From: lindgren@meol.mass.edu (Charles F. Lindgren)
Subject: Re: Eclipse Party
Date: Tue, 17 Sep 1996 21:54:17 +0100
Hey Dave, Yes there is a formal lesson. Check with Jan Wee to see if it still exists on the old Hubble site from last year. It's really simple. I have my kids take a paper towel roll core and make 25 random observations of the sky. NASA wants them to make them from specific points and angles of elevation, I like the random part better. Then they add up the total number of stars seen for the 25 observations and find the average. Then you multiply that average by 700 and that supposedly gives you the total number of stars in the sky. It's a great lesson! I'm having my kids do 2 counts, one when the moon is full, the next during totality. Maybe we can share data afterwards? You can also classify the darkness of the eclipse. The numbers range from 0 to 4 0 = Almost invisible 1 = gray-brown with a few details visible 2 = more obvious dark red color with a light rim 3 = brighter red color with the moon easily visible 4 = brilliant orange As you can see this is open to some interpretation. It's also fun to see how different the kids' observations are. Keep in touch, Charlie Lindgren