Constellations
This type of constellation never sets below the horizon.
What is a circumpolar constellation?
These two stars appear as one to the untrained eye in the Big Dipper.
What are Mizar and Alcor.
This is the apparent line that all the planets, sun and moon travel upon in the sky.
What is the ecliptic?
This is the length of the moon's orbit around the earth.
What is 29.5 days?
This planet has the moons found (to date).
What is Saturn?
This famous *asterism* can be seen overhead at 9pm'ish during the late summer / early fall.
What is the summer triangle?
This orange giant is known as "the eye of the bull" in Taurus.
What is Aldebaran?
On the board, draw the horizon, ecliptic, meridian, zenith and the Milky Way for 9pm on December 1.
see paper
The Sun is classified as this type of star.
This planet shines the brightest in our sky -- include it's magnitude.
Venus.
-4
This famous, ancient Greek astronomer catalogued over 200 constellations.
Who is Ptolemy?
The Pleaides looks like a mini dipper of seven stars but is actually this.
An open star cluster containing over 1,000 stars.
This is the altitude that Polaris is measured at for us in SE Michigan.
What is 42*?
Name all eight phases of the moon in order starting at Day 0.
New Moon.
Waxing Crescent.
First Quarter.
Waxing Gibbous.
Full Moon.
Waning Gibbous.
Third Quarter.
Waning Crescent.
This is your teacher's favorite planet.
What is PLUTO?
Kochab is one of the brightest stars in this constellation.
What is the little dipper?
This star is an eclipsing binary star found in Perseus.
What is Algol or the Demon Star?
This is timed -- you have one minute to set your planisphere to the current time/date and find which constellation is at (or closest to) the zenith.
What is Hercules?
Astronauts first set foot on the moon during this mission in 1969.
What is Apollo 11?
What is the smallest planet in the solar system.
What is Mercury?
On the board, draw Orion and label at least 4 of the stars by name.
Check the paper.
The color of a star indicates this property, which is measured in Kelvins.
What is temperature?
On the board, draw the night sky as seen today with:
Big Dipper, Polaris, Cassiopeia, Zenith, Ecliptic, Directional Points, Leo, Sirius & the Milky Way.
Check my paper.
On the board, draw a solar eclipse AND what moon phase does a solar eclipse occur in?
Sun >> Earth >> Moon.
Full Moon.
On the board, write all NINE planets in our solar system, in order starting closest to the sun.
Mercury. Venus. Earth. Mars. Jupiter. Saturn. Uranus. Neptune. Pluto.