Astronomy! Without A Telescope...
from the Pleiades Project

Astronomy is one of the most accessible sciences -- many people around the world are amateur astronomers -- they do astronomy in their spare time for fun and have little or no formal training.  Here we present some ideas for fun, low stress astronomy activities.

Equipment Needed:

Please don't rush out and buy a telescope! Most telescopes priced under $1000 are poorly made and will cause dissapointment and frustration. Even the most expensive telescopes can be difficult to use if you don't have experience identifying constellations. Most people already own the most useful astronomical equipment: your eyes and a standard pair of binoculars.

Turn out the lights!

What you can see in the sky with your eyes or a pair of binoculars will depend on how dark it is. A "dark sky" location is one where you cannot see any city lights at all -- in North Carolina you need to drive to the mountains or out near the Outer Banks. However some events can be done even from a lighted parking lot!

Astronomy, without a telescope:

Three things will insure the sucess of your observation nights:

  1. Make a big deal about dressing warmly. Even during warm months, watching the sky at night can be a cold activity.
  2. Plan an indoor activity as a back up, in case it clouds up.
  3. Your interest and enthusiasm is the most ingredient to make these events a sucess.


Naked Eye Events
(In astronomy if something can be seen without a telescope or binoculars it's called "naked eye"!)

    Constellation Night

    Location: Somewhere away from direct streetlights, with a view of most of the sky.
    Ahead of time: Use your Star & Planet Locator to check to see which  constellations will be easily visible on the day of the event, about 1 hour after sunset. Pick two or three constellations centered in the window of the Star & Planet Locator.  This will prevent the constellation from being blocked from view by trees or buildings. You can find  the stories of the constellations by looking up the name in any encyclopedia or astronomy book.
    At the event: Inside, have the girls set their Star & Planet Locators to the day and time. Point out the constellations they will be looking for. Then take them outside and orient them north, to agree with the Star & Planet Locator -- either lying on their backs with their heads pointing north or sitting with their backs to the north. Point out the constellation to the girls. Work with each girl to make sure she's looking at the same place you are.  Then tell them the story about the constellation. Don't worry about getting all the details right.
    • December - Cassiopeia (The Queen), Andromeda (The Princess), Cepheus (The King)
    • January, February - Orion (The Hero) and Auriga (The Charioteer)
    • March, April - Canis Major and Canis Minor (The Big and Little Dog)
    • May - Big Dipper (AKA Ursa Major- The Big Bear),  Little Dipper (AKA Usra Minor - The Little Bear)
    • June, July - Bootes (The Hero)
    • August, September - Cygnus (The Swan), Lyra (The Harp), Aquila (The Eagle)
    • October, November - Andromeda (The Princess), Great Square, Pegasus (The Winged Horse)

     

    Meteor Shower Observing

    Location: Away from direct streetlights, with a view of most of the sky.
    Ahead of time: Pick a date for a meteor shower off of the Sky Gazers Almanac. Don't be put off by the fact that the meteor shower is at 2 AM! That is the predicted peak of the shower, but meteors can be seen up to a day before and after the peak -- so 8 PM before the peak is a good time to observe. Check to see if the moon is going to be visible during the shower -- the light from the moon will drown out most meteors. Find a battery operated radio. Tell people to bring blankets, sleeping bags maybe even lawn chairs or chaise lounges.
    At the event: Tell everyone to get comfortable -- seeing meteors during a shower is just a case of watching the sky. You could have the girls count how many they see or use their Star & Planet Locators to find the direction of the sky the meteors come from. If you tune the radio between channels to static and you can listen to the meteors -- the meteors create radio waves when then hit the atmosphere.

    Watching for Planets at Sunset

    Location: Somewhere with a clear view of the east (sunrise) or a clear view of the west (sunset).
    Ahead of time: Look at your Sky Gazers Almanac. Look along the left-hand (sunset) twilight line -- At certain times of the year you can find planets (look for Venus, Mars, Mercury, Jupiter or Saturn -- Neptune and Pluto are too faint) whose colored "setting" line is near the twilight line. Since everything sets in the west, that means that just after the sun goes down (worth watching on it's own) there will be bright points of light that are not stars, but planets, right where the sun just set. When two planets appear close together, it's a called a conjunction.
    At the event: About half an hour before sunset get everyone out to watch. Point out that the direction the sun sets is west -- ask the girls to find the rest of the directions. You can estimate how long it takes the sun to set -- if you hold your fist at arms length the sun will cross the width of your fist in about an hour (this works as well for girls as it does adults!). After the sun goes down ask them to watch for both the first star (where the sky is dark, away from sunset) and for the first sight of the planet. If you are a morning person, you can do the same for sunrise.


Observations with Binoculars:

    Lunar Observing

    Location: Anywhere where the moon is not blocked by buildings or trees.
    Ahead of time: Make sure the time you plan to observe is 2 hours after moonrise (so that the moon clears trees and buildings on the horizon) and not during a new moon. You can check this on your Sky Gazers Almanac.
    At the event: While you are still indoors you can explain two prominent features on the moon -- craters -- holes made by meteors hitting the moon and -- mare (seas) -- dark flat plains that are old lava flows that were thought by early astronomers to be full of water.  Then go outside and have everyone look at the moon, finding craters and mare. If the moon is not full, you can see a terminator line -- the line that marks the part of the moon that is "missing". This line is where sunset is happening on the moon. If you scan your binoculars along this line you will see craters and mountains very clearly by the long shadows they cast. You may want to point out that from earth we only ever see one face of the moon.
     

    Jupiter and Saturn

    Location: Anywhere where the planets are not blocked by buildings or trees.
    Ahead of time: Using the table on the back of your Star & Planet Locator, find the code number of Saturn or Jupiter under the year and month. This code is the constellation the planet is located in, look for the list under the table. Ideally the constellation should be centered in the window of the Star & Planet Locator at the time you want to observe it. A second method of finding  Jupiter and Saturn is to go outside and look at any particularly bright "stars" through the binoculars. Usually it turns out to be Jupiter (a bright disk with one or two bright points of light that are Jupiter's moons) or Saturn (you should be able to see the rings as "bumps" on either side of the planet).
    At the event: Point out the planet to the girls in the sky -- ask them what it is? Is it a star? It looks exactly like a star to the naked eye. If you were to watch it every night for a few weeks, you would know it was different because it doesn't move with the stars -- it wanders -- the word "planet" is Greek for "wanderer". Then let them look at the planet through the binoculars. Jupiter looks like a  small bright disk with one or two bright points of light that are Jupiter's moons and looking at Saturn you should be able to see the rings as "bumps" on either side of the planet.

    Deep Sky Objects:

    Location: A dark sky site, the darker, the better.
    Ahead of time: Find a Deep Sky Object that is easy to observe. Suggestions from your Star & Planet Locator:
    • Nebula in Orion (a place where stars are born) - January, February, March
    • Galaxy (M31) in Andromeda - October, November, December, January
    • Pleiades in Taurus (A cluster of stars born together) - December, January, February
    • Cluster in Hercules - June, July, August
    • Beehive Cluster in Cancer (Cancer is faint and can be hard to find.) - March, April, May

    At the event: This event should be done after everyone has some constellation finding experience. Allow at least 30 minutes for everyone's eyes to dark adapt (Don't let them have white flashlights!). During this time you can look for familiar constellations. Find the constellation in the sky with your naked eye first, and from your Star & Planet locator, figure out the place where the Deep Sky Object should be inside the constellation. Use your binoculars to first locate the bright stars in the constellation, then look at where the Deep Sky Object should be. Nebulae and galaxies will look like patches of white fuzz and clusters will look like bunches of stars. After everyone has had a chance to look, you can go inside and ask the girls to draw a picture of what they saw and explain what it was.

Resources:

Newspaper

  • News and Observer -- On the last page of the Metro (B) section are times for sunrise, sunset, moonrise, moonset and the phase of the moon. If there is going to be a conjunction, look there for information.

Magazines for Amateur Astronomers

  • Astronomy -- A beautiful magazine for the general public, great pictures, readable stories, and guide to what is visible in the sky this month. http://www.kalmbach.com/astro/astronomy.html
  • Sky & Telescope -- Half of each issue is current astronomy research and half is articles for amateur astronomers. Also contains a guide to the night sky. More technically oriented. http://www.skypub.com/

Planetariums

Astronomy Clubs

(919) 460-7900
Raleigh Astronomy Club
P.O. Box 10643
Raleigh NC 27605

RAC  is a great organization. They have two meetings a month, one indoors and one outdoors. They sponsor Astronomy Day (January 17, 1999) with North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences -- Check it out!

Web Sites

Books:

  • Nightwatch : An Equinox Guide to Viewing the Universe by Terence Dickinson (about 20$) -- A terrific general introduction to astronomy.
  • The Stars : A New Way to See Them by Hans Augusto Rey (about 10$) This the author of the "Curious George" series -- in this book he does a terrific job of redrawing the constellations so that they are easy to find and make sense.

Astronomy Stuff  --  Astronomy and science toys and equipment

  • Astronomical Society of the Pacific Catalog 1-800-335-2624
  • Sky Publishing Corp. Catalog 1-800-253-0245 (Sky Gazers Almanac $2.25)
  • Scientifics (Edmund Scientific) Catalog 1-609-547-8880 (Star & Planet Locator $2.75)
 
     

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