Astronomy GCSE : Week 1
2016–17 course delivered by Think Physics and the Centre for Life
Apps
Download Stellarium, a terrific free planetarium app for Windows, Mac OS and Linux. It’s really useful for planning observing sessions, and will allow you to work out what’s what in the night sky. Celestia is also worth exploring, also on desktops and laptops and also free.
On phones and tablets there’s a huge choice of apps. Some are free, but the ones in Stellarium’s league tend to cost a few pounds. Take a look at Mobile Observatory (Android), Pocket Universe (iOS), Star Walk 2 (iOS, Android, Windows 10) and the web-based Google Sky. Most of these mobile apps have a ‘dark mode’ which won’t ruin your night vision.
Web Links for Week 1
These sites give some more details about the names of different stars and how they came about.
- http://www.starlight-nights.co.uk/star-names
- http://www.ianridpath.com/startales/contents.htm
- http://www.iau.org/public/themes/constellations/
- http://www.funbrain.com/constellation/index.html
- http://www.astrocentral.co.uk/starting.html
This site explains why we can only see some stars at certain times of the year.
Stardeck Playing Cards
The Stardeck playing cards were adapted from a set produced by Michael Shepherd. You can download your own copy of the full set if you want to make your own version. You can also read an explanation of the symbols (PDF link) on each card, and a short introduction to the story of each constellation.
Specification Statements for Week 1
- Describe the appearance of stars, double stars, asterisms, constellations, open clusters, nebulae and globular clusters in the night sky.
- Demonstrate an understanding of how stars within a constellation are labelled according to brightness (using Greek letters α to ε).
- Demonstrate an awareness of how the official list of constellations became established and cultural differences in this list.
- Recognise and draw the Plough, Orion, Cygnus and Cassiopeia.
- Demonstrate the use of ‘pointers’ and other techniques to find other celestial objects, including:
- Arcturus and Polaris from the Plough.
- Sirius, Aldebaran and the Pleiades from Orion.
- Fomalhaut and the Andromeda Galaxy from the Great Square of Pegasus.
- Demonstrate an understanding that some constellations are visible from a given latitude throughout the year, but others are seasonal.
