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The Internet
Gain access to the NASA database on the Internet (you type in http://www.yahoo.com/Science/Space followed by RETURN and when it appears on the screen, CLICK on NASA) to find many articles on the planets, the Solar System and the space exploration programme. There are also images of the planets taken by the Hubble Space Telescope. Information on the planets in our Solar System and other astronomical data is available from http://www.ex.ac.uk/public_html/nineplanets/nineplanets.html, the majority of this data is now available as a link on the Bradford Nuffield home page at http://www.telescope.org/nuffield and the NASA web pages which can be accessed through http://spacelink.msfc.nasa.gov.
Pupils could find information and work on the following projects.
1. The movements of the planets using the SKYGLOBE package
2. Make a 3-D model, or large chart, of the Sun and planets in the Solar System.
3. Write reports on the results of Voyager, Magellan, Galileo or Mariner space probes (use NASA links as previous).
4. Use the automated weather recording system of the Bradford Robotic Telescope to write a detailed weather report for one day.
5. Find out about the life and work of Kepler or Newton and write a short biography.
Pupil Activity - Telescope Image Request
Before you request an image of a planet, use the SKYGLOBE package to check it will be visible (and is not on the other side of the Sun) when submitting the job to the Robotic Telescope. You can check how far it is from the sun in the sky. You can also check that it is more than 20 degrees above the horizon. (The telescope is in the Pennines, near urban areas, and the light pollution makes it difficult to make observations below 20 degrees). Just give the name of the planet. The best planets are:-
a. - Mars (look for interesting features).
b. - Jupiter (moons, large red spot and interesting bands. A series of two hourly pictures will measure rotation).
c. - Saturn (moons, interesting rings and bands, although this year the rings disappear - they are edge on viewed from earth).
