Showing posts with label astronomy. Show all posts
Showing posts with label astronomy. Show all posts

Wednesday, February 18, 2026

Homeschool Day 2/18

 Bible

  • The Action Bible
  • Action Bible Anytime Devotions
English
  • Voyages in English 6 - verbs
  • Spelling Workout D
Math
  • BJU Math 5
Medieval History
  • Story of the World 2
  • The Usborne Illustrated Tales of King Arthur
Reading
  • Independent reading - he read his Bible
  • My Side of the Mountain (read-aloud)
Science
  • Exploring Creation with Astronomy - we did the compass lab
  • Compass Lab
    • We filled a bowl with water
    • We took a magnet and rubbed the magnet on a needle, turning the needle into a magnet
    • We set a leaf on the surface of the water
    • We carefully rested the needle on the leaf
    • The leaf spun until the needle pointed north
    • This really was a cool lab


Saturday, February 11, 2023

2/11: A Great Night with the Telescope

 I'm pretty sure we saw the Green Comet, C2022/C3.  We used Stellarium https://stellarium.org to find its approximate location (in the night sky near Mars) and used the telescope to find it.  It was faint, but with a greenish tint.

We also used Celestron astronomical binoculars to look at objects in the night sky. Between the telescope, our eyes and binoculars, we looked at:

  • C2022/C3 (we think)
  • Mars
  • A star nebula west of Orion
  • Aldebaran
  • Cassiopeia
  • Orion
  • Several aircraft flying overhead
The sky was very clear and it was a great night to use the telescope.

Sunday, January 22, 2023

Field Trip 1/21: Rafes Urban Astronomy Center

https://astronomy.unt.edu/observatories/rafes-urban-astronomy-center

https://astronomy.unt.edu/observatories/star-parties

Super cool field trip.  $5 per person and it's entirely outdoors, so wear coats/gloves/hats in winter.  Also, when we went, it was very crowded.  It's owned and run by the University of North Texas Physics Department, so there were staff/students everywhere to ask questions and work the high-powered telescopes in the two silos.  

My kids were able to locate/see Mars, Jupiter and four of its moons, Saturn and its rings, two meteors, and a star cluster in Orion using the telescopes that they have for people to use.  We also went inside the missile silo and were allowed to look through a high-powered telescope at a nebula and star nursery.  About an hour after it started, the staff gave a talk, pointing out various objects in the sky.

Super awesome astronomy field trip!  We were there for over two hours, which was a lot longer than I expected.  

Saturday, January 21, 2023

Astronomy Field Trips Around DFW

Updated: If you plug in your location, this website gives the time/location of astronomical objects in the sky.  https://theskylive.com/guide?geoid=4691930


Since we are spending a lot of time on astronomy this year and next, I have included some great field trips in our studies.  

We visited Frontiers of Flight in Dallas, TX: https://www.flightmuseum.com  Awesome field trip - one of my favorite museums of all times!

We visited NASA in Houston:  https://spacecenter.org 

We plan to visit the University of North Texas observatory in Ponder, TX:  https://astronomy.unt.edu/observatories  UNT also has Sky Theater on campus in Denton: https://astronomy.unt.edu/sky-theater  These are all run through the Physics Department at UNT.

Our final astronomy field trip will be the Monnig Meteorite Gallery on the Texas Christian University campus:  https://monnigmuseum.tcu.edu/visitor-info/

We love astronomy!!

Monday, November 28, 2022

Field Trip: NASA Johnson Space Center

https://spacecenter.org 

This was an unplanned field trip to the Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas.  We happened to be passing by it and decided to stop and tour the museum.  It's about $30 per person for adult admission, $25 for children.  There is an indoor museum, an outdoor tram ride and a display with one of the space shuttles, a plane and a rocket.

I'm going to be very honest and say this was our least favorite field trip of all time.  Frontiers of Flight in Dallas is better.  The Space Center was expensive to get into and it was very, very crowded.  You could hardly see any of the displays and the noise and visuals were extremely overwhelming.  I'm an adult and I was even feeling overwhelmed.  It was hard to see any of the displays, because people would stop and pose in front of them to take selfies, etc.  It was pretty terrible.  The line for the tram was so long that we didn't get to see that part of the tour.  Most of the museum was interactive displays, which are impossible with large crowds.  It also felt very commercial inside.  We felt like the displays were a bit underwhelming, educationally-speaking.

Good thing about the museum...you can touch a rock from the moon and a rock from Mars.  The 7 year-old thought this was incredible.

The best part of the trip was we listened to a talk given by astronaut and commander of the space shuttle Discovery Brian Duffy.  That was definitely worth seeing and very memorable.  Even the 7 year-old sat and listened to the entire presentation.  All of the kids agreed that hearing Commander Duffy was the best part of the trip.





Monday, October 24, 2022

Manmade Debris Orbiting the Earth

 For astronomy, we bought the premium version of the SkyView app. 

 https://www.space.com/skyview-review

Just the free version of this app is pretty incredible.  When we looked at the premium version, we could see so many weird objects orbiting the Earth - old rocket launches from the 80s, decrepit satellites, old Russian spacecraft....

I found this article from NASA "Space Debris and Human Spacecraft."    There's about 27,000 large pieces of space trash orbiting the Earth, some of it traveling at speeds of up to 15,700 miles per hour.  It's actually a hazard to the International Space Station and any spacecraft that launches.  The article said even paint flecks traveling at that speed can damage ISS or spacecraft.  

Reading the article, it says there are about half a million objects the size of a marble (or bigger).

Friday, September 30, 2022

Homeschool Week 9/26-9/29

I'm recording things by week, because we were so busy. 

2nd Grader

Math

  • We read several chapters of Life of Fred Butterflies
  • He played the Mathemagician Game (board game using addition/subtraction)
Reading/Language Arts
  • All About Reading - we are crawling through this like snails
  • All About Spelling
  • Handwriting without Tears
Science
  • The Good and the Beautiful Marine Biology
    • Finished Sharks
    • We started the lesson on Marine Mammals 
  • Astronomy
    • We looked at Jupiter through the telescope, because it was very close to the Earth this week
    • We were able to see 4 moons of Jupiter, which I am assuming were Io, Europa, Callisto and Ganymede (the four largest moons)
Sonlight B World History 1 (Bible, literature and history)
  • Read-aloud: The Year of Miss Agnes (what a great book!)
  • Time Traveler - almost finished with Ancient Egypt
  • The Ology
  • Kate and Mack - this book is very enjoyable
  • Bedtime read-aloud: Henry and Ribsy
Outsourced Classes
  • Ballet
  • Lego Engineering (at a homeschool enrichment center)
  • Theater (enrichment center)
  • Karate

10th Grader

Geometry
  • Mathusee Geometry
Bible
  • Daily Bible readings
  • Mere Christianity (CS Lewis)
Grammar
  • 10th Grade Ultimate Grammar workbook
Astronomy
  • Smithsonian's The Planets
  • She also viewed Jupiter through the telescope this week.  This is the closest it's been to Earth since the 1960s.
  • We saw four moons orbiting Jupiter, which I'm assuming were Io, Europa, Callisto and Ganymede
  • NASA MicroObservatory - we finally got our picture of the sun (if you go on their website and request a picture, they will take a picture using Harvard's telescope and email it to you)
Bookshark J History of Science (literature and history)
  • We dropped The Gammage Cup - I'm realizing that she just really does not like fantasy fiction. Neither of us could get into this book and we're about halfway through the book
  • Newton at the Center (Hakim)
  • The Clockwork Universe
  • I requested our next two books - The Giver and The Westing Game (we are reading the Bookshark books out of order)
Korean
  • She is enjoying DuoLingo's Korean
Fine Arts
  • Ukulele
    • We are going out to buy a capo this weekend, so she can play more complicated songs
  • Ballet class
  • She is going to a professional ballet performance this evening
STEM
  • We did not do our STEM Friday class this week, because of ballet
Physical Education
  • Indoor rock climbing


Monday, August 29, 2022

Homeschool Day 8/29

 2nd Grader

Math

  • Mathusee Alpha
Reading/Language Arts
  • All About Reading
  • Handwriting without Tears
Science
  • We read the book Seashores (About Habitats)
  • We watched the Pixar short Piper - excellent 5-6 minute film about a sandpiper on the beach (on Disney +)
Sonlight B World History 1 (Bible, literature and history)
  • We did all of our Sonlight reading
  • Henry and Beezus (bedtime reading)
  • Owls in the Family (read-aloud)

10th Grader

Geometry
  • Mathusee Geometry
Bible
  • Mere Christianity (CS Lewis)
  • Daily Bible reading (2 Kings)
Grammar/Writing
  • Easy Grammar 10th Grade Ultimate workbook
  • She did some writing exercises from They Say, I Say
Astronomy
Bookshark History of Science J (history and literature)
  • We did our usual reading
  • Going Solo (Roald Dahl)
  • Archimedes
  • Claudius Ptolemy
  • Geocentric models
  • Dark Ages
Fine Arts
  • She practiced ukulele again (we can't get her away from the ukulele)

Wednesday, August 24, 2022

Homeschool Day 8/24

 2nd Grader

Math

  • Life of Fred Apples (only one more chapter left of this - thank goodness)
Reading
  • All About Reading
Language Arts
  • All About Spelling
Science
  • The Good and Beautiful Marine Biology
    • Finished marine reptiles
Fine Arts
  • Easy Peasy Music Appreciation Ancients
    • String instruments
Sonlight B World History 1 (Bible, literature, history)
  • We did all of our reading
  • Owls in the Family
  • Henry and Beezus (bedtime read-aloud)
Wednesday night Youth Group activities at church


10th Grader

Bookshark J History of Science (literature and history)
  • Spelling words
  • Essay writing assignment - she worked on this for a loooong time
    • Writing about the plot of The Thief
  • History and literature reading
    • Eudoxus 
    • Hipparchus
    • Archimedes and the Door of Science
    • Going Solo (Roald Dahl)
Astronomy
  • Azimuth
  • Astrolabe
  • Using your hands to measure elevation above the horizon
  • Video about how the night sky changes because of the Earth's wobble
  • SkyView app 
Fine Arts
  • Easy Peasy High School Music Appreciation
    • Gustav Mahler
Wednesday night Youth Group activities at church

Monday, August 22, 2022

Homeschool Day 8/22

 2nd Grader

Math

  • Life of Fred Apples
  • We worked on telling time with a clock manipulative
Science
  • The Good and Beautiful Marine Biology
    • Marine Reptiles
    • We did the sea turtle craft
Fine Arts
  • Easy Peasy Music Appreciation (Ancients)
    • Woodwind instruments
Sonlight B World History 1 (history, Bible and literature)
  • Sonlight reading
  • We worked on his Timeline Book


10th Grader

Geometry

Bible
  • Mere Christianity (CS Lewis)
Bookshark J History of Science
  • Bookshark Reading
    • Eratosthenes
    • Ancient Rome
    • Archimedes
    • Going Solo (Roald Dahl)
  • Spelling words
  • She started the writing assignment for the week
Fine Arts
  • Ukulele class (outsourced)
Astronomy

Wednesday, August 17, 2022

Homeschool Day 8/17

 2nd Grader

Math

  • Life of Fred Apples
  • Addition flashcards
  • We reviewed all the +0, +1 and +2 math facts
Reading/Language Arts
  • All About Reading
  • Handwriting without Tears
Sonlight B World History 1 (history, Bible and literature)
  • We worked on his Timeline Book
  • We did our reading
Extra read-aloud: Henry and Beezus (Beverly Clearly)


10th Grader

Geometry

Bible
  • Mere Christianity (CS Lewis)
  • Daily Bible reading (1 Kings)
Easy Grammar 10th Grade Ultimate workbook

Astronomy
  • NASA MicroObservatory pictures came in from yesterday, so we were able to see pictures of Jupiter's moons, the Helix nebula and the Pinwheel galaxy
Bookshark J History of Science (history and literature)
  • Archimedes
  • Going Solo (Roald Dahl)
Fine Arts
  • Easy Peasy High School Music Appreciation
    • She listened to a violin concerto

College Students
  • We went on campus to the bookstore and bought their school books and they found where all of their classes will be next week (when the semester starts)

Tuesday, August 16, 2022

Homeschool Day 8/16: Movies and Astronomy

 2nd Grader

Math

  • Math dice games - addition
  • We played War with cards
Reading
  • All About Reading
Language Arts
  • All About Spelling
Science
  • The Good and Beautiful Marine Biology
    • Crustaceans
    • He was researching squids on his own
We didn't make it through our Sonlight today, but we did read aloud Henry and Beezus (Beverly Cleary).


10th Grader

Movies: We watched the movie version of The Giver.  She loved this movie and I'm thinking of getting the book from the library to see how different the book is from the movie.

We ended up watching the movie version of Animal Farm, based off the book by George Orwell.  We've already read the book, but she wanted to watch the movie version, too.  The movie version is really weird!  Not sure I recommend it.

Bookshark J History of Science (history, literature)
  • More Archimedes
  • Going Solo by Roald Dahl
Astronomy
  • We spent a lot of time on NASA's website
  • We watched NASA's Scientific Visualization Studio's Inside Hurricane Maria in 360 degrees. You can move the cursor around the hurricane to see what's happening from different views
  • NASA MicroObservatory https://mo-www.cfa.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/OWN/Own.pl
    • You choose an object in space that you would like their telescope to take a picture of.  Choose image settings and they email you a picture of your target object the next day
    • She chose these objects.  We googled more information about them (distance from Earth, location, etc)
      • Helix Nebula
      • Pinwheel Galaxy
      • Jupiter
  • LAB: We are going to spend some time with the telescope outside tonight
Fine Arts
  • She played the ukulele for about an hour

Homeschool Day 7/30

We will probably take next week off from school, since we are preparing for our daughter's wedding.  Also, we're almost halfway thro...