Introduction to Astronomy (PHSX 1030)
Adam Johnston
Copyright 2005, Department of Physics, Weber State University, Ogden UT 84408-2508
Revision: 8/23/2003 JES, 1/18/2005 ATJ
On the course web site (http://departments.weber.edu/physics/johnston/astro/observations/) is a list of activities that may be completed as research projects. You should look these over carefully. Be sure to consult your instructor with any questions or concerns.
To receive full credit, your project should be presented as a report. In other words, you should describe the details of the project fully, so that anyone could read your report by itself and understand exactly what you did, what your results were, and what your results mean. Introduce the project so that the reader can understand exactly how you conducted your work. After the intro, describe what you did and what your results were so that if you had lost your report and it was picked up by some stranger, he or she could understand what you did without any other background information. In addition, each project has specific issues or questions that should be addressed in your report. Feel free to report all of the interesting adventures that you experience, such as getting funny looks while you peered through a toilet paper tube, getting lost while driving out to the middle of nowhere, getting arrested and needing your astronomy professor to bail you out of jail, etc.
Note that many of these projects take long periods of time to complete (as long as several months), so you should get started early. These projects are worth a significant portion of your grade, so it would be wise to pay close attention to each project's requirements. It is your responsibility to make sure that you understand these details in a manner that will allow you to complete the project appropriately. Again, consult your instructor with any questions that you may have.
Safety: Many of these projects require going to places away from city lights. It would be best to do this as a group of two or more. Your instructor is more than happy to announce in class who is working on what projects and if they want a companion. Do not go out alone if you do not feel safe.
Many projects require a flashlight so that you can take notes or make sketches in the dark. A bright white flashlight will interfere with your night vision. To correct this, you might try taping a piece of red transparent cellophane or plastic over the flashlight. Or, you may already have a small keychain sized red light. Your eyes are less sensitive to the red light, and thus will not lose their adaptation to the dark.
You should record all observations as accurately as possible. This means that you should even record things that you might think are unimportant, such as counting “zero” stars in your view finder or recording the fact that the moon was obscured by clouds. This makes your data more believable and understandable.
Keep track of when the daylight savings/standard time switch occurs. If you are recording time-of-day for any ongoing project, you should account for the change in local time.
In many cases you will have a collection of numbers recording things like time of night, size of Sun image, distance above the horizon, number of stars, etc. Whenever possible you should report your data in a clear data table. Here is a good quality example of how you might present your data:
Location |
Time |
Individual Star Counts Through Tube |
Sum |
Total Stars Visible at that Location |
|||||||
1 |
2 |
3 |
4 |
5 |
6 |
7 |
8 |
||||
Smiths’ Parking lot, 42nd and Harrison |
9:25 p |
0 |
2 |
0 |
0 |
1 |
3 |
2 |
0 |
8 |
108 |
Ogden’s East Bench, 23rd and Polk |
9:50 p |
3 |
2 |
0 |
5 |
2 |
6 |
9 |
2 |
29 |
390 |
Monte Cristo snowmobile parking lot |
1:05 a |
23 |
18 |
15 |
26 |
20 |
27 |
19 |
24 |
172 |
2312 |
In some cases you might come up with a number that you want to compare with an accepted value. For example, you might be measuring the diameter of the Sun. In such a case you should compare them by using the concept of percent error.
For this example let's assume that you found the Sun’s diameter to be 1.6×106 km and the accepted value (from your textbook) is 1.39 × 106 km. It is NOT correct to say that you “missed” the correct value by a quarter million kilometers! (Which is 0.25 × 106 km in this case.) The correct statement would be, “our final value for the diameter of the Sun was 18% higher than the actual value.” Which, by the way, is actually pretty good agreement considering the quality of your homemade equipment.
To calculate a percentage error, take the difference between your measured value and the "known" value, and divide this by the "known" value. Multiply that result by 100 to make your answer a percentage. See your instructor if this is at all confusing for you.
PLEASE turn in projects on standard (8.5x11), stapled paper whenever possible. Unnecessary binders, covers, poster boards, etc. are difficult to carry and organize for grading. You may also elect to document your project as a web page. See your instructor if you would like to pursue this.
Keep in mind that the observation project is worth a large portion of your grade, and that a fair amount of effort is expected. Projects should be done thoroughly and should be well presented. It is to your advantage to be as descriptive and careful as possible. The projects will be graded according to the following rubric. You should read through this before you complete your project.
Good luck, and have fun!
Description: |
Score: |
Grade equivalent: |
This report was completed with an extraordinary amount of effort. Not only were all aspects of the report completed accurately and completely (meeting the standards of a ‘4,’ described below), but this report showed extra insight and clarity. It likely used many more references than required or typical, and the student spent a great deal of time synthesizing a rich amount of information. This score is received on a small minority of reports. |
5 "Superior" |
100% = A+ |
This report was completed accurately and completely. Any errors in this report are mostly insignificant. Essentially, this score is reserved for reports which reflect total integrity and accuracy, and are generally more sophisticated than the average project. Multiple references were utilized and a large amount of information was synthesized and presented. The report itself is very well focused on a specific question or set of questions. The student learned more from this report than most students in the class. |
4 "Excellent" |
95% = A |
This is a good report. It was complete and generally accurate; and, though it might contain errors, the point of the report is well conceived. This student put an adequate amount of work into the report, utilizing several resources and bringing them together clearly. It is very clear that the student learned something from completing this project. Typically, many students in a class will receive this score. |
3 "Good" |
85% = B |
This report is mostly complete, but it might be missing a major component of the assignment. Or, this report might have many substantial errors in it. While the student completing this report probably learned something from it, s/he also may have missed some important points. It may be that the report was inadequately researched or that the report was too general in its description and focus. Usually, reports receiving this score were completed, but the student could have placed more deliberate effort into the project to improve upon it. |
2 "Adequate" |
70% = C |
This report probably has some major flaws. This may be due to incorrectly completing the project, or just a large-scale lack of effort. Either the student did not fully understand the assignment or simply failed to address the requirements of this assignment. This score is usually received by only a small minority of reports. |
1 "Substandard" |
60% = D |
This report was not completed, or did not satisfy enough project requirements to receive credit. |
0 |
0 |
| Setting Sun | Moon Phases | Astrophotography | Ursa Major | Measuring Earth | Star Count | Meteor Shower | Planet Motion | Moon's Orbit | Star Atlas | Sun Diameter | Variable Star | Sun Spots | Artificial Satellites | Rainy Day Projects | Design Your Own |
Copyright 2005, Department of Physics, Weber State University, Ogden UT 84408-2508
Revision: 8/23/2003 JES, 1/18/2005 ATJ