Events and Activities
Yerkes Astrophysics Academy for Young Scientists (YAAYS) National Science Foundation Award #0639690 is an out of school time program for 3rd through 8th grade students from registered schools. Additional support is provided by the Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy (SOFIA). Special events continue to be scheduled for YAAYS schools and districts. YAAYS teachers may contact us to organize an event.
Astronomy Resources Connecting Schools (ARCS) Teachers meet monthly at Yerkes or other amazing locations to further their understanding of astronomy and astrophysics through professional development sessions organized by ARCS teachers and collaborating scientists. To register for these events or to request to be on our email list, please contact Yerkes Education Outreach or 262-245-5555.
February 26-28, 2010 Professional Development for Teachers
All about Asteroids, Telescopes, and Imaging in Charleston, Illinois, which is co-hosted by the ARCS teachers, Eastern Illinois University (EIU) and the Astronomical Research Institute (ARI) . Please email Yerkes Education Outreach with questions or to let us know you are planning to attend.
- Educators: Register for the AsteroidsWISE workshop, on Feb. 27th. You may attend as a follow up to the workshop at Oak Park and River Forest HS, or as a new participant. The agenda will focus on learning about the telescopes and observatories that provide the asteroid images, and the process of discovering new asteroids or contributing positions for refining orbits of recently discovered asteroids, including those discovered by WISE. We will also analyze image sets to determine the composition of a an asteroid by comparing brightness in different filters, and the rotation rate by plotting a light curve. You will have a chance to learn asteroid and image analysis basics, so don't worry if you are a beginner.
- The ARCs teachers will be arriving on the evening of Feb. 26th and continuing until the morning of Feb. 28th. There will be a chance to observe visually with very large aperture telescopes compliments of the local amateur astronomers. Robert Holmes will let us tour the ARI observatories and telescopes and see them in action. Especially interesting is the Hands-On Universe 30 inch telescope which is in the process of being refurbished and set up at ARI.
- Hotels in the area that will provide EIU rates are
- Days Inn in Charleston $49.95 per night 2 double beds non-smoking (217) 345-7689
- Worthington Inn $49.95 per night double occupancy with 2 double beds; $45.00 per night single double bed (217) 348-8161
WISE is a NASA-funded Explorer mission that will provide a vast storehouse of knowledge about the solar system, the Milky Way, and the Universe. Among the objects WISE will study are asteroids, the coolest and dimmest stars, and the most luminous galaxies. Within our Solar System, asteroids absorb most of the sunlight that hits them and heat up to glow in the mid-infrared. WISE will be able to measure the diameters of more than 100,000 asteroids.
International Year of Astronomy (IYA)
Galileoscope: Construct your telescope and learn how to use it. We will have a series of sessions for families and teacher/student events. Galileoscopes are here! These events will be scheduled when we have telescopes in hand. Call Yerkes 262-245-5555 to arrange a Galileoscope "make and take" session for your students or youth group. Sponsored by YAAYS and SOFIA.
YERKES SOFIA Project for area HS students and their teachers.
Yerkes Explorers Reaching for Keys to the Electromagnetic Spectrum (YERKES)
Meets on the third Thursday evening of the month during the school year, 7:30-9:30. Open to area HS students with a teacher sponsor. Additional observing nights or projects. Funded by the Environmental Education Foundation (EEF) and SOFIA.
Teachers/Students please email us
to participate in the 2009-10 year program. Begins in September!
Build a Star Finder! Plot the Planets!
January 16-18, ARCS: Student Research Projects at Yerkes Observatory. AGNs and Galaxies SDSS Research, Kevin McCarron and Rich Kron; International Asteroid Search Campaign, Patrick Miller via Web Ready Conferencing; Tracking Mars with Digital Photography, Richard DeCoster; Dark Sky Awareness and Globe at Night, Vivian Hoette; Pulsar Search, Sherry Shelley; SKYNET Observations and AfterGlow Software, Vivian Hoette.
Image Processing Software
Images taken with the Yerkes 24 inch Telescope and Others
- Image Processing Software for 'fts' images and Links to Image Sets
- Hands-On Universe Activities including Explorations and telescope image sets
- Moon Terminator: Waxing Gibbous
View images taken with the Yerkes 24 inch telescope of the terminator which is the line defining night or day. Cut and tape these pictures together to get the big picture. - 7 Day Moon from Tokyo Science Museum
The Kitanomaru Telescope at the Science Museum in Tokyo took these images of the moon for the UNIVERSE Liveshow with Yerkes Observatory on February 24th, 2007. Activity includes putting the images together to see the moon at its 7 day phase. - Constellations and Digital Camera Comet Holmes Pictures
- AstroSpectroscopy Images for students with gadgets mounted on or at the eyepiece of Yerkes 24 inch telescope
Astronomer Talks for Educators
- Mass of Galaxies; M51zoomSDSS; Stars and Spectra; Active Galactic Nuclei and their Host Galaxies (Rich Kron)
- Measuring Angles in the Sky (Rich Kron)
- Limits to sharpness: diffraction and seeing (Rich Kron)
- Star Temperatures (Rich Kron)
- EM Spectrum and Observing (Rich Kron)
- Building Instruments - Ultraviolet Sensor (Rich Kron)
- Elementary Optics; EM Spectrum (Al Harper)
- Hubble Space Telescope Servicing Mission October 2008 (pdf) or (ppt) (Max Mutchler)
- Wiki Site for YAAYS and ARCS teachers and instructors (password required). Includes Python Programming and Activities. (Marc Berthoud)
- Journey to Palomar PBS Series http://www.journeytopalomar.org Teacher Guide
Links
- Wisconsin Astronomy http://wisconsinastronomy.org/index.html Find Star Parties and Astronomy Activities in and near Wisconsin!
- Magazines:
- Astronomy http://www.astronomy.com/asy/default.aspx
- Mercury http://www.astrosociety.org/pubs/mercury/mercury.html
- Sky and Telescope http://www.skyandtelescope.com/
- Calendars:
- Abrams Planetarium Sky Calendar http://www.pa.msu.edu/abrams/SkyCalendar/
- Astronomical Calendar 2008 by Guy Ottewell
- Heavens Above http://www.heavens-above.com/ for date specific tracking of the International Space Station (ISS), the Space Shuttle, Iridium Flares, etc.
- Resource Websites:
- Adler Planetarium http://www.adlerplanetarium.org/
- Astronomy Education Review http://aer.noao.edu/cgi-bin/new.pl
- Cool Cosmos http://coolcosmos.ipac.caltech.edu/
- Cool Cosmos Multiwavelength Astronomy
- Galileoscopes https://www.galileoscope.org/gs/
- Globe at Night http://www.globe.gov/GaN/
- Google Sky http://www.google.com/sky/ and Google Sky for Educators
- Hubble Site -- Out of the Ordinary ... Out of This World http://hubblesite.org/
- Hubble Heritage Gallery http://heritage.stsci.edu/gallery/gallery.html
- Hubble Press Release of Saturn Moon Transit http://hubblesite.org/newscenter/archive/releases/2009/12/video/
- Hubble Servicing Mission http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/hubble/servicing/SM4/main
- International Year of Astronomy http://www.astronomy2009.org/
- NASA's Imagine the Universe http://imagine.gsfc.nasa.gov/index.html
- SEE Project Space Exploration and Experience project for Blind/Visually Impaired
- SETI http://www.seti.org/
- Sloan Digital Sky Survey SkyServer http://cas.sdss.org/dr7/en/
- Sun Earth Connection http://sunearth.gsfc.nasa.gov/
- SOFIA Education, includes Active Astronomy http://www.sofia.usra.edu/Edu/edu.html
- SOHO: Our Star the Sun http://soho.nascom.nasa.gov/classroom/classroom.html
- StarDate http://stardate.org/
- Star Wheels: Uncle Al's Star Wheels (Choose Nov. 2007); Double Sided Planisphere
- Stars by Jim Kaler http://www.astro.uiuc.edu/~kaler/sow/sowlist.html
- Stellarium http://www.stellarium.org/
- The Constellations http://www.dibonsmith.com/menu.htm
- Windows to the Universe http://www.windows.ucar.edu/
- Universe Forum Learning Resources
http://cfa-www.harvard.edu/seuforum/learningresources.htm - Universe in the Classroom
http://www.astrosociety.org/education/publications/tnl/tnl.html - World Wide Telescope http://www.worldwidetelescope.org/Home.aspx
- Yerkes Clear Sky Clock http://cleardarksky.com/c/YerkesObILkey.html?1
Previous Programs/Events
- The Youth Slam of National Federation of the Blind Jernigan Institute in Baltimore July, 2009. YAAYS and SOFIA contributed Tracing Invisible Rays.
- Hands-On Universe Annual Conference June 22-26, 2009 *Agenda, Power Points, and Handouts*
- YAAYS Summer Academy Summer Academy Sign-Up Form
- Hands-On Universe WISE Conference Agenda and Notes
- YAAYS Class NSM5007 Electromagnetic Spectrum
- ARCS February 2008 Follow Up Weekend; ARCS Leadership Lesson Template
- YAAYS Summer Academy 2008