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