Sunspots

Sunspots are a great thing to measure. Compare how fast they seem to move when they are near the "middle" of the disk with how fast they move when they are near the "edge" of the disk. Why might they be different?

Sunspots

I was thinking of maybe doing a contunuation of my project from this year. My project this year was seeing if I could figure out how fast the sun is rotating by tracking sunspot movement over several days. I used proportions to figure it out and it was very close, within about three days. My Dad said that there was another way using trigonometry. I thought that I could gather lots more data and compare the two methods and see which is closer. Do you have any suggestions.

Star tracking

I have always wanted to track stars, like one of my recent projects with my partner we decided how fast a star would travel through the lends of a telescope, and how different the stars really were from planets. By the means that from how far out they are. The project was successful, but I want to do one similar. Any suggestions?

Constellation Question

I'm wondering what good project would be to do about Constellations. I've always been interested in this subject and it's hard to come up with a good project? Any suggestions?

Tracking Asteroids

I like the idea of tracking asteroids over a time to see if I can figure out how far they move and see if I can calculate where they will be next time I check. what do you think?

Looking for new craters

I would like to map a section of the moon, and watch for new craters. Does anyone have suggestions on how I could do that?

Ideas to help students get started

Mr. Idema and Mr. Davis and students- Ideas to help get you going.

Do they have a burning question they want to know about the stars or the sun? Do they wonder about calendars and astronomy? Do they wonder why the planets were called “wanderers” by the ancients and why do they appear to wander when they go in circles around the sun? How could you tell procession from watching the stars? How can the stars tell us that we are moving in a galaxy? How do people tell distances of stars and could they do that? Are they aware of the astronomy websites available? Where would they go to learn more about interesting questions people have about the stars , planets, and moon? Would be cool to compare brightness and distance. Would be interesting to do a survey of which stars are within a hundred light years of earth and map them. Would be interesting to see what the sun’s activity is in terms of sunspots. This just off top of head don’t know if this is what your wondering?- Thanks for including me I am excited!-Mr. Thomas

Where the sun rises

I walk to school each day and notice that certain times of the year the sun rises straight ahead as I walk east and the shadow cast by rocks and sticks on the sidewalk is due west.  At other times the sunrise is either north or south of that.  It might be interesting for students to gather data about the location of sunrise over several months and consider how that data might relate to Earth's tilt and revolution around the sun.

(From email by Dr. Dale to P.Idema - shared with permission)

Thanks for the input, Chip.

Along those lines, I wonder if it would be good to track the moons of
Jupiter over the course of a night or two.  Yes, you can see the four
brightest moons easily with binoculars, but actually taking images with
a big telescope like that would allow the students to both digitally
analyze the moons' positions, and to detect some of the fainter moons.
Thus, with the measured angular distances and the observed orbital
periods they could learn something about the physical properties of the
Jovian system.  I've never tried such a project, but my guess is that it
would work as long as Jupiter doesn't saturate the images too much.

Likewise, if they could have a neutral density filter affixed to the
telescope, they might be able to safely observe the amplitude and
evolution of solar spots during the day.

Danny

CMS Astronomy Research Blog

I began this project after the state science fair by asking Dr. Danny Dale from University of Wyoming if he would be willing to participate in this discussion.  He agreed (see his reply to my email - shared with his permission) and said he would talk to a colleague.  Dr. Chip Kobulnicky agreed to participate as well (see his email comments shared here with his permission).  Finally, I invited Dr. Bruce Watne from Northwest College to participate and he agreed as well.  So, lets begin the discussion!

Dr. Dale:

Hi Peter,
Thanks for contacting me.  It does indeed sound like a fantastic (and
rare) opportunity for the students.  I would be happy to contribute
ideas, and I will see if any of my colleagues would also be interested.
Best Regards,
Danny


Dr. Kobulnicky:

Likewise, I'd be happy to offer ideas and help from a distance if I
could.  We ought to get them here for a visit to the Wyoming Infrared
Observatory some time.
Observing asteroids is a good project for a small telescope.

Chip