Editor's Note: Be advised, WoW! goes on summer hiatus beginning 31 May; WoW! may return October '02 (see 27 May WoW!).

27 May 2002 - Top 10 Reasons to Look Up!

Things are looking up? Not in Fairfax County, VA! On Thursday, 23 May 2002, the Fairfax County Public Schools School Board made the astoundingly short-sighted decision to cut by half the FCPS Planetarium Program. Exactly what that means is still unclear, but what is perfectly clear is that opportunities for both students and community members to increase their sky awareness will be either greatly diminished or eliminated. So, please keep looking up--just be aware that your friendly neighborhood planetarian may be unable to serve as your sky guide.

Five (5) reasons for openers, plus one-a-day each day of the week beginning 27 May.

1. "It all begins with the simple act of looking up. The look skyward is the beginning of quests and questioning, because where our gaze goes, our mind follows." - Donna B. Smith, Vanderbilt University
2. The sky is the greatest show on Earth. Well, above the Earth. And it's FREE! It costs nothing (other than a little time) to look up and feast your eyes upon the view (or, if you are confined indoors, to look out and up).
3. The sky is dynamic and ever-changing. The sky is a piece of classical music; nature composes endless sky symphonies. Can't "hear" the music at night? Perhaps it's because you live in a light-polluted urban area. According to Fred Schaaf, Editor, Sky & Telescope magazine, "Growing up with light pollution is like never being allowed to hear music." Turn up the volume--go to a rural location under a really dark, star-filled sky! Or visit your local planetarium.
4. Many skies are simply spectacular to behold. There is no better way to say it--the sky is often magnificently beautiful! It's pleasing to the eye and stirs the soul.
5. Being aware of the sky gives you a sense of connectedness with Nature. We need to remember that our roots are in Nature. An appropriate metaphor is the difference between rooted and cut flowers--eventually, cut flowers die!
6. Because Chicken Little was right! Well, sort of. The sky is not falling, but sometimes stuff falls from the sky! Like flooding rain. Or lightning. On average, flash flooding and lightning are the number one & two deadliest weather hazards, respectively. Being sky aware can help to minimize the risk of personal injury or property damage. (Monday, 27 May 2002)
7. Look for shapes in the clouds during the day (technically known as nephelococcygia); look for patterns among the stars at night, like the Constellation(s) of the Month. (Tuesday, 28 May 2002)
8. Learn to identify the 10 basic cloud types: cirrus, cirrocumulus, cirrostratus, altocumulus, altostratus, nimbostratus, stratocumulus, stratus, cumulus, and cumulonimbus. It's helpful to have a reference such as the Skywatcher's Cloud Chart that shows pictures of the basic and unusual clouds, with names and descriptions. (Wednesday, 29 May 2002)
9. Look for optical phenomena such as sundogs, halos, coronae, contrails, etc. Watch the sunrise or sunset; ponder why the sky is red (or blue). Observe "Earthshine" on the Moon. Watch a meteor shower. (Thursday, 30 May 2002)
10. Feel "grounded" by looking up. Huh? Yep, if you can locate Polaris, the North Star, then you know your latitude on Earth (in the Northern Hemisphere, the altitude of the North Star equals the latitude of the observer). For an explanation of a simple star-hopping trick that can be used to find Polaris, visit the August Constellation of the Month Web page. (Friday, 31 May 2002)
11. There's more than meets the eye! Using a pair of binoculars or an inexpensive telescope, see phenomena invisible to the unaided eye such as craters on the Moon, the Galilean Moons of Jupiter, the rings of Saturn, star clusters (e.g., the Pleiades), and the Andromeda Galaxy, to name a few interesting targets. (Bonus Item)
12. "Things are looking up!" "Nothing but blue skies from now on." "The sky's the limit!" "Shoot for the Moon--even if you miss, you will land among the stars." Colorful expressions such as these enrich the language and suggest that good things happen when you look up. Make good things happen in your life--look up more often! (Bonus Item)

Adapted (with permission) from 10 Reasons to Look UP! by Dr. John Day, a.k.a., the "Cloudman."

20 May 2002 - Station Sightings

The International Space Station (ISS) "...circles the planet approximately 16 times per day, traveling at 17,500 mph in an orbit varying 208 to 285 miles from Earth. Because it reflects sunlight down to Earth, the Space Station often looks like a slow-moving star as it crosses the sky. ... The best time to catch a glimpse of the Space Station is near dawn or dusk, when the viewer is in near-darkness and the passing Station continues to reflect light from the rising or setting Sun." [Quote courtesy Station Sightings, Science@NASA.]

NASA's J-Pass E-Mail Generator "creates satellite prediction reports for up to 10 satellites (plus the Shuttle if it is flying) and e-mails them directly to you. Each report gives you the times your chosen satellites are going to cross through your sky during the next three days, the approximate location, and the visible brightness. ... All you need is a valid e-mail address. Sign up today--it's FREE!"

Teacher Tips: Visit the NASA Orbital Mechanics Web page. The Orbital Velocity and Period Calculator features a good (simple) demonstration of orbital speed using a small object tied to the end of a piece of string. Using an altitude of 240 km above the Earth, experiment with the Orbital Velocity and Period Calculator to verify that the ISS makes approximately 16 orbits per day. [Answer: Orbital period = ~90 min.; 24 hr. = 1,440 min.; 1,440/90 = 16 orbits per day.]

At an average distance of 384,400 km from the Earth, how many days does it take for the Moon to orbit the Earth?

13 May 2002 - National Hurricane Awareness Week

The National Weather Service has declared May 19-25, 2002 as National Hurricane Awareness Week. Each day of the week will have a special emphasis:


SUN	:	History
M-W	:	Hurricane Hazards
THU	:	Forecast
FRI	:	Prepare
SAT	:	Take Action

"The goal of Hurricane Awareness Week is to educate you about the hazards of Hurricanes and provide you with knowledge which can be used to help protect you, your family, and your property." [Quote courtesy the NOAA/NWS Tropical Prediction Center (TPC), formerly known as the National Hurricane Center (NHC).]

06 May 2002 - Tracking Weather Satellites/AMS Interactive Infrared Weather Satellite Image

Tracking Weather Satellites
Track polar-orbiting weather satellites in real-time. Visit the NASA Liftoff to Space Exploration Tracking Web page: use J-Track 2.5 to track all NOAA polar-orbiting weather satellites simultaneously; or view live tracking snapshots for NOAA 12, NOAA 14, or NOAA 15.

Access NOAA polar-orbitting weather satellite imagery from NASA's Global Hydrology and Climate Center. [Interactive Global Geostationary Weather Satellite Images are also available.]

AMS Interactive Infrared Weather Satellite Image
22,300 miles above the Earth's surface, geostationary weather satellites continuously monitor the Earth's dynamic atmosphere. Special satellite sensors measure infrared energy (heat energy) radiated by the Earth, showing the temperature of the tops of clouds and land & water surfaces visible between clouds. Among other advantages, infrared weather satellite imagery (a.k.a., I.R. imagery) is available day and night.

Explore the world through "heat-sensitive eyes" (similar to looking through night-vision binoculars) by visiting the American Meteorological Society (AMS) Interactive Infrared Weather Satellite Image. You will need a Java-capable Web browser; be patient--the Applet takes a while to load! As you move the computer cursor over the image, note that the temperature (in Celsius degrees) and geographic location (latitude & longitude) are displayed for the point on the Earth (or above the Earth, in the case of clouds) below the cursor. Cool, huh? No, it's hot (remember, I.R. sensors detect heat energy).

Teacher Tips: Weather satellite image interpretation is challenging and fun, and provides a variety of opportunities to deliver authentic instruction:


• Practice working with decimal fractions and positive & negative numbers. [Note: the higher the negative number, the lower (colder) the temperature.]
• Temperature scale conversions, e.g., °C-to-°F (and vice versa).
• Practice using geographic coordinates (latitude & longitude) to determine location (Theme 1 of the National Council for Geographic Education Five Themes of Geography).

Challenge students to use an I.R. weather satellite image to demonstrate the following understandings and/or competencies (ranked in degree of difficulty, beginning with the easiest task):

• Given the latitude & longitude of Washington, D.C. (39°N, 77°W), find its location on the satellite image.
• Record the current temperature (either land or cloud top) in the vicinity of Washington, D.C. Convert the temperature from Celsius degrees to Fahrenheit. [Visit the Sterling, VA NWS Forecast Office Web site for an interactive Weather Calculator.]
• Infer the relationship between color (black, white, and shades of gray) and temperature, as shown on I.R. weather satellite imagery.
• Identify land and water surfaces; identify clouds (including high and low clouds).
• Compare land and water temperatures at the same latitude; explain possible causes for the observed temperature difference (if any). Compare land surface temperatures at different latitudes; in general, what is the relationship between surface temperature and latitude? Use geographic coordinates to identify the locations used for comparison.
• Infer the location of the most intense storms by locating areas with the coldest cloud top temperatures. Access other online sources of real-time weather observations which verify your inferences.
• Locate major ocean currents, e.g., the Gulf Stream (requires a relatively cloud-free view of the ocean).

For more information regarding weather satellite image interpretation, visit the UIUC Weather World 2010 Satellite Meteorology Online Remote Sensing Guide.

29 April 2002 - National Lightning Safety Week

National Lightning Safety Week is April 28 to May 4 2002. The goal of the week-long event is to draw attention to the danger of lightning. Lightning is the second deadliest weather hazard (second only to flash flooding). Learn how to minimize your risk by visiting the following lightning-related Web sites:

• Know the enemy! Questions and Answers About Lightning, prepared by the NOAA/NWS National Severe Storms Laboratory (NSSL).
• "Generally speaking, if an individual can see lightning and/or hear thunder he/she is already at risk." Updated Recommendations for Lightning Safety - 1998, is a report from the NSSL Lightning Safety Group that provides potentially life-saving information regarding appropriate action to take when threatened by lightning.
• Is lightning a current (pun intended!) weather hazard where you live? For a view of all lightning activity in the continental United States, visit Lightning Explorer, featuring actual lightning information from the National Lightning Detection Network. (Courtesy Global Atmospherics, Inc. Requires Microsoft Internet Explorer 3.x and 4.x or Netscape 4.x. "Cookies" are used and must be accepted by your Web browser.)

Teacher Tips: Visit the National Weather Service Lightning Safety Web site, Lightning Kills, Play It Safe, featuring Tools for Teachers.


The Weather Channel Project SafeSide - a free collection of cross-curricular lesson plans and activities that teach students how to prepare for severe weather and natural hazards, including lightning, floods, tornadoes, extreme heat, hurricanes, winter weather, and earthquakes. Designed for grades 4-12.

22 April 2002 - Influenza & Conjunction--Making the Connection

The word influenza originates from the Italian Renaissance, when it was believed that the alignment of planets "influenced" outbreaks of illness. Crowding people indoors is the real reason this airborne illness is so prevalent during the winter.

Grammatically speaking, a conjunction is a word used to connect words, phrases, or sentences. And, but, or, and if are conjunctions. Astronomically speaking, a conjunction is the apparent meeting (or alignment) of two or more planets or other heavenly bodies at the same celestial longitude.

Now that spring has sprung, be influenced by the warmer weather to go outdoors to see the extraordinary APR-MAY '02 Planetary Conjunction--it's a beautiful sight to behold, and being outdoors may be healthier than staying indoors!

Teacher Tip: The planetary conjunction provides a great opportunity to deliver some timely, high-interest, cross-curricular instruction. We suggest you dust off your copy of the classic Disney video, Schoolhouse Rock! - Grammar Rock and show the old favorite, "Conjunction Junction." Once students know what a conjunction is (grammatically speaking), you can easily make the connection with an astronomical conjunction--a brief, effective grammar lesson and astronomy lesson rolled into one, as well as good preparation for the Virginia Standards of Learning (SOLs) exams!

15 April 2002 - Top 10 Reasons to Preserve the FCPS Planetarium Program

1. It's fun to visit a planetarium! Teachers and students enjoy visiting the planetarium and learn a lot during their visit, and we have the survey data that shows clearly that the FCPS Planetarium Program is extraordinarily successful!
2. We have space for everyone! The nine FCPS Planetaria serve every student enrolled in Grade Level 4, 5, & 6, delivering high-quality, hands-on instruction that meets or exceeds the Virginia Standards of Learning (SOLs) and FCPS Program of Studies (POS) in astronomy and meteorology. In addition, the planetaria are used frequently by school and community groups such as PTAs, civic associations, adult education classes, and boy & girl scout troops.
3. The sky touches everyone! A visit to the planetarium is a multisensory aesthetic experience that provides immeasurable motivation for many students. For Spacious Skies, a non-profit national effort to increase sky awareness and concern, reports compelling evidence of increased academic performance as a result of increasing students' sky awareness. In 1986, a Harvard study of sky-based learning proved that "sky-aware" students surpass "non-sky" students in several areas of learning, including music appreciation, literary skills, and visual arts skills. Another case in point: read the sky poetry written by Carl Sandburg Middle School Grade Level 7 Language Arts students after their visit to the planetarium--very compelling evidence that the FCPS Planetarium Program is extraordinarily inspiring!
4. Anytime--day or night, rain or shine--sit back, relax, look up and behold the beauty and the wonder of the night sky! The unique 3-D immersive environment of the planetarium is the ideal environment in which to learn about astronomy and meteorology.
5. Virtual reality is far better than reality! As a result of urban light pollution, we see only the 25-or-so brightest stars in the real sky and familiar constellations such as the Big Dipper and Orion the Hunter are often difficult to see. Another sad fact-of-life in a major urban area: in many neighborhoods, it's unsafe for unsupervised young children to go outside at night to skywatch. In contrast, the planetarium--which shows the sky as it would appear in a more pristine environment--provides a safe, stimulating place for children to learn about the sky.
6. "Oh, I get it!" The nine FCPS planetarium teachers are uniquely qualified to deliver instruction in astronomy and meteorology that is scientifically accurate yet interesting and accessible to younger students. Among the nine FCPS planetarium teachers, one team member is formerly Secretary and President of the Middle Atlantic Planetarium Society (MAPS) and is currently a member of the MAPS Board of Directors; she is also serving her third term as Secretary of the International Planetarium Society (IPS). Another planetarium teacher is an American Meteorological Society "Atmospheric Education Resource Agent."
7. The FCPS Planetarium Program is a bright shining star in the constellation of Fairfax County Public Schools! It distinguishes the school system: most school systems don't have a single planetarium; FCPS has nine! Since 1963, the FCPS Planetarium Program has a proven track record of success--that's nearly 40 years of continuous service to the community! The FCPS Planetarium Program Web site (including the Sandburg Center for Sky Awareness) attracts national and international recognition of the academic excellence of FCPS.
8. The nine FCPS planetarium teachers are truly a bargain, routinely providing the same services as planetariums staffed with five or six positions! Regular duties include scheduling, programming, evaluating program efficacy, provisioning, and performing routine maintenance.
9. The investment of approximately $10 million in facilities & equipment has been made already. In reality, it actually costs relatively little to maintain the program. Other than staff salaries, modest financial outlays for annual maintenance (of the planetarium equipment) and field trip transportation are the primary expenses. Bottom line: as long as the equipment is operational, FCPS students should benefit from its use!
10. Less is more? Not always. Sometimes, less costs more! It would actually cost a lot of money to close the nine FCPS Planetaria. In addition to the loss of its initial investment in equipment and supplies, the school system would have to incur the cost to renovate and repurpose the facilities, perhaps as much as a quarter-million dollars per facility!

08 April 2002 - Sky & Telescope's Interactive Sky Chart

"Simulate a naked-eye view of the sky from any location on Earth, at any time of day or night, on any date from 1600 to 2400. Or print an all-sky map."


Teacher Tips: The FCPS Starfinder is a portable planisphere (no PC required) that shows 22-or-so of the most recognizable constellations, which include many of the brightest stars in the night sky. Using a Starfinder is a hands-on activity in which students learn to, well, use a starfinder to locate stars and constellations in the night sky. (Teacher's Answer Key available upon request.)

01 April 2002 - Disasteroid!

A large asteroid (like the one shown to the right) is on a collision course with planet Earth! April Fools? Well, yes and no. Yes, there are plenty of asteroids in near-Earth orbits--estimates range from 700 to 2,000 +1km diameter asteroids with some chance of striking Earth. No, the Earth is not in imminent danger of being struck by an asteroid, but cosmic collisions are a fact of life (and death) in the Solar System, and near-misses occur more frequently than perhaps you realize.


For example, 23 March 1989, an asteroid 0.4 kilometers (0.25 miles) wide travelling 74,000 km/hr (46,000 mi/hr) came within 640,000 kilometers (400,000 miles) of the Earth. If an asteroid of this size were to collide with the Earth, then it would make an impact crater the size of Washington, D.C.--that's a hole in the ground 10 miles wide! The closest approach recorded was on 9 December 1994 when a near-Earth asteroid came within 0.0007AU (103,500 km/64,200mi) of the Earth. [For reference, an astronomical unit (AU) is the mean Earth-Sun distance (150,000,000km or 93,000,000mi); the mean Earth-Moon distance is 0.0026AU (384,400km or 239,000mi).]

Visit the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum Exploring the Planets Web site to learn more about asteroids, including near-Earth asteroids that pose a potential threat to life on Earth.

Teacher Tips: Impact craters are geologic structures formed when a large meteoroid, asteroid or comet smashes into a planet or a satellite. Believe it or not, the Earth has been even more heavily impacted than the Moon! In contrast to the Moon (where craters are well-preserved), craters on the Earth are continually erased by erosion and redeposition as well as by volcanic resurfacing and tectonic activity. Thus only about 120 terrestrial impact craters have been recognized. View several of the more prominent craters on Earth.

Simulate the collision of an asteroid or a comet with any planet in the Solar System! Visit Solar System Collisions to create your own "deep imact!" (Note: the first time you visit this site, click on the "Help" button for useful background information.)

18 March 2002 - The Date of Easter

Every year, Easter occurs on the first Sunday after the first Full Moon after the Spring Equinox (e.g., the Spring Equinox occurred on 20 March 2002, the next Full Moon occurrs on 28 March, and Easter is Sunday, 31 March). Well, usually. For more details, visit The Date of Easter Web page, including the Easter Calculator.


Webmaster's Note: WoW! takes a break--Spring Break, that is--during the week beginning 25 March 2002. WoW! will return on 01 April--no foolin'! With apologies to non-Christians, Happy Easter!

11 March 2002 - Rays Awareness™

On Wednesday, 20 March 2002, the March Equinox, the Sun crosses the plane of the Earth's Equator. For Northern Hemisphere locations, the Sun's rays are most intense (intensity = units of energy per unit of surface area) from the March Equinox 'til the September Equinox, reaching maximum intensity on the June Solstice (for locations north of the Tropic of Cancer).

Stay Safe in the Sun! "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."


Teacher Tips: Me and My Shadow - A Rule-of-Thumb for Safe Sun Exposure features an easy way to tell how much ultraviolet (UV) radiation exposure you and your students are getting during outdoor recess. Background information and hyperlinks to related Sun safety resources are also featured.


Visit the SCSA Themes for 2001-2002 Web page for Today's Predicted UV Index (also see related theme, Rays Awareness™). See yearly graph for Washington, D.C. Daily UV Index.

04 March 2002 - Comet Ikeya-Zhang

A simple comet-watching mnemonic: I C IC C I-Z? (I see icy Comet Ikeya-Zhang?) Maybe. "A newly discovered comet, now approaching the Sun and Earth, could develop into a relatively bright naked-eye object in coming weeks, researchers say. The best views of the comet may be reserved for those under dark skies far from bright lights, but even city dwellers should be able to spot it. ... Ikeya-Zhang's expected path across the sky in the coming weeks will greatly favor Northern Hemisphere observers. During most of March on into early April, the comet will be visible near to the north-northwest horizon about an hour after sundown. Bright moonlight may hinder observations during the last week of March." [Source: Comet makes its celestial entrance, courtesy MSNBC.]

As of 15 February, Ikeya-Zhang's apparent magnitude was +6.8m. For reference, +6.0 is the naked-eye limit at a dark site; +9.0 is the limiting magnitude of 50mm binoculars. Comet Ikeya-Zhang is expected to peak somewhere between +3.5 and +3.0. "The 1986 appearance of Halley's Comet, considered disappointing by many, also peaked at around magnitude 3.0. In contrast, Comet Hale-Bopp, which put on a memorable show in April 1997, attained a brightness close to magnitude -1, or about 60 times brighter than Halley." [Source: ibidem, MSNBC]

For more information (including graphics showing where to look in the sky for the comet), read Comet Ikeya-Zhang (updated 01 MAR '02), an article featured at Sky & Telescope online.

Teacher Tip: Naked-eye comets are rare; comets like Hale-Bopp are quite rare. It may turn out that Comet Ikeya-Zhang is never as bright as expected, but it's a comet-watching opportunity nonetheless! So encourage students to look for it in the real sky--first-hand observation of a comet can be a once-in-a-lifetime experience! Best viewed with binoculars, see the SCSA Basic Tools of the Skywatcher/Amateur Astronomer Web page for pointers to expert advice on choosing & using binoculars for skygazing.

25 FEB 2002 - Perigee & the Full Moon; the Moon Illusion

27 February 2002, the closest perigee of the year coincides with the Full Moon (see the Lunar Perigee and Apogee Calculator). Huh? The Moon's orbit around the Earth is an ellipse (not a perfect circle), therefore the Earth-Moon distance varies: perigee is when the Moon is closest to the Earth; apogee is when the Moon is farthest. Does the Earth-Moon distance vary enough to affect the apparent size of the Moon? In a word, yes (see Inconstant Moon - The Moon at Perigee and Apogee or Big Moonshine), although the difference may be imperceptible to all but the most careful observers.


Read about the "Moon Illusion," an unrelated phenomenon wherein some people perceive that the Moon appears to be larger when it is near the horizon than when it is higher in the sky:

• Explaining The Moon Illusion - why the Moon looks larger close to the horizon (by Lloyd Kaufman and James Kaufman for the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences) [reference: USNO Data Services FAQ]
• Scientists Offer Answer to Baffling Lunar Illusion

Teacher Tips: In the activity, What Is the Diameter of the Moon?, students use geometry to measure and calculate the diameter of the Full Moon. Courtesy DiscoverySchool.com.

A couple of Moon-related SCSA activities:

• Students explore ellipses in What are the Shapes of the Planets' Orbits?.
• Students discover the cycle of Moon phases 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.

Visit the SCSA Themes for 2001-2002 Web page for Today's Moon phase; also see related theme, Tracking Satellites: Natural & Man-made.

18 February 2002 - the Blue Marble

The NASA Earth Observatory Blue Marble Web page provides "true-color global imagery at 1km resolution. These images are freely available to educators, scientists, museums, and the public."

Also, visit Visible Earth, the NASA searchable catalog of images, visualizations, and animations of the Earth. Human Dimensions/Population includes some very compelling imagery, e.g., Earth's City Lights. Look at the United States--can you say light pollution? Can you infer which countries are among the world's larger energy consumers?

11 FEB 2002 - Real-Life Natural Hazards

The NASA Earth Observatory Natural Hazards Web site enables one to "...see satellite images of real-life natural hazards around the world. Among the recent snapshots on display have been views of lava spewing from Mount Nyiragongo in the Congo and a dramatic series of pictures of a tropical cyclone spinning near Madagascar [shown right]." Courtesy Leslie Walker, The Washington Post, 10 FEB 2002.

04 FEB 2002 - Black History Month

February is Black History Month. Celebrate Black History Month by taking a virtual tour of Meridian Hill Park and Jones Point Lighthouse--a couple of Washington, D.C. landmarks that are part of the lasting legacy of Benjamin Banneker, "America's first black man of science."

• Meridian Hill Park - Meridian Hill Park falls along the line that bisects the diamond shape of Washington, D.C.; Jones Point Lighthouse, Alexandria, VA (see second bulleted item, below) falls in the southernmost corner of the diamond.

  "The park has had a long and varied history. In 1819, John Porter erected a mansion on the grounds and called it Meridian Hill because it was on the exact longitude of the original District of Columbia milestone marker, set down on April 15, 1791 at Jones Point, Virginia by Major Andrew Ellicott assisted by Benjamin Banneker, an African-American astronomer and mathematician. It was to this mansion that John Quincy Adams moved when he left the White House in 1829. At that time, the entire high ground surrounding the park was known as Meridian Hill." (Courtesy National Park Service Meridian Hill Park Web page.)

• Jones Point Lighthouse - Visit the Alexandria Archaeology Museum Jones Point Lighthouse Web pages. See how the WOODROW WILSON BRIDGE PROJECT is working to preserve The Archaeology of Jones Point Park.

28 JAN '02 - Solar Max and the "The Resurgent Sun"

Most astronomers agree that the solar maximum peaked sometime during Spring 2001, right? Maybe not! "Evidence is mounting that some solar cycles are double-peaked. The ongoing solar maximum may itself be a double--and the second peak has arrived." For details, read The Resurgent Sun, courtesy Science@NASA. Visit the SCSA Themes for 2001-2002 Web page for Today's sunspot number (also see related theme, Sun-Earth Connection).


Teacher Tips: Learn about the Sun by visiting the following Web pages: Solar Max's "Hot Facts"; and Amazing Facts about the Sun (from the Solar Max Educator's Guide). Play "Solar Max Facts in Five - The Game of Solar Knowledge" (a variation of the classic 3M® trivia game). Divide the class into teams of four- to five students per team. Provide each team with hardcopy of the Solar Max fact sheets (access a printer-friendly version of the SolarMax's "Hot Facts" Web page); players have five minutes to become familiar with the fact sheets. Collect the fact sheets. Teams have five minutes to record as many solar facts as they can recall. Teams receive one point for each correct answer. After a pre-determined number of rounds, the team with the most points is the winner. Award prizes to the winning team, e.g., Atomic Fireballs® (get it?).

21 January 2002 - Wintery Mix

Snow, sleet, freezing rain--a "wintery mix." Did you know that most precipitation (including rain) starts as snow? See how the three-dimensional structure of the atmosphere determines the type of precipitation that reaches the Earth's surface: How winter storms bring rain, ice and snow, courtesy USA TODAY Weather.


Teacher Tips: 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. For example, Computer-Aided Design (CAD) of snowflakes using Snowflake Designer (requires Shockwave Player multimedia plug-in for your Web browser):

1. Design virtual snowflakes before actually cutting folded paper. This is so cool!
2. Challenge students to duplicate a specific snowflake pattern, e.g., Wilson Bentley's snowflake photomicrographs. Test patterns using Snowflake Designer.

14 January 2002 - New NWS Wind Chill Chart

One of the bigger winter weather hazards is wind chill, the apparent temperature that results from the combined effect of air temperature and wind speed. Did you know that exposed flesh will freeze at a wind chill of less than -25°F! See how low air temperatures and high wind speeds can combine to produce dangerously cold wind chill temperatures by visiting the National Weather Service Office of Climate, Water, and Weather Services Wind Chill Chart, including a Wind Chill Calculator that compares old with new wind chill indices.


Teacher Tip: Guide students to examine maps of air temperature, wind speed , and wind chill temperature, courtesy the Weather Underground. Use these maps to record the air temperature, wind speed, and wind chill temperature at selected U.S. locations, including your home town. Challenge students to infer the interrelationships among air temperature, wind speed, and wind chill temperature. For example, at a constant temperature, as wind speed increases, how does the wind chill temperature change?

07 January 2002 - Year of the Palindrome

2002 - The Year of the Palindrome. So what's a palindrome? A palindrome is a perfectly symmetrical word, phrase, or number that reads the same forward or backward. Several astronomy-related examples include Ara (one of 88 official constellations), noon, RADAR, "A Santa at NASA," "Tons of UFOs? Not!" and "No, it is opposition."


Teacher Tip: Challenge students to list other word, phrase, and number palindromes. When was the last "Year of the Palindrome?" The next? How many palindromic clock times can you identify (e.g., 10:01, 11:11, etc.)? Provide several examples for students and turn 'em loose to brainstorm. Good fun as well as a good Language Arts lesson!

24 December 2001 - Happy Holidays!!!

WoW! takes a break for the holidays. WoW! will resume next year. Whoa, don't tell me you fell for that old joke! But seriously folks, WoW! will resume 07 January 2002. 'Til then, Happy Holidays!!!

17 December 2001 - Where in the World is Santa Claus?

The Official NORAD Tracks Santa Claus Web Site. The Website has a variety of high-tech features and tackles numerous aspects of Santa Claus--including calculations of cookie and milk consumption; how he gets around the world so quickly; how he gets down the chimney, etc. On Christmas Eve, the page will track Santa using digital animation, satellite/cockpit images and audio reports from Cheyenne Mountain--NORAD's Operations Command Center. New images and reports will be posted every hour for a 24-hour period. The site is available in English, French, Spanish, Italian and Japanese. (Requires the Shockwave Flash multimedia plug-in for your Web browser.)

03 December 2001 - Starry, Starry Night--Not!

Urban light pollution--a glowing environmental problem "that threatens to erase the night sky...." It is estimated that as many as 2/3 of all people living in the United States (1/2 worldwide) have never seen the Milky Way! For more information on light pollution, see the following resources:
• The Fading Milky Way (Science@NASA)
• Earth's City Lights (NASA Earth Observatory)
• Bright Lights, Big City (NASA Earth Observatory)
• The World Atlas of the Artificial Night Sky Brightness
• The Bortle Dark-Sky Scale (Sky & Telescope magazine)
• International Dark-Sky Association - a non-profit member organization that teaches others how to preserve the night sky

26 November 2001 - Days of the Week

Surely at some point in your life it must have occurred to you that the word "Sunday" originates from "Sun Day." It isn't a big stretch to connect "Monday" with "Moon Day." Stretching a li'l further, "Saturday" sounds like "Saturn Day." But what about the other days of the week--what is the origin of their names? The NASA Liftoff to Space Exploration Days of the Week Web page explains the origins of the names for, well, the days of the week.


Teacher Tip: The study of the origin of words is called etymology. Challenge students to trace the origin of other interesting astronomy-related words, e.g., the names of the nine planets in our Solar System. Hint: In many cases, Webster's Dictionary provides the etymology of a word.

19 November 2001 - Are You Clock-wise?

Ever wonder why is clockwise Clockwise? As it turns out, for objects in the Northern Hemisphere, shadows cast by the Sun move in a clockwise direction. In fact, the word hour means "the day" or "Sun's path." For details, see the How Sundials Work Web page.


Teacher Tips: Use shadows to tell time! Assemble a simple equatorial sundial, courtesy NASA Liftoff to Space Exploration. For more shadow-related Web resources and suggested teaching strategies (including solar time-keeping), visit the SCSA Me and My Shadow - Making the Sun-Earth Connection Web page.

12 November 2001 - Yin & Yang in the Universe

Ever notice that when the midday Sun is low in the sky, the midnight Full Moon is high (and vice versa)? As we approach the December Solstice (21 DEC), the altitude of the Sun at transit decreases to its lowest point annually. At the same time, the altitude of the Full Moon at transit increases to its highest point annually. (See supporting Sun and Moon Data.) While the science of astronomy provides a perfectly rational explanation for these keen observations, the ancient Chinese philosophy of Yin and Yang offers an alternative explanation. Visit Yin and Yang - Dynamic Equilibrium in the Universe to learn more about, well, yin and yang--the Chinese philosophy of the nature of the Universe.


Teacher Tip: Midday/midnight. High/low. Increasing/decreasing. Light/dark. It's a bit of a stretch, but the study of Yin and Yang could lead to a Language Arts lesson on antonyms (words of opposite meaning).

05 November 2001 - Beginning of Ramadan

"The Islamic calendar is based on lunar months, which begin when the thin Crescent Moon is actually sighted in the western sky after sunset within a day or so after New Moon." Ramadan is the name for one of the 12 months of the Islamic calendar. The New Moon occurs on 15 November 2001; the first day of Ramadan is 17 November 2001. "The Islamic date begins at sunset on the previous evening [16 NOV] and ends at sunset on the [17th]." For details, see the U.S. Naval Observatory article, Crescent Moon Visibility and the Islamic Calendar (source of preceding quotes).


Teacher Tip: Challenge students to devise other methods of time-keeping and calendar-making based upon observable astronomical motions. For example, an equatorial sundial may be used to make the connection between the Earth's rotation & revolution and solar time-keeping. Or make a calendar similar to The Sun Also Sets - A Horizon Calendar Activity, courtesy Passport to Knowlege Live from the Sun.

29 October 2001 - Astronomy-Related Flags & Geography Awareness Week

The Alaska state flag (shown left) features the Big Dipper, an asterism in Ursa Major, one of the more prominent constellations visible from the Northern Hemisphere. The "Pointer Stars"--the two stars at the end of the cup of the Big Dipper--form a straight line that points toward Polaris, the North Star (upper-right corner of flag). As the northernmost state in the United States, Alaska's state flag literally says Alaska is the "star of the north."


Teacher Tips: Celebrate Geography Awareness Week, Nov. 11-17, 2001. Challenge students to discover some of the many astronomy-related flags from countries around the world by visiting the NationalGeographic.com Flags and Facts Web page. Use a world map and push-pins to locate countries with astronomy-related flags. Hint: There are lots of flags with stars, crescent moons, and suns. One of the more interesting astronomy-related flags is the flag of Brazil. Visit The Stars [on the Flag of Brazil] for an explanation of the star patterns shown on the flag. Also worth a look: the flags of South Carolina (Waxing Crescent Moon), Australia (the Southern Cross). and Turkey (Waning Crescent Moon and Crab Nebula Supernova).


Or challenge students to identify the flags of each of the 16 partner countries in the International Space Station program. (Teacher's Answer Key available upon request.)

22 October 2001 - 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!

15 October 2001 - SCSA Shadow Length Calculator

As the season changes from summer to fall to winter, notice that the length of your shadow at noon gets longer (and vice versa from winter to spring to summer). Given your height and the altitude of the Sun, the SCSA Shadow Length Calculator will calculate the length of your shadow. Go outside to verify your prediction: stand with your back to the Sun; measure the length of your shadow from the mid-point of your footsteps to the top of your head.


Teacher Tips: Explore the daily and annual cycles of change in the path of the Sun across the sky. Great Circle Studio's Solar Calculator will calculate the Sun's altitude and azimuth for a user-specified location, date & time, and data interval. A variety of output modes are available. Use this information to predict how the length of your shadow would change daily and annually (at the same time each day) by visiting the SCSA Shadow Length Calculator. Guide students to construct graphs of the daily and annual changes in the Sun's altitude; make connections between the Sun's altitude and daily and annual cycles of temperature change.

For more shadow-related Web resources and suggested teaching strategies, visit the SCSA Me and My Shadow - Making the Sun-Earth Connection Web page.

08 October 2001 - The Degree Confluence Project

Webster's Dictionary defines confluence as "a coming or flowing together, meeting, or gathering at one point."

The Degree Confluence Project is 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!

Teacher Tip: Use a GPS receiver to pinpoint your exact location (well, almost). Location-Finding Using Global Positioning System (GPS), by Phil Wherry & Walter Sanford is a classroom-ready activity in which you will learn how to use a GPS receiver to locate your exact position on Earth (lat/long), and in the process, discover how the Global Positioning System actually works.

01 October 2001 - Powers of Ten

Based upon the classic short film Powers of Ten by Charles Eames, the Web site A Question of Scale takes you on "a journey from the inside of a proton to the farthest reaches of the Universe."


Teacher Tips: Celebrate Powers of Ten Day, 10 October 2001. The focus for this year is Powers of Ten and the Human Body.

After a visit to the Sandburg Planetarium, provide students with the opportunity to explore the Web site A Question of Scale for a more in-depth look at the scale (size and distance) of the Sun, Earth, and Moon relative to the Universe, topics covered by the Virginia Standards of Learning (Standard 4.7 - Earth Patterns, Cycles, and Change).


Related Web sites:

• Powers of Ten animation (Java applet)
• Voyage - A Journey Through Our Solar System - a virtual tour of the Solar System from the Challenger Center for Space Science Education, Smithsonian Institution, and NASA

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