Farnham Astronomical Society has compiled a set of practical exercises to raise awareness and interest in Astronomy, the night sky and topical issues such as light pollution. These resources aim to support the teaching of astronomy and are intended primarily for use by teachers, Scouting, Guiding or other leaders. We hope, also, that these exercises will be of general interest to amateur astronomers who are looking for a challenge or astronomy societies looking for ideas for outreach activities.
Each exercise (below) is downloadable as a self-contained workbook with instructions and and log sheets on which to record observations. We have attempted to grade the difficulty of each exercise taking into account ability, equipment and the time it takes to complete observations.
|
No. |
Exercise |
Difficulty |
| 1.1 | The Galilean Moons: In this exercise you will observe the motion of the four Galilean moons: Io, Europa, Ganymede and Calisto. This exercise requires a small telescope or binoculars. | Easy |
| 1.2 | How far away is our Moon? In this fun exercise you will build some simple apparatus to measure and calculate the distance to the Moon. You will also learn about angular diameters. This exercise requires only basic classroom equipment – pencils, a metre rule and some Blu-tack or plasticine and a few coins. | Easy |
| 1.3 | How big is our Sun? In this fun exercise you will build a pin-hole camera and will use this to calculate the diameter of the Sun. You will also learn how to observe the sun without risking eye damage. This exercise requires only basic classroom equipment – pencils, card, a metre rule and some Blu-tack or plasticine. | Easy |
| 1.4 | What are the faintest stars you can see? This exercise introduces the concepts of stellar magnitude and light pollution and through simple naked eye observation you will estimate the limiting magnitude of your observing location. This is a ‘naked eye’ exercise and requires no equipment. | Easy |
| 2.1 | Understanding positional astronomy, part 1 – the celestial sphere: In this exercise you will learn about some of the essential concepts and ideas that are necessary to learning about Positional Astronomy and about how astronomers visualise the night sky. | Intermediate |
| 2.2 | Understanding positional astronomy, part 2 – celestial co-ordinates: In this exercise you will learn how astronomers describe the positions of objects in the night sky. The exercise covers the two co-ordinate systems most commonly used in astronomy, the alt-azimuth co-ordinate system and the equatorial co-ordinate system. One of the exercises involves a little mathematics but we have tried our best to make it as easy as possible. | Intermediate |
| 2.3 | Estimating the mass of Jupiter: In this exercise you will use observational data acquired over a number of evenings to estimate the mass of the planet Jupiter. This exercise requires a small telescope. | Intermediate |
| 2.4 | Estimating the height of mountains on the moon: In this exercise you will use shadows on the lunar surface to estimate the height of mountains on the moon. This exercise requires a small telescope. | Intermediate |