robotic telescopes for schools to use. An extensive range of quality activities and multimedia resources.
Heavens Above website
A website on current information about the International Space Station (ISS).
Hubble Telescope NASA website earlier version
It features sections on its technology, operations and multimedia resources. The last time it was updated was late 2009.
Hubble Telescope STSCI website
A website of the Formal Education Group of the Space Telescope Science Institute's Office of Public Outreach. This is a more newsy website, but it has a useful section for teachers.
Melbourne University Astrophysics
The home page of the Astrophysics group at the University of Melbourne. Their pages of 'useful links' and 'image banks' are comprehensive.
Life history of a star
Very nice links with text and photos of real things. I like this one very much.
Astronomy in the deep freeze
Infra red astro in the Antarctic. Astro in different parts of the spectrum.
Hyperphysics
An encyclopedia of physics including a section on Astro and relativity. Very useable, simple and complete.
Hubble Telescope NASA website
The current NASA website on Hubble
On-line course in first year Astro
Very pretty, very sensible, very well organised.
Sloan Digital Sky Survey
Up to date pics of great things eg the most distant objects etc.
American Astronomical Society
This site can access some useful educational sites of web-based courses, teaching strategies, demos, practical activities as well as software and applets. The site also gives access to sophisticated astronomy and astrophysics journals.
Locating Satellites in the Night Sky
This NASA site enables you to select Melbourne Australia and to find out when and where you will be able to see the bright artificial satellites, such as the ISS, the Shuttle, Hubble, COBE, etc in the night sky. The data takes several minutes to download.
NASA Astrophysics Data System
This site has two components, an abstract service and an article service. The article service convers over 40,000 journal articles, including historical articles.
Star Size Comparison: You tube
A Youtube video (2:35 min)that shows the comparative size of the stars using realistic images of rotating planets and stars. It starts with the moon, moves through the planets, then the sun, followed by about a dozen stars of increasing size, finishing with the largest stars known. The video finishes with the questions, how long would it take an aircraft to fly around the largest star. Answer over 1000 years.
NASA Multimedia Video Gallery
There are a range of search categories including: Moon & Mars, Solar System, Technology, Universe, etc. There are about 60 videos listed under 'Universe'
Institute of Physics (UK) Teaching Astronomy Page
These resources aim to support the teaching of astronomy and space to 11-16 year olds. The resources are built around a series of five Teachers TV programs which are available to watch at www.teachers.tv. The programs were produced with funding from the Science and Technology Facilities Council, on behalf of the Institute of Physics and Teachers TV. Within the programs there are sections to use with students, where astronomers talk about their work in an inspiring and engaging way, as well as guidance and advice on setting up and managing practical activities with students. The activities are supported by full teaching notes.
Google Earth: Sky
With Google Earth's new Sky feature, you can: i) Browse around and zoom in to distant galaxies and nebulae, ii) View constellations and the movements of the planets, iii) Hear astronomy podcasts and read celestial research from expert sources and iv) Create and share your own imagery, placemarks and more.
National Schools Laboratory (UK)
This UK website offers schools in the UK and Ireland free access to the Liverpool Telescope. However the website does have some useful resources including activities, worksheets and information for students.
Galaxy Song by Eric Idle
Eric Idle sings his Galaxy Song to accompanying images (2:40 min)
Powers of 10
The Website for the famous 'Powers of 10' video. They have established a Powers of 10 Video Response Competition with announcements to be made at the end of January 2011.
Deep Space in the Classroom
An initiative of Macquarie University on using the Faulkes Telscope Project with ASISTM funding to develop curriculum materials for Australian Schools. There are 6 teaching modules.
Deep Space in the Classroom Materials by Jeff Stanger
Material prepared by Jeff Stanger of Sydney Girls High School as part of the 'Deep Space in the Curriculum' project: An initiative of Macquarie University on using the Faulkes Telscope Project with ASISTM funding to develop curriculum materials for Australian Schools. There are 6 teaching modules.
NASA Science, Education, and Public outreach
NASA site for current information about their science, education, and public outreach activities.
Cosmic Voyage
This Youtube video is similar to the Powers of 10 video except that it runs for 8:35 min and is narrated by Morgan Freeman. It is reputed to be an extract from the IMAX film 'Cosmic Voyage'.
Hubble Ultra Deep Field in 3D: You tube
A YouTube video (4:17 min) with narration.
Profiles of Women in Astronomy
This webpage has links to various female astronomers; including Henrietta Leavitt and Maria Mitchell. There are also links to other notable women in history if you are looking for some positive role models for female students.
Eyes on the Sky
National Science Foundation(US)website of videos and photos on observational astronomy as well as information on future challenges.
Cap Journal: Communicating Astronomy to the Public
An on-line Journal of quality, about 40 page, that comes out about three times a year.
Asteroid Watch
NASA website that features, images, videos, audios, interactives and downloads.
Sun Trek
SunTrek is a UK website designed for students. It explores the Sun and its effect on Earth. There are images, videos, activities and classroom resources. The style is more suited to junior secondary, but should engage older students.
Astrosphere - New Media Association
Astrosphere New Media Association is dedicated to promoting science and skeptical thought through internet-based technologies and distribution. They focus their efforts on the creation of technologies and content that enable better astronomy communications and greater astronomy content access for the public. These technologies can take many forms, and include (but are not limited to): blogs, podcasts, social networks, interactive data tools, and community content sites (such as wikis).
Women in Astronomy
An Introductory Resource Guide to Materials on Women in Astronomy. There is information of 16 female astronomers from the past and 17 living astronomers. There is also an extensive list o written resources, websites. The website is by the Astronomical Society of the Pacific, so it has useful general astronomical resources.