We have enjoyed this month's nature study so much! Celeste asks me almost every night to go outside to look at the sky, and we do, even for just a few minutes.
We both love to look at the moon with our binoculars and see the craters.
A few nights ago, we set ourselves up outside to observe the night sky. My camera doesn't take very good photos of the moon. Andre and Celeste didn't think it was fun to take a photo with a flash, but I wanted to record our evening outside. We covered up as much as possible to protect ourselves from mosquitoes!
When we came back inside, we used the Night Sky Journal notebook page to record that evening's observations.
Before and after our outdoor time, we read about the constellations we can see at this time of the year in the Glow in the Dark Constellations book by C.E. Thompson.
We also used the Star Walk app on our iPad to help us locate the constellations. The Star Walk app is wonderful, you can use the search function, or just point at the sky and learn about what you are looking at. It shows constellations, stars, and other objects like satellites. Below you can see two screen shots from the app.
We looked for and located Ursa Major with the Big Dipper. We are starting our year-long study of the Big Dipper. The Big Dipper is easy to find, but its position changes with the seasons so this will be interesting to study throughout the year.
In the two photos above, the right hand side one is of the Camelopardalis constellation "the Giraffe". Celeste noticed this formation in the sky and we pointed the iPad towards it to learn what it was. She absolutely loves doing this!
We also looked for the Cygnus constellation "the Swan". This one is made up of two rows of starts that cross. It was fairly easy to locate. Part of this constellation has the Northern Cross. It also has Vega which is one of the brightest star in the sky.
To learn more about the Outdoor Hour Challenge, visit the Handbook of Nature Study blog. I will be linking this post to the Outdoor Hour Challenge Blog Carnival.
We both love to look at the moon with our binoculars and see the craters.
A few nights ago, we set ourselves up outside to observe the night sky. My camera doesn't take very good photos of the moon. Andre and Celeste didn't think it was fun to take a photo with a flash, but I wanted to record our evening outside. We covered up as much as possible to protect ourselves from mosquitoes!
When we came back inside, we used the Night Sky Journal notebook page to record that evening's observations.
Before and after our outdoor time, we read about the constellations we can see at this time of the year in the Glow in the Dark Constellations book by C.E. Thompson.
We also used the Star Walk app on our iPad to help us locate the constellations. The Star Walk app is wonderful, you can use the search function, or just point at the sky and learn about what you are looking at. It shows constellations, stars, and other objects like satellites. Below you can see two screen shots from the app.
We looked for and located Ursa Major with the Big Dipper. We are starting our year-long study of the Big Dipper. The Big Dipper is easy to find, but its position changes with the seasons so this will be interesting to study throughout the year.
In the two photos above, the right hand side one is of the Camelopardalis constellation "the Giraffe". Celeste noticed this formation in the sky and we pointed the iPad towards it to learn what it was. She absolutely loves doing this!
We also looked for the Cygnus constellation "the Swan". This one is made up of two rows of starts that cross. It was fairly easy to locate. Part of this constellation has the Northern Cross. It also has Vega which is one of the brightest star in the sky.
To learn more about the Outdoor Hour Challenge, visit the Handbook of Nature Study blog. I will be linking this post to the Outdoor Hour Challenge Blog Carnival.
Thanks for the tip about the app...love the screenshots. Thanks so much for sharing your constellation study with the OHC carnival.
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