(1) Post 3 points and 3 questions (with
your team) to WebX before class, based on your reading of Burch
and the Starry Night exercises.
(2) Introduction:
Stars from Seattle: Dipper to Polaris, arc to Arcturus,
speed on to Spica, and Leo under the dipper.
Starry Night features: ^D = daylight, ^H = horizon,
^T = time, ^M = brightness, ^E = options
Turn trees off: Options / Horizon
/ Scenery. Guides: turn on "onscreen info"
^2 = equatorial grid, ^3 = ecliptic, F3=obect,
F4=grab, F5=constellation, F8=magnify
(3) Learn Starry Night:
Do Ex.#1 and #2 from your printout. Observe the many 5x
rules from Burch for finding Polaris. Why do we care about beng
able to find Polaris?
Then repeat Ex.#2 for tropical and equatorial latitudes.
NEW IDEA: Each team pick one section from Burch Ch.5. Use starry
night to practice the celestial navigation techniques in your
section.
OPTIONAL, intermediate: If you have time and interest,
do another workshop from the Starry Night manual.
(4) Share questions and learning about
Starry Night with the class. First pose questions, which we
will discuss and investigate together. Then each group will
have 5 minutes to demonstrate and explain the most interesting
thing they learned in this workshop, e.g. your section from
Burch.
(5) OPTIONAL - advanced, after class:
With your team, pick a star path from from We the Navigators
(Lewis), Ch.4 or from Sailpower's Emergency Navigation projects.
Determine the latitude, longitude, and approximate date
from your text. If your version of Starry Night lets you
make movies, record your star path and save it to our
Celestial Navigation folder in the CAL, to demonstrate
to classmates later.
Use Starry Night to see the star path the Polynesian
navigators followed to the target island.
Change your orientation appropriately as the night progresses:
* don't let your clock run too fast
* pause the clock and reorient yourself when necessary.
Q: Do you see other bright stars that are not mentioned?
Q: Can you identify stars that Lewis was not able to name?
Movies: After you have played with your star path enough
to be confident of when you need to steer to new stars, make
a movie of your voyage so that you can show it to the
class. Read Starry Night's online Help for movie-making
instructions.Preview your movie to make sure you are
happy with its speed and clarity. Save your movie in
our folder with a unique name.
If you demonstrate a starpath movie in class, be sure to tell
us:
* Where are you starting from? When?
*What island are you aiming for? How far away is it (in
days or miles)?
* What orientation do you start with? How can you tell?
* What stars do you aim for?
* How does your star path evolve, and how does your orientation
change throughout the night?
* What surprises did you encounter? What did you learn
from them?
