Night Sky Watching

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Slide 1

Night Sky Watching (Basics)

Slide 2

Stars Pivot around a Point

Slide 3

The North Celestial Pole (NCP)

Special spot on the sky that the Earth’s rotation axis points to

Why special?

During the night the stars appear to rotate around this spot

Also special (and useful) in other ways …

Slide 4

Watching Stars from the North Pole

Slide 5

Constellations are Big

Slide 6

Big Dipper: Points to Polaris

Slide 7

Finding Polaris

Slide 8

Lucky Breaks!

The star Polaris is amazing close to NCP (now)

The “pointer stars” in the Big Dipper line up directly with Polaris!!!!

Big Dipper is circumpolar constellation

See it all night and all year

Polaris also called Pole Star, North Star

Slide 9

Big Dipper

Slide 10

Why care about finding Polaris?

The direction of Polaris is due North

The angle between Polaris and the horizon is YOUR LATITUDE

How can I measure angles?

Slide 11

Slide 12

Big Dipper as Star Guide

Slide 13

Constellations

Slide 14

Astronomy Picture of the Day (APOD)

Summer Triangle

Winter Hexagon

Slide 15

Summer Triangle

Slide 16

Winter Hexagon

Slide 17

Constellation Facts

Group of stars all in roughly the same direction from Earth, BUT …. Each has its own different distance from the Earth

Therefore, NOT grouped together is space