The Tech Savvy Teacher Explores the Night Sky

We all go to school during the day, when the sun is out. How, then, can our students have a real-life experience observing the night sky at school? Our class found the answer using a brand-new technology tool called Stellarium. This program is another great reason to be a Tech Savvy Teacher!

As part of our unit on space and the solar system, our class has been learning about the rotation and revolution of the earth and moon. Because of the tilt of the earths’ axis, we have not only seasons, but seasonal constellations in the night sky as well. This phenomenon is difficult to observe at school—unless you have the help of a handy tool like Stellarium. Using Stellarium, our class first observed the rotation of the earth around the sun in both normal time and fast motion. Next, we saw how our position on Earth affected our view of the night sky.

The best part of our classroom space exploration, however, was watching the apparent movement of the constellations across the night sky throughout the year. From our paper star charts, we noted that certain constellations are visible during the night only at certain times of the year. We got to see the constellations in action as we fast-forwarded through time in Stellarium. With the click of a mouse, we visited the constellations of the summer sky, such as Lyra and Ophiuchus. Next, the constellations visible on a winter evening appeared for our viewing pleasure, and we watched Canis Major follow Orion across the sky. Stellarium even showed us the different constellation images superimposed on the stars, so we got to see how the abstract groups of stars represented pictures of people, animals, and objects.

The program Stellarium brought the night sky into our classroom in broad daylight. Our class traveled through time and even turned off the light of the sun using this handy-dandy technology. Try using Stellarium for your own space unit. It will take you on a grand tour of the sky!

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This wonderful diagram shows why we have different seasons, and how the Earth rotates around the sun.

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This particular image shows how the Earth's position according to the time of year influences what constellations can be seen in the night sky.

This image shows the opening of the program Stellarium. It also details the tool box in which students may alter the time, date, or location of the sky they are viewing.

This image shows the summer night sky on Stellarium. Can you find the constellations Lyria and Coronas Borialis?

This is an image of the winter night sky in Stellarium. Can you find Orion and Canis Major?