During this course, you may or may not have professional telescope equipment available to you. Regardless, there are several virtual tools that allow you to view celestial objects. For this assignment, you will use the Using a Virtual Telescope Template and Stellarium Web, a web-based application to explore several celestial bodies. This interactive and exciting software allows you view images of the universe captured by telescopes throughout the world.
Set-Up Your Virtual Telescope
To begin this assignment, visit the Stellarium Web website. In the lower left corner of the screen, confirm that your current location is shown.
Task 1: Find a Star
In the Search field at the top of the screen, enter Betelgeuse. Click on Betelgeuse in the drop-down menu. A view of the star will appear below the Search field. Using the information panel for the star, provide responses to the following questions:
Task 2: Find a Planet
In the Search field at the top of the screen, enter Venus. Click on Venus (planet) in the drop-down menu. A view of the planet will appear below the Search field. Using the information panel for the planet, provide responses to the following questions:
Task 3: Find a Galaxy
In the Search field at the top of the screen, enter Cigar Galaxy. Click on Cigar Galaxy in the drop-down menu. A view of the galaxy will appear below the Search field. Using the information panel for the galaxy, provide responses to the following questions:
Tool Evaluation
One of the things that astronomers do is continually evaluate the tools that they use throughout their research. Provide responses to the questions below on your Using a Virtual Telescope Template:
Since you will use resources outside of this course to complete this assignment, please submit a Works Cited document. If you need assistance, visit the Developmental Module for information on citing any resources that you use.
Once you have completed your Using a Virtual Telescope Template, please submit your work to the dropbox.
Once you have completed this module, please complete the module test.