School Nights:
- The Redlands Astronomical Society is commited to assisting the local community and school groups with respect to astronomy.
- Typical activities are Night Sky Viewing with telescopes, guided Laser Pen tours etc. We can Manage groups of 20-25 in rotations.
- Whilst attending RAS Members are Blue Card Holders, we do ask that teachers attend with their students to assist and participate.
- We do ask a modest donation to assist with equipment maintence and travel costs etc.
- We are weather dependant (Clear Skies a must) as we do not currently have a classroom program.
- As an amateur group we do like early notice and we limit our selves a few functions each year (Get in early - Contact our President).
Expectations:
Pending the time of Year we can expect to see our major planets: Saturn (Rings & 2-3 moons), Venus, Mars, Jupiter (4 Galilean Moons), Asterism's and Globular Star clusters, Southern Cross (Finding south and basic navigation), bright nebulae etc and occasionally our Moon.
Here are some images of what we may be able to view. (most images will appear as Monochrome to the human eye)
For Teachers:
SCHOOL NIGHT PLANNING
RAS members have developed some simple activities sheets for various ages that will help make the viewing evening more relevant and interesting to students of all ages.
DOWNLOAD a School Planner, a Moon Rise Sheet and Activity Sheets below.
We would appreciate any feedback from schools or educators to help us improve these activities. Note: Activity Sheet approx 4MB download
The following video was shot at a school night. The movement is real time with the Moon moving through a 5" telescope and a DSLR camera attached to the back. Note: Caption/Google annotations do not work on IOS mobile devices (go figure Google?)
NASA has some excellent school based programs available online, e.g.
NASA School Project
About "Solar System Math" “Solar System Math” is a series of four classroom lessons centered on pre-algebra topics such as measurement, unit conversion, ratio and proportion, scale, data analysis, and data representation. The downloadable software application, What’s the Difference, supports the lessons with engaging multimedia that accurately illustrates the size, distance, and composition of the bodies in our solar system as well as key concepts such as transfer orbit and synodic period. By exploring key attributes of our solar system’s planets and major moons, students decide where humans should next explore. These lessons were developed in response to a needs-assessment conducted for the NASA Explorer Schools and are aligned with national math standards for grades 5-8. The lessons and What’s the Difference software nicely blend science and math through quality hands-on investigations, multimedia, and paper-and-pencil activities. READ MORE > > > http://quest.nasa.gov/vft/#wtd
