Stars & Constellations

Astronomy Calculator - (Enter the current date and this site tells you upcoming moon phases, what meteor showers will happen soon, the next lunar eclipse, and where in the sky to look for planets.)

AJ's Cosmic Thing Applet Shows the constellations, planets, sun, moon and other features of the night sky. You can also click on a feature and find a stat sheet for that object. To change the info box, click on "stop" to stop the sky rotation.

Play Space Hopper at FunBrain from Learning Network - Identify the constellation

Project - Multimedia Presentation

Slide 1 - Title Slide

This slide should include:
- The name of your constellation
- Names of the students who worked on the project.
- Photos of the students, if available (taken with the digital camera).
- You may include a graphic that is related to your topic.

Slide 2 - Your Constellation

Show what your constellation looks like in the night sky.
Identify the brightest star(s) in the constellation.
At 9 p.m., during which months is your constellation visible in the night sky?
During which month will it appear highest in the sky (closest to the zenith)?

Slides 3 - 4

How did your constellation get its name? Find the mythology about your constellation and relate a shortened version of it on these slides.

Slides 5 - 6

Give your constellation a modern name and story. Remember - your name and story shouldn't be trivial - it should convey something that we value in our culture.

Slide 7

Bibliography - List the sources of your information and pictures.
To cite files available for viewing/downloading from the World Wide Web, give the author's name (if known), the full title of the work in quotation marks, the title of the complete work (if applicable) in italics, the full URL, and the date of the visit. See the sample below.

1. Dolan, Chris, "Leo", The Constellations and their Stars, http://www.astro.wisc.edu/~dolan/constellations/constellations/Leo.html, November 21, 1997.

To save your picture for use in your presentation do the following:

Right-click on the picture in Internet Explorer, choose Save Picture As
When the Save Picture dialog box opens, click in the Save in box and choose the Constellations folder from the drop-down list
In the File Name Box type a new name for the picture - one that you will recognize

To insert your picture in your presentation do the following:

Make sure you have the slide displayed into which you want to insert the picture
Click on the Insert Menu and choose Picture/From File
When the Insert Picture dialog box opens, choose the Constellations folder from the Look In drop-down list
Click on your picture's file name and click the Insert button

Goodwin, Joanne, "Stars Project", The Stars and Constellations Fifth Grade Multimedia Presentations http://www.wsanford.com/~jgoodwin/misc_help/hyperstudio/stars_project.html, November 11, 1999.