 |
"There it is. Can you see it? The North Star is at the tip of the handle of the Little Dipper. The handle is pointing down...
|
 |
...In January it looks like the North Star is the nail that it is hung upon...
|
 |
...Now look a bit to the right of the North ta and you will find the Big Dipper. It looks like it is standing up on its handle. Some say one dipper is pouring into the other." -A Pocket Full of Pinecones, Karen Androlea
|
Have you ever noticed that the colder the night is, the clearer the stars are? Winter nights are wonderful for clear stargazing. Two years ago, to make stargazing easier for my young ones, I prepared them by teaching them what to look for while we were inside all snug and warm. We sketched the two dippers and the patterns of stars that make them up. The Big Dipper is one of the most easily recognizable groups of stars in the sky, being circumpolar (never setting below the horizon) and therefore visible in northern skies year-round. (Lesson 224 in Handbook of Nature Study). The sky was clear of clouds, I bundled them up to find them in the night sky and I also tempted them with the promise of hot cocoa once we found them.
They found the two Dippers, and the North Star. First Student also found and showed us Cassiopeia. We will study this constellation (HNS, lesson 225) as well this week and draw this in their nature journals.
Another constellations to look in the winter sky is Orion (HNS, lesson 226). "Orion is one of the most beautiful constellations in the heavens. It is especially marked by the three stars which form Orion's belt, and the line of stars below the belt which form the sword."- Handbook of Nature Study page 825
 |
| 2/21/08 |
We often look at the moon at night, especially when it is full. Three years ago First Student and Third Student spent two hours viewing a lunar eclipse. They would come in to get warm and then go back out again. They were totally awed by it.
 |
| In August 2009, we bought a Gallileoscope kit and my husband put it together, showing the boys the parts and how they went together to make the telescope. |
 |
8/09
Since then we sometimes get out the Gallileoscope to stargaze in the summer. |
 |
| But we also steal outside for a few minutes at times during the winter too to see the moon. |
resources:
