Constellation Project

Direction: Write down the purpose and answer any questions in the project.

Purpose: Can you use multiple tables to decode the spectral class of a star?

Project:

  1. What is the name of your Northern Hemisphere constellation?
  2. What is your constellations X,Ycoordinates from the “star chart”?
  3. Open the app on your tablet titled “Star Chart”
  4. On the upper right hand corner click on the top right symbol.
  5. Click on the word constellation and then scroll down to the constellation you selected.
  6. Use the star chart app on your tablet to fill in the data table sheet you received: filling in the Spectral Class, Distance, and Name of the Star for each of the stars in your constellation.
  7. Using the Star InformationChart to decode each “spectral class”, filling in the remaining table headings.
  8. When you have completed your data table show your teacher.
  9. Using the “distance in light years” from your data table draw a line to show the scale of how much distance is between each of the stars in your constellation. Use the scale factor of 1 light year = .01 cm and draw on the large black construction paper your model.
  10. Label each line with the # you have assigned to each stars name.
  11. Count the number of each size star you need.
  12. Get the appropriate stars from the bins (or you may have cut a couple if there are none remaining) by looking at your data table and getting the appropriate sizes.
  13. Color the stars accordingly using a colored pencil, marker, or crayon.
  14. Put your stars that you have colored into the appropriate layout to best replicate the constellation on the large black construction paper. Do this first without gluing them down.
  15. After the stars are in an alignment that makes and looks like your constellation glue the stars into the appropriate spots.
  16. Using white chalk, connect the stars to make the appropriate look of your constellation.
  17. Show your teacher when you have completed.
  18. What is the story of how your constellation got its name? (use the pdf “Stories of the constellation”) and the internet. Make sure to put the story in your OWN words. Stories should be longer than 5 sentence.
  19. Show story to teacher when complete.
  20. If you selected a constellation that is not in the “Stories of the Constellation” research on the internet your constellations story. If you still can not find it, write your own story for your constellation. See the teacher for more details.

Analyzing the Data:

  1. Are all stars a constellation near each other?
  2. Why do you think that all the stars in a constellation look like they are the same distance?
  3. What real world situation have you seen things that look the same size and distance until you get up to them?
  4. Why do all stars in a constellation look like they are all the same size from Earth, but in reality they are not?
  5. What did you learn about the relationship between color and temperature of stars?