NASA Star Count for Students

www.nasa.gov/audience/foreducators/starcount/home/index.html

Investigation: Do people everywhere see the same number of stars in the night sky? Why or why not?


How many stars can you see on a clear night where you live? Do you think students in different parts of the world would see a different number of stars? Why would there be a difference?

Join Star Count and find out if people see different numbers of stars. But don't stop there. Use all of the data to find out why differences might occur. Count the number of stars you can see where you live. Share your data with students from around the world. Compare your data with theirs. If results differ, look at the data and figure out why.


Deirdre Kelleghan
www.irishastrosoc.org

they say you can see up to 3000 stars with the naked eye in dark skies. that would be hard euff to do anyways, there are so many factors to put in, maybe if you had a group of friends working on there own patch of sky the results might be cool, but I myself wound get lost if i was to count the star with optical aid, even a pair of binoculars would wrap me around their barrel there would be so many stars, ok you can measure stuff by mag and with R.A and Dec, i'd prob end up counting some of the stars twice, and one more thing is you may see a star but is it really still there! is the light just getting here now? the star could be dead hundreds or thousends of years. It may even just be 1 percent or less are dead, but 1 percent of 100000000 is alot.
Good look to all involed in the counting.

This is a typical crazy question posed by someone with no idea of what's involved! Have you ever tried to count them? It's impossible! Just try counting the number you can see within the small area of the Summer Triangle from a dark sky & you'll see what I mean!

As for a whole hemisphere.....! Anyway, there are two other points - what season? - you'll see more in Northern summer, with the Milky Way near overhead.

And if it takes you an hour or so to count, you'll have had another hour's worth of stars rising in the East since you started!

Better to concentrate on one well-defined area which is high up for most observers....

Terry

Terry

I think this is just an interactive program to get young people looking up and observing and comparing what they observe with other young people.

It involves counting, averages, equations, thinking, and awareness of light pollution,cloud cover, gathering data, etc.

Someone is gathering all the data collected and must have a use for it I guess.?

As a child A S Eddington tried to count all the stars in the night sky, I think it did him no harm to be so enthused.

Deirdre Kelleghan
Irish Astronomical Society
www.irishastrosoc.org

This is a typical crazy question posed by someone with no idea of what's involved! Have you ever tried to count them? It's impossible!

Welcome Terry! You finally made it!


(In with a bang I see...)

Clear skies,