Creating a Star Map
Materials:
- Manila paper
- Colored felt tip pens
- Ruler
- List of constellations and their star figures
- Compass
- Telescope
Instructions:
1. Check the weather reports to make sure it will be a good night with a clear sky. Often, these nights occur in the late spring or early to mid‐summer.
2. Before it gets dark, lay the Manila paper out on the garden or on the patio. If the grass is damp, you will have to find a way to protect your Manila paper from becoming soggy. Sometimes laying down newspapers can help with this problem.
3. Using your compass, mark the Manila paper with the north and south directions using the directional letters 'N' and 'S'.
4. Next, stand on the south side of the paper, meaning you will see the north on top of the page and south at the bottom. Place the east direction on the left and the west direction on the right. (*Note: You know from reading road maps that these directions are wrong, but star maps are read upside down and facing south. Take your Manila paper. When facing south, lift the star map so that it is upside down. You will see that east and west will be in their correct positions.)
5. Wait until it gets pretty dark. Note the time and begin drawing. Use a flashlight to see what you're doing and remember to hold the map over your head every time you draw to check and see if your map is correct. (You may want to have a stack of scratch paper so you can practice each drawing and hold up these pieces of scratch paper to check for correct positioning according to directions instead of having to constantly lift the Manila paper.)
6. Use the ruler to help you draw the constellations and remember to refer to your list of constellations to see if you are correct. After finishing each constellation, use a different colored pen to write the name of the constellation next to it.
7. Use your telescope to see the constellations better. Also take note of the colors of the stars (can be seen if your telescope is powerful enough.)
8. Once you have finished mapping out the sky, mark the time. Wait a few more hours and note the time. Which direction did the constellations move in? Draw an arrow at the bottom of your Manila paper which indicates the direction of the movement.
9. Finally, on one side of your map, note the month the map was created as well as the hemisphere you are in.
This is a fun science project to do with friends. Not only will you get to camp out together for one night, but the creation of the star map will go faster if several people are looking up at the sky. This means that the positioning will be more accurate because the more that time passes, the earth begins to move and the positioning will move as well. You note the month and hemisphere you are in so you can differentiate your star map from those of other hemispheres. After several months, check your star map again. Is it exactly the same?
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