World Wide Star-Hunting Party

Worldwide: GLOBE at Night Star-Hunting Party; March 22-29; 7-9 p.m.
Students and families are encouraged to participate in a global campaign to observe and record the magnitude of visible stars as a means of measuring light pollution in a given location. Public contributions to an online database will document the visible nighttime sky during March 22-29, 2006. Students and families can learn how to locate the constellation Orion and that stars have different magnitudes of brightness in the night sky. This activity helps students and families understand how latitude and longitude coordinates provides a location system helping us to map and analyze the observation data submitted from all around the globe.

As the campaign progresses, check this Web site to see the mapped results. Running totals will be displayed as the observation data is submitted. If you enjoyed this activity, your family may be interested in doing multiple observations by selecting a new location to enter a report. The new location should be at least 1 km away from your original observation location. Observations may be conducted and reported any time during 7:00-9:00pm local time and for any evening between March 22 and 29, 2006. For complete details about this project, including a downloadable activity packet (to be available soon, the website promises), go
here (click on the menu items marked with telescopes at the top of the page.