Seeing Stars

Did you know light can decrease visibility? Light pollution absolutely makes it more difficult to see stars. Scholars build a simple magnitude reader to determine the magnitude of stars. They use these data to estimate the impact of...

Pupils often wonder how we know the distance to various stars. Starting with a thought experiment and progressing to a physical experiment, they determine the brightness and distance to various stars. The evaluation requires critical...

Three astronomy activities in one resource! Here you will find one hands-on activity, one demonstration, both with discussion questions, and one activity worksheet. During these lessons young scientists discuss how stars are different,...

Brighten up your teaching of the solar system with this middle school astronomy lesson. Over the course of these five activities, young astronomers get an up close and personal look at the sun as they watch videos, read articles, explore...

Digital compass alignment enables navigation of the skies with true orientation at any time. Just point to the sky or "aim for the stars!" This application acts as a virtual telescope, allowing you to zoom in on any object that is...

What are all those shiny things we see in the sky at night? It could be a star, planet, or asteroid! This is the focus of a video that helps viewers distinguish between these three objects in the sky.

The North Star changes — it was previously Thuban but now is Polaris, and in the future, it will be Vega. The video discusses the cycles observed in the sky with only your eyes. It focuses on the zodiac constellations and why they are...

For thousands of years, humans observed the night sky without the help of a telescope. The video explains the many amazing discoveries they made and how we still rely on them today. It details the constellations, various colors of the...

We know stars are giant balls of plasma, so why are they drawn as pointy star shapes? The video solves this mystery through an explanation of how lenses work both in our eyes and in telescopes. It also discusses the proper way to color a...

This is one heavy video! Introduce the topic of neutron stars with a brief but informative resource. Young astronomers discover the history of neutron star research, the conditions present in and around a neutron star, and the...