Activity 4 – Chasing the Stars

Context

Students will use a star wheel to find out which stars are in the sky, and will become competent at finding stars using a computer-simulated sky.

Doing the star wheel twist is a worksheet to give students practise setting and reading their star wheel. This prepares them for the second worksheet: Computer star chase.

Computer star chase requires that students have access to a computer. Unless you have access to a suite of computers we suggest that you get students to take turns to work in pairs.

If you have not already done so, you will need to download and install the program Mirapla Sky for Windows. (At this time we do not have a version for the Macintosh.) This is a very small download and installation is simple. You may need to adjust the brightness and contrast of your monitor to enable the stars to be clearly seen. On a badly adjusted monitor they will be invisible! The program has an “Adjust your monitor…” button, which works best when your display settings are either High Colour (16 bit) or True Colour (32 bit).

Make sure you are using the correct clock ring – daylight saving or standard time.
Line up today’s date with the time.
Keeping the date lined up with the time, turn the window until the direction you are looking in is at the bottom.
The bottom part of the window will show you the stars in that direction.

Stories and pictures are an excellent way to motivate students to find the constellations for themselves. It is recommended that you spend some time on stories and pictures before students complete the worksheets for this activity.

The supporting resource Star Story Book contains stories to read aloud and pictures for this purpose.

A pronunciation guide is available here.

Many of the names will be new to your students, and they need to hear them spoken.

You may wish to discuss the various ways of naming star groups. Some groups are official constellations with official names, and some are not. Many of the groups we teach at the beginning are not actually official constellations. This is why we refer to them as groups (the technical term is ‘asterism’) and not constellations. Here are some of the common ones:(Note that you will only see some of these groups, depending on where you live.)

Common name	Official name	Explanation
Northern Cross	Cygnus	The Northern Cross is officially known as Cygnus.
Southern Cross	Crux	The Southern Cross is officially known as Crux. This does not include the pointers – they are part of Centaurus.
Big Dipper	Ursa Major	The Big Dipper is part of the large constellation of Ursa Major.
Little Dipper	Ursa Minor	The Little Dipper is officially known as Ursa Minor.
Scorpio	Scorpius	Many people know this constellation as Scorpio, but its official name is Scorpius.
Pleiades, The Seven Sisters	Taurus	The Pleiades (also known as the Seven Sisters) are part of the constellation Taurus.
Hyades	Taurus	The Hyades are part of the constellation Taurus.
Sickle	Leo	The Sickle is part of the constellation Leo.
Square of Pegasus	Pegasus/Andromeda	The Square of Pegasus is made from three stars in the constellation Pegasus, and one star in the constellation Andromeda.
False Cross	Vela/Carina	The False Cross is made from two stars in the constellation Vela, and two stars in the constellation Carina.
Diamond Cross	Carina	The Diamond Cross is a part of the constellation Carina.

This worksheet gives students the practise they need at setting their star wheels.

Do your students know how the 24-hour clock works? This is necessary because Mirapla Sky uses a 24-hour clock. You may need to teach this skill before students begin the Star Chase.

Show your students how to use groups of stars as a measuring stick to find other stars. Make sure they always work from a known constellation such as Orion, the Big Dipper, Scorpius, or the Southern Cross. Working from the known constellation, use the constellation itself as a measuring stick to find new constellations.

The instructions are on the worksheets. In addition to those instructions, here are further instructions on how to use Mirapla Sky.

Look in a different direction with the and keys.
Look up with and down with keys.
Advance the time with the Page-Up key. Move time back with the Page-Down key.
If you want to know what direction you are looking in, press until the horizon appears. There are direction markers there.
If you cannot see the time, press Page-Up once and it will appear. Look at the top left of the screen (the time on the top right is Universal Time, the time in Greenwich).
Press Enter to turn on or off the constellation labels. Beginners should not do this because it is important to practise finding the stars using the star wheel. It may be better if you do not tell your students how to turn on the labels.

Issue certificates for successful completion of the Computer Star Chase.
A planetarium or star-lab visit is an excellent follow-up. Arrange with the presenter to give your students practise finding stars using their star wheels. If possible, it is good to give students red-torches to use in the planetarium. (Red torches will let them see their star wheels while not interfering with the view of the stars. Tape a piece of red paper over the end of an ordinary torch.)
A star-gazing party is an excellent follow-up – see Activity 5 – Under the Milky Way.

	Doing the Star Wheel Twist - worksheet
	Computer Star Chase - worksheet
	The 24-hour Clock - poster
	Certificate
	Mirapla Sky for Windows
	Help with printing and downloading