Back to Daily Schedule-Term 2
This is a little kit for making star phases charts for the 15 brightest stars. The kit has three components.
I have previously handed out a 15-brightest stars spreadsheet, but this version of the spreadsheet has columns to record star phases (both true and visible, for each of two latitudes). If you would prefer to work digitally, here is yet another version of the spreadsheet in Apple Numbers format that you can modify to your heart’s content.
You will need six blank copies of the star phases diagram in Figure 4.12 on p. 195 to do three stars at each of two latitudes. I have made, copied, and distributed enough for your project, but if you mess some up, here are blanks you can print.
Rania demonstrated the use of the web version of Stellarium to get rising and setting times. Stellarium works on all desktop platforms (web/Mac/Windows/Linux) and is free, so it is hard to beat.
There are also lots of low-cost apps that run on smartphones. My go-tos for star-charting iPhone apps are Sky Guide by Fifth Star Labs and SkySafari 7 by Simulation Curriculum.
Of course, if you were an ancient, you would have to sit out all night for most nights of a year to get the data that we can get in an evening while sitting on a sofa. If you were a medieval scholar, you might have access to an astrolabe (the construction of which we skipped over at the end of Chapter 3)
Although I mentioned some smartphone apps that I often use when outdoors, for this project, using a desktop computer is your best bet, and if you use the web version of Stellarium as Rania did, you don’t even have to download and install anything.
