1. The Night Sky – Part 2 The purpose of this lesson is to introduce you to the night sky of September, and begin teaching you how to use a star chart to find things at night. There is an important assignment at the end of this part of the lesson.

2. The Night Sky – Part 2 To begin with, the night sky does not have stars with line and labels. When you go out for a look, all you see is dark, and a few stars that are scattered around. How the ancients came up with the idea that the stars formed patterns is very hard for most people to see.

3. The Night Sky – Part 2 Most of the time when you look up at the night sky, you see something like this! Stars, stars, and more stars. The farther you get away from the city lights, the more stars you will see, and the more confused you will become. I hope to help you find your way around in the dark

4. The Night Sky – Part 2 I am beginning to realize how dumb I must look to all of you, but I am trying to make this as interesting as possible. I was sitting in a little gazebo between “towers” of apartments where the athletes and coaches live while we are all competing of coaching in the Paralympic Games. When I made this video, the sun was bright and my computer screen was dark, so I had no idea what I looked like on screen, or what was happening behind me. Fortunately, all you see is my face, and my hands moving around

5. The Night Sky – Part 2 I want to show you a little bit of what is happening here on September 3 in the Athlete Village I have learned recently that I am absolutely not allowed to send home pictures or video of the competition, as I might risk getting into trouble. I wish that I could show you more, but it will have to wait until a few days after I get home. I

6. The Night Sky – Part 2 Before we look together at a map of the night sky, I want you to understand a little better what some of the basic directions are as you begin to navigate your way in the dark. The picture shows you the CELESTIAL SPHERE. It is the vast “dome” of sky that surrounds the Earth. Our planet spins inside this imaginary dome with the North Star at the top, and The Southern Cross at the bottom.

7. The Night Sky – Part 2 The celestial sphere can be imagined as a giant balloon that surrounds the Earth, with stars painted on the inside. As the planet spins around, we see the different groups of stars that are on the inside of the balloon. It may seem like the sky is spinning around us, and indeed this is what the ancients thought was happening, but it is really our planet that is spinning, while the stars stay in their places.

8. The Night Sky – Part 2 This is a basic star map for the month of September. It is a little different from the one that you have in your hands because I made this chart a few years ago. But it works for my purposes now, and besides, the program that I used to create this chart is on my home computer 

9. The Night Sky – Part 2 Oh … you are supposed to be holding the charts over your heads RIGHT NOW. That’s right! Hold this over your head. You are in your desks, the chart is over your head, and the North, or Top of the page is aimed at the front board, and the Bottom of the page, or South is pointed at the back of the room. Now curve the paper and see what the night sky looks like a little better. See … not too hard to do, huh?

10. The Night Sky – Part 2 On paper, it looks like the Big Dipper is pouring water into the Little Dipper. But … when you hold the chart over your heads … like you are doing now … and curve the paper, you will see that the Little Dipper is pouring water into the Big Dipper!

11. The Night Sky – Part 2 Notice the Zenith. Vega is to the west of the Zenith, Deneb to the east, and Altair is toward the South in the night sky.

12. The Night Sky – Part 2 I have highlighted the Summer Triangle on your star chart in yellow here.

13. The Night Sky – Part 2 I highlighted the Northern Cross with red, and the boundary of the Milky Way in purple.

14. The Night Sky – Part 2 I highlighted the Northern Cross with red, and the boundary of the Milky Way in purple. I have circled Sagittarius in green.

15. The Night Sky – Part 2 I made a line from the two end stars of the bowl of the Big Dipper right to the tail star of the Little Dipper … Polaris, also known as the North Star.

16. The Night Sky – Part 2 http://www.hopkins.k12.mn.us/pages/high/courses/online/astro/forms/first_constellation_obs/first_observation.htm Click on the link shown here to get information for your major assignment … Your first time outside observing the night sky as an astronomer does

17. The Night Sky – Part 2 http://www.skymaps.com/ This is a helpful link, and shows you how you can download a starchart for your own use. Perhaps you can make such a chart right now. If you have a computer right now, you can print out the chart. Or … you can use the chart that Mrs. DeHaven handed to you earlier today.

18. The Night Sky – Part 2 http://www.skymaps.com/ This is a helpful link, and shows you how you can download a starchart for your own use. Perhaps you can make such a chart right now. If you have a computer right now, you can print out the chart. Or … you can use the chart that Mrs. DeHaven handed to you earlier today.

19. The Night Sky – Part 2 Good luck … have fun trying to find things in the sky, and I will see you all in a couple of weeks.