Re: Eclipse Party


From: Linda Conrad <lindac@quest.arc.nasa.gov>
Subject: Re: Eclipse Party
Date: Tue, 17 Sep 1996 19:37:46 -0700 (PDT)


Hi Dave, Charles and anyone else interested,

Let me save Jan a bit and sent this for her:
The URL for the Star Census is:
http://quest.arc.nasa.gov/hst/events/starsearch.html

Enjoy,
Linda

On Tue, 17 Sep 1996, Charles F. Lindgren wrote:

> 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
> 
> 
>