TRANSITS PLANETARIUM ACTIVITY
Grades: High School
Subject: Transits
Description:
Intended Learning Outcomes
Venus transit background and physical properties
Measuring the diameter of the sun with your hands and a ruler
Measuring the distance to the sun and Venus using the live Venus-transit webcast
Measuring the diameter of the sun and the planet Venus during the live webcast
Make a time sequence movie of the planet Venus across the sun
Summary
We will use similar triangles to measure the approximate size of different objects, indirectly, without touching them.
We will use images from a live lunar eclipse webcast (June 15, 2011) in order to calculate the moon's diameter, and images from the transmission of 2012's Venus transition to calculate the diameter of Venus.
We will estimate the radius of the moon and the Earth's shadow on the moon's surface based on the radius of the Earth and the distance to the Moon.
Materials
Included hand book and online resources
Strategies for Diverse Learners
Booklet activities
Emerald Planetariums Technologies
Live-observatory-planetarium connection [L.O.P.C]
Planetarium simulation software MV2
PLANETARIUM 360 PROJECTION FULLDOME SYSTEMS
Links:
http://www.bareket-astro.com/en/live-astronomical-web-cast/venus-transit-experiements-a-act.html
http://www.bareket-astro.com/en/astronomical-webcasts/2016-transit-of-mercury-live-webcast.html
http://www.bareket-astro.com/en/astronomical-webcasts/extrasolar-planet-webcast.html