Observation Exercises in Astronomy

Observation Exercises in Astronomy is a lab manual containing a series of astronomy exercises that integrates technology from planetarium software such as SkyGazer, StarryNight Pro, Stellarium, WorldWide Telescope, and GoogleSky. Each exercise is designed to engage you in a different aspect of the scientific process.

Instructional Introduction

1. Moon Phases and Scientific Models

2. Motions in the Night Sky and the Celestial Sphere

3. The Sun through the Seasons

4. Mars’ Motion and Models of the Solar System

5. How did Galileo go blind? Or, It’s the Data, Stupid!

6. What’s an Astronomical Unit?

7. How do we know the mass of Jupiter, anyway?

8. What Are Stars Made Of?

9. Inferring Physical Properties

10. Reading the Stars

11. What is the Milky Way Made Of?

12. Where in the Milky Way Are We?

13. How Close is Our Nearest Neighbor?

14. The Galaxy Zoo

15. Our Expanding Universe