While I am still using Zooniverse, I found it was not giving me a clear understanding of what I wanted to know about the celestial sphere and how I could explain it to someone not in an astronomy class. Take for example, this picture, it is more what I think of when trying to define the celestial sphere, it is what we see when we look into the sky. I found a bog post which I feel explains in easy terms, why we see what we see in our celestial sphere. Precession, or how the Earth spins on its axis and causes our seasons is exactly the same mechanics as how a top (yes, as in the toy) works. It also pointed out that Polaris will not always be our "North Star" since the rotations change slightly over thousands and thousands of years, similar to how the day of the solstices change just slightly every year. The diagrams in the blog also are helpful to illustrating how the constellations correlate to the astrological signs we know them to be. You are not a "Scorpio" because you have a fiery personality, but rather because during the time of year between October and November, Earth is rotating around that constellation and that is what we see in our celestial sphere. This movement is the Ecliptic, or how the Sun moves across the sky. A year is the time it takes for one full cycle of this movement, hence how the constellations correlate with the astrological signs. This blog from St. Vincent College is worth the read, as it is informative, but easier to understand for someone who may not be an expert in astronomy!
It's time for...SEASONS! How appropriate given we have been having one heck of a winter!
This YouTube video is not only instructional, but fun. I was trying to find a way that if I had children or was babysitting, how could I show them what the seasons are really about so they could understand? This videos seems as if a student or teacher made it, but it is very informative while being fun. Especially for kids, the idea that the seasons are opposite in the Northern and Southern hemispheres can be difficult to understand. This video takes a fun and short approach to show them how it is the tilt of the Earth (its axis) combined with how we orbit around the sun which causes the changes in weather, or seasons. I also imagine how it must have been when explorers from Europe began traveling across the Atlantic to South America and the Caribbean when astronomy was growing in leaps and bounds. Did they wonder why it was a hot and humid climate in those new lands when it was winter back in their home land? The beliefs that people had before they discovered the science behind how things actually work is always fascinating!
The Phases of the Moon:
I wanted to do an easy overview of some fun facts about how the phases of the moon work and also show some activities that you could do with your children if you are babysitting. Bear with me, I am not the most visually creative of souls!
Ancient Astronomers of Greece!
In the past, as in today's world, we often look at the sky, the weather, the world around us, and wonder why is this all happening? Some may explain these to other worldly phenomenon, but chances are there is an easier, albeit more complicated answer; astronomy. The ancient Greeks were the first to believe that the sun, or heliocentric model, was accurate, thousands of years before their early medieval counterparts. In addition, they also were the reason behind the calendar we know today, based on their astral observations. Thales discovered the solstice and equinox concepts in 585 BC and made important advances in geometry which would later be essential to astronomy with regard to how angles affected mathematical questions. A century later Pythagoras continued making advances with regard to orbits and movements of celestial bodies. Perhaps one of the most impressive of all ancient discoveries was that of Eratosthenes, who measured the circumference of the Earth, and quite accurately. I am including the entire timeline that I found, but my point is this: imagine if we still had the curiosity of the ancient inhabitants of Earth, where could we be today? Are we only limited because we know so much, or does it merely seem that way?
The World of Light and Color
A Learning Experience Made Easy for Everyone!
As always, I like to think that any person can learn about science and the world around us, and the internet is a great tool for finding creative and easy to understand methods. The Physics Classroom, a website dedicated to giving handy lessons for learning about, well physics! Their lesson goes over how light refracts and diffracts (basically how it moves) in the same way as waves- evidence to support that light moves not only in waves, but particles as well. This may seem easy for us to understand now, but several hundred years ago, someone would have called you crazy for having the same notion!
What I find most interesting about light behavior is how it behaves when it comes against something, or another medium. Not only do we have to realize what reaction light will have, but this is also dependent on what type of light it is. For example, ultraviolet light will tan your skin (or give you cancer if you don't take it easy), but gamma rays would literally kill you if you absorbed too much.
This is the link to the lesson plan on waves, the color spectrum, and the behaviors of light. What I want to go over is the section entitled Blue Skies and Red Sunsets (as it caught my eye). This lesson focuses on the colors we see based on the visible light of an object. That is not to say for example, that a leaf is actually green- rather the chemicals in the leaf (chlorophyll) absorb all other colors therefore our eyes interpret the leaf as green. In the same regard, during the fall and winter when there is less sunlight, therefore less chlorophyll, our eyes interpret the leaves as orange, yellow, and red. Personally, I think this is awesome! Another great example they had was the asphalt on the street; we see it as black because it absorbs all other light frequencies.
They go on to explain that we see sunsets as red due to light scattering as the sun travels over our horizon in the atmosphere, the longer distance causes it to fall into the yellow, orange, and red ends of the light spectrum. The light from a sunset has a longer wavelength than that of daytime sun, which is why the sky appears blue during the day. Shorter wavelengths of light have a higher frequency, which is explained to fall on the blue and violet ends of our color spectrum. A modern phenomena they point out is that due to our atmospheric pollution, there is more sulfur in the air, which is the reason behind some of the amazing multi-hued sunsets we see. As beautiful as they are, they are actually a sign that there is real damage to our Earth.
The following is a link to the lesson and its diagrams:
You got it!
ReplyDeleteSabrina, the link didn't work and I so want to see your video! Please try it again. Thanks!
ReplyDeleteGreat job- you'll look at the sunset with new eyes now!
ReplyDelete