The Night Sky Live

nightskylive.net Education Page

Below are two education modules using CONCAM images that are useful for teaching introductory concepts. Each module has an on-line hyperlinked quiz complete with answers. More modules are being developed.

Available education modules:
1. Variable Stars
2. Diurnal Motion
3. Variability of Polaris (beta)
4. Astrometry of Meteors (beta)

CONCAM images are quite similar to the sky visible to the unaided human eye from a dark location. Since many people don't live in a dark location, CONCAM images are one place to learn the nighttime sky. CONCAM images also show the sky as it appears far across the Earth. Many find the similarities comforting and the differences fascinating!

CONCAM images have already proven valuable in demonstrating that different places on Earth have different local times (meaning that the Sun is up some places and down others), that all places on Earth see the same phase of the Moon at the same time, that the Earth's rotation causes stars to appear to circle a point on the sky (Polaris in the north), the appearance of constellations, planets, meteors, aurorae, satellite glints, and zodiacal light. Finding examples of each in CONCAM data is one interesting and simple exersize.