Constellation Chamber

Briefing

Ancient astronomers named constellations (groups of stars in the sky) based on what they looked like from Earth. Do you think they'd look the same from some other part of outer space? You'll find out in this Smart Art!

Activity

WHAT YOU'LL NEED:

2 pegboards (boards a grid of holes in them)
Thin black skewers
Yellow or white clay
Glue or tape
A ruler
Scissors

WHAT TO DO:

Put the two pegboards together so they form an "L" and stand them up on their side.

To make a constellation, look at this chart It will tell you how to set up each star in your constellation. For each star, you'll need a stick of a certain length and some clay.

Using your ruler, find a stick that's just the right length for the star you need. The stick represents how far away that star is from the Earth.

Now look at the number assigned to that star. Find that number on the grid in the shoebox. Poke the stick into the shoebox right on the numbered dot. Put a little wad of clay underneath the shoebox where your stick pokes through, to hold it in place.

To make your star, roll up a little piece of clay into a ball and put it on the other end of the stick (the part sticking up out of the shoebox).

Keep doing this for all the stars in the constellation.

Once you've made your constellation, look straight down into the box from about one foot away. Does your constellation look like the picture? Draw what you see.

Now look at the constellation from the side (one of the open sides of the box). Does the pattern of the stars look the same or different? Draw what you see from this point of view. Then have a look from the other side. What do you see now?

When you're finished, you can use your box to make some of the other constellations.

GOING FURTHER

If you have time, try inventing your own constellation. Make a picture with different sized sticks -- a letter of the alphabet, a number, a simple shape. Make sure it looks right only from above. Then have a friend look at your constellation from the side, and see if he or she can guess what it is!

Debriefing

When you looked at your constellation from above, that was like looking at it from the Earth. Even though some of the stars in any constellation are much farther from the Earth than others, they look like they're right next to each other. That's because they're all very far away from Earth -- so far that we don't really notice the differences -- and because we're looking at them all from the same angle.

As you found out, if you looked at a constellation from somewhere else in outer space, it would look pretty different!

If you've got your Case Journals, answer the questions in it now!