Message from CFHT Librarian, Liz Bryson
Aloha!! There are some exciting astronomical events happening during the summer so I hope that you will take advantage of them to learn about our Solar System. Enjoy!!!
We are grateful for your feedback and support of our venture. email.
Contents:
- Moonlight Photos
- New Journal on Astronomy/Space Science Education
- Mars Exploration Rovers: Home Demos
- The Black Hole Gang
- Pieces of Science
- Early Navigation and Compass Deviation
- Upcoming Astronomical Events
Moonlight Photos
The photo above was taken by a CFHT Astronomer, Jean-Charles Cuillandre. Though they look like daylight photos, the full moon is so bright on Mauna Kea that long exposures (10-45 seconds) look like they were taken in the daytime. To view the images taken of all the telescopes on Mauna Kea, go to the Starlight site and click on the "Photos - Moonlight" option on the left side of the page.
New Journal on Astronomy/Space Science Education
We are very pleased to announcethe release of "Astronomy Education Review", the new on-line journal/magazine for astronomy & space-science education. The home page for the journal can be found below. A brief table of contents for the main articles in the issues making up this inaugural volume is below. We are now ready to receive contributions for the first issue of volume 2. Astronomy Education Review aims to serve a broad audience of those involved in education. It includes sections of: 1. research papers (and discussions of how research on teaching and learning applies in classrooms or other educational settings) 2. short reports on innovative techniques and approaches 3. annotated lists of educational resources 4. news and opinion pieces 5. announcements of opportunities The journal welcomes submissions for any of these sections; guidelines are on the site, which is currently recording over 100,000 hits and nearly 5000 separate sessions each month. We grateful acknowledge the support of the National Optical Astronomy Observatories and the NASA Office of Space Science, as well as the endorsement of the American Astronomical Society and the Astronomical Society of the Pacific, for the journal. Sidney Wolff and Andrew Fraknoi, Editors
Mars Exploration Rovers: Home Demos
The Athena Project is collaborative and international effort to land a series of rovers on Mars in 2003. The Mars Exploration Rovers Web site chronicles these efforts, as well as offering various facts and learning activities like those found on the Home Demos page. The seven demos teach kids various things about Mars such as how scientists know there used to be water on Mars; how Mars seems to orbit back and forth; how difficult it is to land on Mars; what the soil on Mars is comprised of; how to create a volcano similar to Mars' Olympus Mons, which is the largest known volcano in the universe; how wind effects soil on Mars; and if there may be life on Mars. Each activity includes an explanation of what is needed and how to complete the experiment, as well as how it relates to the Athena Project.
The Black Hole Gang
The Black Hole Gang Web site is authored by fifth grade teacher Stephen Kramer and illustrated by Richard Torrey. The main page of the site contains pictures of the five members of the gang, which, when clicked, bring up another scene with the character in a room with various objects such as a rock collection, map, chemistry set, poster of Albert Einstein, telescope, and other science related items. Once an item is chosen, students read a brief description of it and can explore a variety of informational material and links relating to it. Although some of the pages only contain one link to an outside source, the design of the site is good at getting the attention of students and will hopefully spark an interest in them to continue learning.
Pieces of Science
Developed by online museum educators, Pieces of Science is described as "an online gallery of sixteen educational resources related to a collection of historical science objects." The sixteen subjects are organized by grade level and include such topics as lighting rods, Apollo 8, a lunar module, Priestley's physics project, and penicillin. Each page contains a variety of resources, but the lighting rod page, for example, explains the history of how Benjamin Franklin used lighting rods to study electricity, contains a photograph of one of these early rods, has an activity that shows how to make your own, additional links for on and offline activities, a bibliography, and a curriculum link for teachers to reference. Although good for physical science subjects, other resources on Pieces of Science are equally as interesting and should be explored by educators as well.
Early Navigation and Compass Deviation
Sailors headed to New France discovered that as they sailed west from Bordeaux (45° north latitude) toward Cape Breton Island (45° north latitude), they could not 'sail their westing' and reach the intended destination. They ended up somewhere on the coast of New England, well south of Cape Breton. Their compass had given them a false course. Early mariners had assumed that the compass (magnetic) north and true north were the same. A rudimentary experiment can be conducted in the classroom that will demonstrate the problem. This site is great for learning about navigation and magnetic fields.
Upcoming Astronomical Events
- Meteor Showers - Summer fun is watching the Perseid meteor shower which is set to peak in the evening of August 12th, and the morning of the 13th. Unfortunately the full moon is this night also and will be bright so one can only expect to see the brightest events during the night. Don't be discouraged however, this shower can be good for several days before and after the peak time. This year the best time to watch may be the early morning of August 10th. You will have some time in the morning before sunrise when the moon has set during which you might see more of the fainter meteors. Best viewing time is always Midnight to Sunrise. See the August 2001 issue of Hoku in the archive to learn more about watching meteor showers.
- Eclipses - There is an Annular solar eclipse occuring on May 31st. It will unfortunately not be visible from Hawaii. If you are traveling in the North Atlantic ocean, you will have a great view of this event however.
- Planets - On May 28th, both Mercury and Venus will be very close to the moon. Three times, Midnight May 31st, 2:08am June 8th, and 1:14am June 17th, there will be a double shadow transit of Jupiter. In a small telescope, you will see 2 moons passing in front of Jupiter and their shadows will be seen on the surface of Jupiter itself. On July 16th at around 10pm, Mars will be occulted by the moon (it will pass behind the moon), and this will be visible from Hawaii. Mars will have its closest approach to earth at 11:52pm on August 26th. This is the closest it has been to earth in 100,000 years. It should reach a magnitude of -2.9 in the visible and will be the bright reddish colored object in the Scorpius and Libra constellations. This may be the best time to look for surface features on Mars through a small telescope due to its proximity. Mars will be in opposition 2 days later on August 28th at 8am.
- Comets - In preparation for the return of coment 2P/Encke in December we will be looking for a good star chart for its path so that you can go out in the evenings and find it in the night sky, if it will be visible from Hawaii which most likely will be at some point of its return. For several days in late December it will be closer to the Sun than the Earth.
All times listed above are HST. The link below contains many calendars and includes a nice section on astronomical events. Check it out!!
We gratefully acknowledge the following online sources: Yahoo's Search Engine, The Scout Report, Blue Web'N, and the Librarian's Index to the Internet.This page is compiled by Liz Bryson, CFHT Librarian
This page was designed by Lisa Wells, CFHT Observing Assistant
We appreciate your comments and questions.