Help with science assessment

[BulletConsumer]

hey, im 13 and i need to do a first hand investigation task on anything to do with astronomy. i have to draw the moon every night at 7:00 pm and then graph it. could anyone help me make what I draw into a quantative? like percent or something? or where i can get a table of what the moon was when i didnt get a chance to go out and see it.
thanks.

[dannat (Daniel)]

Shame on you - as I am a science teacher you should be scolded for not doing your homework but rewarded for having the intelligence to seek out answers form a site like this
As for the percent of the moon, you can see it on this site - down the left side below the links and calendar. It will tell you what phase/percent the moon is currently in

As for the days you missed, if you search for a program called stellarium - then enter your correct location in the config toolbar -it will let you enter any date/time & check what the moon is doing - you can go into the future or past by adjusting the date time function

PS make sure you share your knowledge - don't keep it to yourself & let us know how you get on

[GeoffW1 (Geoff)]

Originally Posted by dannat

Shame on you - as a science teacher

Huh? I think you meant student, possibly a typo. He is doing well so far. The rest of your post was really good, well done.

How can we support students more in this forum?

Cheers

[mental4astro (Alexander)]

Hello BulletConsumer, and .
There is another quantitative statistic that you can incorporate. You can plot the percentage of the lunar cycle of each observation you make (if you take the 'start' of a lunar cycle being New Moon) and compare it to the illuminated percentage (which you can see on the left margin of this page). You will see the eb and flow of the illumination vs cycle.

If you have access even to a modest telescope, you may want to do some sketches of the 'Terminator' on the Moon. The terminator is the 'line' that creeps across the Moon's face marking out the light and dark. You may notice the change in the elongation of the surface shadows as the terminator moves across the Moon that has to do with the relative position of the Earth to the Moon. Do these sketches with a gap of a few days between observation. You only need to sketch a small area to do this, say, following the equator. This is best seen with the highest practicable magnification of the telescope you use. A lunar atlas/map may help you to keep track of the equator during your observations.

Good luck.

Alex.

[marki]

Originally Posted by GeoffW1

Huh? I think you meant student, possibly a typo. He is doing well so far. The rest of your post was really good, well done.

How can we support students more in this forum?

Cheers

Geoff I think he was trying to say as a teacher " I am shocked that you are trying to cheat rather then make the observations yourself" ( where " ......." are my words ). As a teacher myself I say good on him for having the nouse to search for a forum then make the effort to join and find the answers to his questions . However, I do suggest that he only uses the information he gets to support HIS OWN OBSERVATIONS and check their validity. This way he will gain a better understanding of the concepts involved and DO VERY WELL INDEED IN ANY TRICKY TESTS HIS TEACHER IS BOUND TO SET BASED ON HIS RESEARCH . I think the real question is not how can we support students on the forum as most people jump in to help every time these come up (bunch of great folks) but rather how can we attract more young people to our wonderful hobby.

Mark