Increasing Your Sky Awareness

• Top 10 Reasons to Look Up!
• Basic Tools of the Skywatcher/Amateur Astronomer

  Are you aware that the sky is on the air?
  Huh? Look, listen (with RealPlayer), and enjoy the online version of the following sky awareness radio programs:

  • The Weather Notebook, A Radio Show about Weather and Everyday Life from the Mount Washington Observatory (home of the world's worst weather).
  • StarDate radio--the longest-running science feature in the country--is the daily astronomy-related radio program produced by the McDonald Observatory, University of Texas.
  • Earth & Sky @World of Science includes a link to "Tonight's Sky," featuring a sky chart generated by Starry Night Deluxe.

• Do you remember how the sky looked this morning? How does it look now? Visit the WeatherNet4 CityCam Web site to see the current skyscape in Washington, D.C. You can also access the last three (3) hours of archived images, captured every 15 minutes (Netscape 4.x required).
• The Sandburg Center for Sky Awareness proudly presents the State of Sky Kiosk--an online automated "slideshow" presenting a series of sky-related Web pages, featuring the current sky (day & night) as well as some of the sky's greatest hits. In a little more than 10 minutes, the kiosk provides a fairly comprehensive picture of, well, the current state of the sky. For some "slides," the content is "randomized," meaning that a slightly different Web page will appear during subsequent cycles through the slideshow. Just point your Web browser to the kiosk "splash" page, sit back, and enjoy!
• Test Your Sky-Q (astronomy-related)
• Look Up! Quiz and Sky Awareness Activities (weather-related)

• Plan to celebrate National Sky Awareness Week (NSAW), April 21-27, 2002. Its theme is: "THE SKY - Where Meteorology Meets the Heavens and the Earth." This year, Astronomy Week/Day precedes NSAW: Astronomy Week is April 15-21, 2002; Astronomy Day is April 20th. Astronomy Day has a special theme: "Sun-Earth Day." The NASA Sun-Earth Connection Education Forum has set up a special Web site providing Astronomy Day theme-related resources.

• Clouds, clouds, and more clouds! And even more clouds!
  • Skywatcher's Cloud Chart - online, interactive version of the popular cloud chart from The Weather Channel & For Spacious Skies, a national effort to increase sky awareness and concern.
  • Intellicast - Dr. Dewpoint Weather 101: All About Clouds
  • All about clouds (popular title, huh?) from USA TODAY Weather
  • Australian Weather Photography. Also visit Harald Edens' Netherlands Weather Photography Web site, which features cloud, lightning, atmospheric optical phenomena, and astronomy photographs.
  • Ever imagine that you see shapes in the clouds (technically known as nephelococcygia)? You're not alone! Visit Cool Clouds for "Kids" of All Ages to see the "Energizer Bunny" and other interesting shapes in the clouds. Also visit CloudE Momma's Web site to see a unique cloud "E"-clipse!
• Weatherwise magazine Annual Photo Contest Winners: 1999; 2000; 2001; 2002; 2003
• Assuming the sky is cloud-free, approximately how many stars are visible in the night sky? Well, as you can see from a Light Pollution Map of the Washington, D.C. Area, that depends upon where you live. Fact of the matter is, in the most light-polluted areas of the region, only the 25-or-so brightest stars are visible! See what you're missing: visit your local planetarium.
• Snowflakes - A Thematic Approach provides K-12 teachers with a flurry of ideas for using snow to deliver interesting and exciting interdisciplinary instruction perfect for the winter season.
• Annotated links to a variety of other sky awareness resources

Sun-Earth Connection

• Me & My Shadow - Making the Sun-Earth Connection - an SCSA Web page of theme-related resources and classroom-ready activities.
• The NASA Sun-Earth Connection Education Forum Solar Events Web page, featuring hyperlinks to Solar Webcast, Sun-Earth Day, Solar Week, and The Space Weather Center Exhibit.
• The NASA Sun-Earth Connection Education Forum, including information and resources related to Sun-Earth Day, 20 March 2002.
• Sun-Earth Connection Tutorial
• From NASA and the Exploratorium, two great Web sites: Solar Max 2000, Your Guide to the Year of the Active Sun; and Auroras 2000, Your Guide to the Northern and Southern Lights.
• From the Space Environment Center, the NOAA Space Weather Scales were introduced in November 1999 as a way to communicate to the general public the current and future space weather conditions and their possible effects on people and systems. Analogous to hurricanes, tornadoes, and earthquakes, the Space Weather Scales have numbered levels that convey severity.
• Ask Mr. Sunspot - This is one of those frames sites where you'll have to navigate to the resource. Click on "Mr. Sunspot" in the "Sections" menu (left column).
• The Space Weather Bureau
• Auroras - Paintings in the Sky

Rays Awareness™

• Rays Awareness™ - Don't get burned by too much of a good thing.™ "Rays Awareness is The Weather Channel's national campaign designed to educate people about the dangers of overexposure to the sun, while enabling them to enjoy the outdoors in a safe and healthy manner."
• What is ultraviolet (UV) radiation? Part of the Electromagnetic Spectrum.
• The Ultraviolet Index (UV Index) overview, including a link to EPA's new SunWise School Program regarding Sun safety; National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) UV Index map.
• Ozone Depletion and UV Radiation; EPA's Ozone Depletion Home Page; Sunburn Cam, courtesy Discovery Channel Online.

Tracking Satellites: Natural & Man-made

Natural Satellites
The Moon is planet Earth's only natural satellite, revolving around the Earth once a month. Get to know some of its prominent surface features using the space.com Skywatcher's Guide to the Moon (including a Printable Moon Map).

Teacher Tips: Students discover the month-long cycle of Moon phases (see sidebar, left) in the interactive online activity, Birthday Moons - It's Just a Phase You're Going Through... (recommended for Grade 3 and higher). For activity extension &/or enrichment, visit the Related Internet information resources Web page, featuring annotated links to a few selected Moon phase-related World Wide Web sites.

Man-made Satellites
Be they faint streaks or brilliant flares, satellite observing is like watching man-made "shooting stars!" Track the International Space Station (ISS) in real-time. The NASA Liftoff to Space Exploration Tracking Web page makes it easy to locate some of the larger man-made objects in space, including the ISS, Space Shuttle (when in orbit), Hubble Space Telescope, or NOAA polar-orbiting weather satellites. Or use J-Pass Version 2.5 beta to calculate the next visible pass of these man-made satellites (your Web browser must support Java applets).

A highly recommended non-NASA satellite tracking Web site, Heavens-Above provides daily predictions for all satellites brighter than a user-specified limiting magnitude (use 3.5 for light-polluted urban areas), as well as detailed star charts showing the satellite's track through the heavens. All Heavens-Above Web pages, including the graphics, are generated in real-time and customized for the user's location and time zone. "Anonymous users" will need to specify their location (once per session), otherwise it is unnecessary to become a registered user.

Editor's Note: Under light-polluted urban skies, it is difficult if not impossible to see most man-made satellites. But at an apparent magnitude of -1, the International Space Station (ISS) is as bright as some of the visible planets--I have seen the ISS every time I looked for it!

GPS - The New North Star

Location-Finding Using Global Positioning System (GPS), including annotated links to a variety of GPS-related resources.

• The Degree Confluence Project - where geography and GPS technology intersect. Visit virtually all of the points where a line of latitude and longitude meet (integer degree intersections), or trek to locate the point of confluence nearest you!
• Geocaching - the high-tech sport where you are the search engine! A handheld GPS receiver and a hunger for adventure are all you need to play this 21st century version of hide-&-seek.

Geoscience-Related Information Servers | Geosystems in FCPS