CanadianCanadianSkies
www.nrc-cnrc.gc.ca/student-science-tech
Trifid Nebula
Aurora Borealis Also known as the Northern Lights, the aurorae
that dance in Canadian skies vary from green
to white and red. These spectacular displays
are created when electrically-charged solar
particles trapped by the Earth’s magnetic field
collide with the upper atmosphere, causing it
to glow like a neon lamp.
Star Trails & Gemini SouthLocated in Chile, this optical
telescope, a multi-national
effort, produces some of the
sharpest views of the universe.
In the background, circular star
trails resulting from the Earth’s
rotation were captured by long
exposure photography.
Edge-on Spiral GalaxyLocated about 30 million light years away, this large spiral
galaxy, NGC 4565, consisting of billions of stars, is seen
from the side. It is spiral in shape like our own Milky Way,
which in dark skies we see as a band of faint light.
Horsehead Nebula
Milky Way Vista
Courtesy of Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope/Coelum
Courtesy of Canadian Galactic Plane Survey
Courtesy of Terence Dickinson, Eastern Ontario
Courtesy of Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope/Coelum
Courtesy of Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope/Coelum
Courtesy of Gemini Observatory/AURA
Courtesy of Gemini Observatory/AURA
Comet Hale-Bopp
The Horsehead is part of a gigantic cloud of molecular
gas and dust, a star-forming region only 1,500 light
years away in the constellation Orion. The light from
young, hot blue stars reflects off the dust particles
in the denser areas of the cloud to create the
silhouette effect.
This brilliant ‘hairy star’ passed through Canadian
skies in Spring, 1997. Like all comets, it displayed
both a white dust tail and a blue gas tail that pointed
away from the Sun. The tails extended up to
100 million km from its nucleus.
This image, created from radio waves, shows
clumps and filaments of cold hydrogen gas
silhouetted against the hotter hydrogen.
The origin of these clouds is still a mystery,
but they may be the first step in converting
cold interstellar gas to new stars.
Observation of this beautiful nebula was
recommended by a 13 year old Canadian girl.
Located in the constellation Sagittarius, the
Trifid is a dynamic cloud of gas and dust where
stars are being born. One massive star in this
nebula was born about 100,000 years ago.
The background image of
this poster features a portion of
the Virgo Cluster of Galaxies about
70 million light years away. This cluster
contains more than 2000 galaxies, including
giant ellipticals, spirals – some like our Milky Way –
and irregulars lacking any obvious organizational structure.
Courtesy of Jack Newton, BC
Phot
o co
urtes
y of
Gem
ini O
bser
vato
ry
INTRODUCTION
Canadian Skies has been designed to foster a greater under-
standing of astronomy and an appreciation for some of the
pioneering work of Canadian astronomers. This resource is
intended to help teachers and students explore various
astronomy concepts. The star chart on the front of this poster
is a tool for identifying the stars and constellations over the
Northern Hemisphere throughout the year. Activities have
been designed to complement the poster content and
promote student inquiry. This teaching unit conforms to
the Common Framework of Science Learning Outcomes
developed by the Council of Ministers of Education, Canada.
The various sections are recommended for Grades 6 to 11.
Applicable Curriculum Areas include:
Science- Earth and Space Science, Physical Sciences, Optics
History, Geography, Language Arts, Visual Arts
Students at all levels will:
a. Initiate and plan experiments; formulate ideas and theses;
and evaluate information, processes and instrumentation.
b. Perform experiments and record data using instruments
effectively, and use other resources such as the Library and
the Internet.
c. Analyze and interpret data, scientific terms and systems;
assess existing scientific models.
d. Communicate and work in teams to gather and share infor-
mation to maximize the advancement in knowledge gained
while completing this teaching unit.
WHAT IS ASTRONOMY?
Astronomers are devoted to answering questions about the
physical universe such as "What makes the stars shine?" or "How
do black holes form?" or " Is there life on other planets?" or "Why
is 90% of the matter in the universe invisible?" Astronomers
search for clues to help solve mysteries, and thereby improve our
understanding of nature. Like successful detectives, astronomers
use logic, imagination and intuition in solving problems and they
have a lot of fun doing so. When they publish their ideas, other
astronomers test them carefully to be sure they are correct.
Astronomers must have special training and access to
advanced technology. To succeed, professional astronomers
not only require an understanding of physics and math, but
often need particular knowledge of computer science and/or
engineering.
Astronomers differ from most other scientists in that they
cannot touch the objects they study because everything is so
distant; that is, by and large, astronomy is an observational,
rather than an experimental, science.
ASTRONOMICAL TOOLS
Electromagnetic Spectrum: Window on the Universe
Astronomers rely on electromagnetic radiation detected by
different types of telescopes to determine the location, com-
position, temperature, motions and magnetism of celestial
objects. Electromagnetic radiation travels in the form of waves
at the speed of light (299 792 km/sec) through space.
Electromagnetic waves range from very low frequency radio
waves through infrared radiation and visible light to ultravio-
let radiation, x-rays and finally, high frequency gamma rays.
Together, these waves form the electromagnetic spectrum.
Electromagnetic waves are characterized by their frequency
and wavelength which are inversely related: the greater the
wave’s frequency, the shorter the wavelength.
STUDENT ACTIVITIES
Sundial Activity: Create a simple sundial by using a board or boxapproximately 25 cm high. Set it up on a flat surface in a sunnylocation outside so that one corner always points North. Attacha large piece of paper to the north corner and position it west -east. The size of the paper should be twice the height of the boxor board. Mark the points where the north and south corner siton the paper. Each day, mark the shadow of the tip of the northcorner at the following times: 8 a.m., 12 Noon, and 4 p.m.Record the time of the observation beside the marked shadow.At the end of each day, draw a smooth, curved line through thethree points. Are the shadow marks always the same? If not, howdoes each day’s shadow differ from the previous day?
Motions in the Sky: Note the time that the Sun disappearsbelow the horizon. Return to the site an hour later, and drawthe positions of three bright stars. Repeat this every few days forthree weeks. Compare your drawings. Are they all the same?Are the stars in the same position each night one hour aftersunset? Share your observations with the class. This may bedone as a group activity. Hint: it is important to identify aprominent landmark for comparison and to return to the samespot each evening to make your observations.
Phases of the Moon: Three students can recreate the phases ofthe Moon. One student who represents the Sun should hold aflashlight so that it is stable. Make certain the light shines onboth of the other students who represent the Earth and theMoon. By moving the Moon student around the Earth student,recreate each of the lunar phases. Were there any surprises?Chart the experiment showing the phases of the Moon.
Northern Lights: What are the Northern Lights, or the AuroraBorealis, shown on this poster? Do you need a telescope to seethem? What causes this phenomenon? Is it possible to detectshapes and colours in the Northern Lights? If you are luckyenough to spot the Aurora Borealis, draw them. Or better yet,can you photograph them? Add an Aurora Borealis page to anexisting Web site and describe your experience in viewing these spectacular displays. Research what causes this pheno -menon? Write a short report to accompany your illustration or photograph.
Invent an Alien: To do this, you must research a planet’s natural environment—temperature, atmosphere, water supply,soil composition, etc. Include a description that explains howand why your alien can live on the planet you’ve selected.
SKY MEASUREMENTS
The apparent distance between stars and star groupings is mea-sured in degrees (360 degrees in a circle). Note that this isn’tthe actual distance, but a method for locating the stars in the
sky. It is a simple system and involves holding up a hand to thesky. At arm’s length, one finger equals 1 degree approximately.Three fingers equals 5 degrees; a closed fist is 10 degrees; thedistance between the extended pinky finger and the forefingeris 15 degrees; the distance between the extended pinky and thethumb is 25 degrees. Now locate the Big Dipper in the sky.Using the system of measurement just described, measure:
� The number of degrees of the width of the basin or bowl ofthe Big Dipper.
� The number of degrees from the front of the Big Dipper to the tip of its handle.
� The length of its bowl. Record these notations on a chart. How many degrees is Polarisfrom the bowl of the Big Dipper?
THE PLANISPHERE: Special Student ActivityThere are approximately 6000 stars in the night sky that can beseen with the naked eye. Not all are visible at the same time.Many of the brightest stars may be recognized as parts of con-stellations. Ancient peoples identified mythical creatures in thepatterns formed by groups of stars, which is how many of theconstellations came to be named. To find out which stars andconstellations are visible at any time during the year, you needto use the star chart as well as to create your own planisphere.
1. See Figures A and B. Photocopy each.
2. Figure A is a smaller version of the star chart on the front of
the poster. Cut out the circular star chart and glue it to a piece
of cardboard.
3. Figure B is a guide that will enable you to view the stars and
constellations in the sky based on the time of day. Cut out the
oval where indicated and fold the flaps down.
4. Slide the star chart into the flaps.
5. To determine which stars and constellations are visible on any
given day or month, simply rotate the star chart disc to that date and
time. What appears in the oval is what you will see in the night sky.
STUDENT ACTIVITIES
Use the planisphere throughout the year to chart the stars andconstellations visible in the night sky each season. Make a list ofall the constellations and stars that should be visible on select-ed days according to the star chart. Compare that list to thestars and constellations you are actually able to see. Were youable to see them all? If not, why not? List the factors that mayhave affected a particular viewing of the night sky.
For more information, visit:www.nrc-cnrc.gc.ca/student-science-tech
and to order additional copies, visit: www.nrc-cnrc.gc.ca/eng/education/teachers/order.html
Gemini 8-m Telescopes� Gemini is an international partnershipof the US, UK, Canada, Chile, Australia,Argentina and Brazil.
� An optical telescope in each hemi-sphere allows astronomers to study theentire sky. Gemini North (Mauna Kea)began science operations in 2000, withGemini South (Cerro Pachón) coming
online the following year.
� The telescopes are designed to give exquisitely sharpimages. Canada is providing sensitive equipment that will helpGemini users make many exciting scientific discoveries.
Canada-France-Hawaii 3.6-mTelescope (CFHT)� An optical telescope, CFHT,began operating in 1979 as a part-nership between Canada, Franceand the University of Hawaii.
� CFHT pioneered techniques, including "adaptive optics", toremove the twinkle from stars caused by the continual motionsof the Earth's atmosphere, thus making CFHT renowned forvery sharp images.
� For Canadian astronomers, CFHT has played critical rolesin their studies of massive black holes in the centres of galaxies,the evolution of stars, and in demonstrating that the universewill expand forever.
Dominion Astrophysical Observatory(NRC-DAO) Telescopes� NRC operates two optical telescopeslocated on 230-m high Observatory Hill,17 km north of Victoria, B.C.
� With continual upgrading, the 1.8-mPlaskett Telescope (1918) remains highly
productive. It was used during the first two decades of its life tomeasure accurately the size and mass of the Milky Way galaxy.Visitors have the opportunity to experience this telescope inoperation through The Centre of the Universe programs.
� The 1.2-m McKellar Telescope (1962) is used for precisionanalyses of the properties of stars and pioneered developmentof techniques to find planets around nearby stars.
The James Clerk Maxwell Telescope(JCMT)� This 15-m telescope on Mauna Kea is apartnership between the UK, Canada andthe Netherlands.
� Since its opening in 1987, the JCMTradio telescope has probed the interstellar
medium, star forming regions, and the earliest phases of galaxyevolution, by studying their microwave radiation.
� JCMT astronomers detected complex molecules in CometHale-Bopp (1997) that had never before been seen in a comet.
Dominion Radio AstrophysicalObservatory (NRC-DRAO) Telescopes� Located near Penticton, B.C., NRC-DRAO operates a seven-antenna radio telescope that is mapping large parts of theplane of the Milky Way galaxy (see over) tostudy how the interstellar gas changes fromstellar birth to stellar death.
� A 26-m diameter radio telescope is used alone (for example,to study pulsars), or is often used in conjunction with the seven-antenna telescope to provide more complete maps of theMilky Way.
� A small radio telescope maintains daily records (dating backto 1946) of radio radiation from the Sun. These data are usedworldwide for studying solar-terrestrial relationships such aslong term climate change or predicting disturbances of power andcommunications caused by storms on the Sun.
STUDENT ACTIVITIES
1. How do you become an astronomer? What qualifications and
education do you need? Research the profession and write a
profile. List the different branches of astronomy and name five
places where astronomers work.
2. Draw a detailed diagram of an optical telescope and describe
how it works. Hint: see the explanation on this poster.
3. Research five contributions that Canadians have made to the
field of astronomy. Hint: see www.cascaeducation.ca.
4. Ordinarily we think telescopes are used to magnify distant
things, but astronomers think of them differently and continu-
ally seek to build bigger ones. Do you know why? Hint: The pupil of your eye is about 1 cm in diametre. Compareits area ("light gathering power") to the area of the primarymirror of a Gemini telescope.
5. Draw a detailed diagram of a radio telescope. Describe the
history of its development and how it works.
6. Use the Internet to research images of stars, constellations
and planets. Write a short description of the images you have
found, and indicate what type of telescope was used to make
them. You may print these images and create a poster or a Web
page with accompanying descriptive text.
7. How has astronomy advanced technologically over the past
100 years? Describe the major technological breakthroughs.
Detail what impact they have had on this branch of science.
Telescopes: Essential Tools for AstronomersTelescopes provide the means to collect and analyze electro-magnetic radiation from distant realms of the universe.Different types of telescopes are used for distinct regions of thespectrum such as visible light, near infrared, microwaves, andradio waves. Planets, stars, gaseous nebulae, and distant galax-ies appear differently when "viewed" in each region of the spec-trum. This is because various types of radiation are sensitive to
differences in the temperature and chemistry of the objects.Even the fact that an object can be readily detected by a partic-ular wavelength gives the astronomer important clues, such aswhether it is hot or cold.
There are different categories of telescopes: optical tele-scopes collect visible light, but other telescopes, for exampleradio telescopes, can collect radiation invisible to the humaneye. Since Galileo pioneered the use of the optical telescope inthe 17th century, increasingly more powerful instruments havebeen developed, including the Hubble Space Telescope andthe new Gemini Telescopes. In 1932, Jansky invented radiotelescopes, which have developed into facilities like the JamesClerk Maxwell Telescope.
The basic way telescopes work is largely independent of theregion of the electromagnetic spectrum. A device such as a lens,mirror or antenna collects the radiation and focuses it onto adetector. Optical telescopes use special versions of the charge-coupled devices found in video cameras, while radio telescopesuse specialized receivers like those in radios or TV sets. Pleaserefer to Figures 1 and 2 above.
Optical Telescopes: Reflecting and RefractingThe term refraction refers to the bending of light. Refractingtelescopes employ a series of lenses to collect visible light. Mosttelescopes in use today are reflecting because bigger telescopescan be built with mirrors than with lenses. Reflecting tele-scopes have a concave primary mirror, normally parabolic inshape and located at the lower end of the telescope. It reflectsthe light of celestial objects to a focus. Rather than work at afocus high above the primary mirror, the light is often inter-cepted by a smaller mirror that reflects it down through a hole
in the primary mirror to an instrument, such as a camera or aspectrograph, for analysis.
Radio Telescopes: Collectors of Invisible RadiationAll objects in space emit radio waves, so a radio telescope canbe used to detect them. A large curved metal dish, or antennathat resembles a parabolic satellite TV dish, collects the radiowaves and reflects them to a focus point above the centre of the
dish. Here, a sensitive receiver converts them into an electricalsignal, which is interpreted by a computer. Radio telescopes"see" through clouds of dust that optical telescopes cannot penetrate. Together, radio and optical telescopes helpastronomers to build a more complete picture of a region ofspace. There are two types of radio telescopes—single antennaor multiple antenna (interferometer). Images are created byscanning a single-antenna telescope across the sky, or by lettingthe rotation of the Earth move a group of telescopes pointed atthe source of the radio wave emission. This scanning creates asequence of signals, coming from different parts of the source.A computer processes these signals to create a representativeimage of a celestial body.
NATIONAL RESEARCH COUNCIL FACILITIES
The National Research Council (NRC) provides telescopes forCanadian astronomers and their students to use for theirresearch. The largest facilities are international ones, locatedon the best sites in the northern (4200-m high Mauna Kea,Hawaii) and southern (2700-m high Cerro Pachón, Chile)hemispheres, where more than 300 nights a year offer clearviewing. NRC also operates radio and optical telescopes inBritish Columbia. Visitors are welcome at The Centre of theUniverse in B.C. The NRC Herzberg Institute of Astrophysicsdesigns and builds the sensitive instrumentation and writes software that enable the telescopes to detect signals from thefurthest realms of the universe. Astronomers must compete foraccess to telescopes and may spend only a few nights (or shifts)a year observing on any one telescope. Most of their researchtime is spent analyzing the data they obtain on those nights.
MOTIONS IN THE SKY
Everything in the universe is in constant motion.
Lunar Cycle
From the phases of the Moon, we are most familiar with the
monthly revolution, or orbit, of this natural satellite around
our planet. One lunar cycle takes 29 1/2 days to complete. A
"new" Moon is the point at which the Moon is between the
Earth and the Sun. The first quarter is approximately 7 days
into the cycle; a full moon occurs at 14 or 15 days; and the last
quarter falls at the 22 day point in the Moon’s orbit around
Earth. The timing of a number of celebrations in different reli-
gions, including Passover and Easter, are dependent on the
lunar cycle.
Do the Stars Move?
From the perspective of one on Earth, the sky as a whole
appears to be moving. The ‘apparent’ motion of the stars and
constellations is created by the spinning of the Earth on its axis
and the yearly orbit of the Earth around the Sun. In fact, the
Earth rotates on its axis from west to east once every 24 hours.
At different times of the night, a person at any one location on
the Earth views different sections of the sky. The Earth’s rota-
tion causes stars in the northern hemisphere to revolve slowly
from east to west around the north celestial pole near Polaris,
which remains virtually stationary. This motion of the stars can
be captured by anyone with a camera that takes time exposures.
The resulting star-trails will resemble those that are so promi-
nent in the Gemini Observatory photo on the front of our
poster.
The Earth’s annual orbit around the Sun, one Earth year or
365 1/4 days, results in dramatic changes in the stars visible
from any one point on the planet. As the position of the Earth
changes with the seasons, different constellations come into
view. For example, Orion is not visible from May through July,
but the circumpolar Big Dipper is visible year round although
its position changes in the sky. The planisphere activity on this
poster will allow teachers and students to determine the stars
and constellations that are visible at different times of the year
in most of Canada.
The Wanderers
The word planet is derived from Greek and means ‘wandering
star’. Thousands of years ago, humans were trying to decipher
what they saw in the sky. Known as the five wandering stars, the
planets intrigued early star gazers. They asked themselves what
propelled these celestial bodies across the sky. Today we know
that planets orbit the Sun on the ecliptic—the plane of the
Solar System—and cross over several constellations in the back-
ground, known as the Zodiac constellations. Five of the nine
planets in the solar system are visible to the naked eye: Mercury,
Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn, all of them as bright as, and
often much brighter than, first magnitude stars. Uranus and
Neptune may be viewed with a good pair of binoculars. Only
Pluto requires the use of a 15-cm or larger telescope. Mercury
is rarely seen because its tight elliptical orbit keeps it close to
the Sun, and it is visible only for a few weeks of the year.
Interesting Fact: The position of the planets in the sky varies
throughout the year as they follow their individual orbits
around the Sun. The planets are not always visible, but peri-
odically you can observe what is known as a planetary conjunc-
tion when two or more planets align in the night sky. This is
particularly striking when the conjunction includes the Moon.
Comets
Known as ‘dirty snowballs’, comets are composed of ice thought
to be left over from the formation of the solar system. Those that
revolve around the Sun in elliptical paths sometimes take
hundreds, or thousands, of years to complete one orbit. As
a comet approaches the inner solar system, the Sun’s warmth
vaporizes (sublimates) the cometary ice. This creates a huge
cloud of gas and dust that is pushed back into a classic cometary
tail. There are actually two types of tails—a white dust tail and a
blue gas or plasma tail—which always point away from the Sun.
Comet Hale-Bopp, featured on the front of this poster, was
visible in Canadian skies during the spring of 1997.
Interesting Fact: The magnitude of stars refers to a system of
classifying stars according to their brightness. It is a scale that
runs from negative to positive values. Stars of the first magni-
tude are relatively bright objects in the night sky while the
naked eye cannot generally detect stars fainter than around
sixth magnitude. The brightest star in the night sky, Sirius in
the constellation Canis Major, has a magnitude of –1.5.
TIME AND SPACE
Astronomy seeks to answer intriguing questions about the uni-
verse and celestial objects. Both children and adults ponder
"How was the universe created?" and "How far away are the
stars?" In 1916, using mathematical models, Albert Einstein
postulated that the universe was expanding, although he had a
hard time believing it. Later, observations by Vesto and Edwin
Hubble confirmed that this was true. This led to the notion that
the universe had, at one time, been concentrated in one place,
then began to expand about 12-15 billion years ago. This event
is now referred to as the "Big Bang". Many astronomers are try-
ing to measure more accurately the age of the universe.
The Vastness of the Universe
When looking at space whether using the naked eye, binocu-
lars or a telescope, we are observing the past because it takes
so long for light from a distant object to travel to us even at a
speed of 299 792 km/sec. Earth’s Moon is some 400 000 kilo-
metres away, and it takes less than two seconds for the Moon’s
reflected light to reach the Earth. The light from the Sun
takes about 8 1/3 minutes to travel to Earth, while the light
from the next closest star takes 4 1/3 years to reach our plan-
et. Light from the nearest galaxy takes some 150 000 years.
Thus, the universe and space are staggeringly vast. Images
taken by the Hubble Space Telescope have revealed galaxies
that are about 5-10 billion light years away. The light reaching
us from these galaxies began the voyage across space before
the Sun and its planets, including Earth, even existed!
Origins of Stars and Galaxies
Astronomers believe that most stars are born inside cold, dark
molecular dust and gas clouds (see over). Such clouds are
found inside galaxies which are systems of immense size
containing literally billions of stars. And there are billions of
galaxies in the universe! Astronomers are puzzled by many
observations about galaxies. How were individual galaxies
created from the material that emerged from the Big Bang?
Why aren’t they uniformly spread across the sky? Do galaxies
look the same today as when they formed billions of years
ago? Why do we see only about 10% of the matter that
observations tell us must be present in galaxies?
Interesting Fact: We live inside a galaxy known as the Milky
Way. If we could travel for hundreds of thousands of years at
the speed of light and look back at the Milky Way, we would see
that it is a giant spiral disk about 90 000 light years in diametre,
containing several hundred billion stars. The oldest stars in
the Milky Way are thought to be some 12-15 billion years old.
Black Holes
When they run out of fuel, the most massive stars die and are
thought to leave behind black holes. They are extremely
dense, massive objects whose intense gravity prevents any
material, or even light, from escaping. These black holes may
be the precursors of much more massive ones found in the
centres of galaxies. The first evidence for smaller black holes
was found in our Milky Way and the nearby Magellanic
Clouds by Canadian astronomers who studied stars giving off
copious amounts of X-ray radiation. Supermassive black holes
are found in many galaxy centres and contain from a few mil-
lion to several billion times the mass of our Sun. In 1987, a
Canadian astronomer using the CFHT discovered evidence of
a massive black hole in the centre of the Andromeda galaxy.
Astronomers remain fascinated by the very existence of black
holes, because they can help to explain so many of the unusu-
al phenomena we see in the Universe. But if they are truly
‘black’ in the sense that no light escapes from them, how do
astronomers detect their existence at all? They use instru-
ments called spectrographs to study the motions of material
that is sped up as the black hole draws it in.
STUDENT ACTIVITIES
1. Stars, constellations, galaxies and planets have interesting
names. Choose one of each and research the history of the
name. What is its significance? Give a detailed description.
2. Study the star chart on the front of this poster and select
5 constellations. Conduct your own backyard observations and
try to identify these constellations in the night sky. Over a period
of a week or two, keep a log and chart the stars, constellations
and planets you observe as well as the location of the Moon.
Present your findings to the rest of the class. List the equip-
ment used, and note dates and times carefully. This can be a
group activity or combined with the planisphere activity.
3. Write a story about reaching your favourite planet, star or
galaxy. What would you find there? Make the story as detailed
and imaginative as possible.
4. Research how two of the following are formed: planets,
comets, asteroids, stars, planetary nebulae, novae, supernovae,
black holes, spiral and elliptical galaxies. What instrumentation
has provided the information leading to these conclusions?
5. Build a scale model of the solar system, making it as accurate
as possible. The planets may be depicted as two-dimensional,
but for the more creative and ambitious, a three-dimensional
model is preferred. If feasible, a computer simulation may be
created using a 3D drawing / modeling program. Include an
explanation on how the model was put together.
J AN
UA
RY
FE
BR
UA
RY
MA
RC
H
AP
RIL
MAYJUNE
JULY
AU
GU
ST
SE
PT
EM
BE
RO
CT
OB
ER
N O V E M B E R D E C E M B E R
5
10
15
20
25
5
10
15
20
25
510
15
20
25
5
10
15
20
25
5
10
15
2025
51015
20
25
5
10
15
20
25
5
10
15
20
25
510
15
20
25
5
10
15
20
25
5
10
15
2025
5 1015
20
25
Cancer
Leo
Virgo
Corvus
Ursa Major
Gemini
Coma Berenices
Eridanus
Boötes
Ursa Minor
Draco
Corona Borealis
Hercules
Ophiuchus
Aquila
Orion
Lepus
Pegasus Aquarius
Pisces
Taurus
AndromedaCassiopeia
Hydra
Auriga
Canis Minor
Aries
Canis Major
Cepheus
Lyra
Cygnus
Cetus
Perseus
Libra
Scorpius
Sagittarius
Capricornus
Pleiades
Betelgeuse
SiriusRigel
Capella
Altair
Deneb
Little Dipper
Big Dipper
Polaris
Serpens Caput Serpens Cauda
Arcturus
Vega
Regulus
Procyon
6AM5AM4AM
3A
M
2A
M
1A
M12
11
PM
10
PM
9P
M
8PM
7 PM6 PM
▲▲
▲
▲
▲
▲▲
▲
▲
▲
▲
▲▲
PLA
NIS
PH
ER
E
CU
T O
UT
CEN
TRE
OV
AL
ALO
NG
TH
E B
LAC
K L
INE.
NO
RT
HE
RN
HO
RIZ
ON
SO
UT
HE
RN
HO
RIZ
ON
EASTERN HORIZON
WESTERN HORIZON
WH
AT
TO
DO
1. See Figures A and B. Photocopy each. Figure A is a replica of the star chart on the front of the poster. You may, if you wish, cut out a piece of cardboard and glue
the star chart to it. Figure B represents the guide that will enable you to view the stars and constellations in the sky based on the time of day. M
ake sure to cut out the oval where indicated and fold the flaps (also indicated) down. Slide the star chart into the flaps. To determ
ine which constellations and stars are visible on any given day or m
onth, simply rotate the star chart disc. W
hat appears in the oval is what you will see.
F O L D S I D E A N D B O T T O M F L A P S AT D O T T E D L I N E
T O H O L D T H E S TA R C H A R T I N T H E F L A P
FOLD SIDE AND BOTTOM FLAPS AT DOTTED LINE
TO HOLD THE STAR CHART IN THE FLAP
Con
seil
natio
nal
de r
eche
rche
s C
anad
aN
atio
nal R
esea
rch
Cou
ncil
Can
ada
ALT
ITU
DE
, K
ILO
ME
TR
ES
WAVELENGTH
200
100
50
25
12
6
3
Radio Waves
Micro-waves
Infrared
Ultr
avi
ole
t
Vis
ible
Lig
ht
X-Rays Gamma Rays
Far
Infr
are
d
First Quarter
Last Quarter
Waning Gibbous Waning Crescent
NewFull
Waxing Gibbous Waxing Crescent
FIGURE A
FIGURE B
objective lenseyepiece lens
Figure 1: Refracting Telescope Figure 2 : Cassegrain Reflecting Telescope
convex secondary mirror
Your Guide To The Stars
concave primary mirror
CANADIANSKIES
Top Related