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Sun and Other Stars Activity for Kids
Planisphere DIY
- Duration: 30-60 min
- Difficulty: Easy
- Cost: $0 to $5
Build a tool to determine which stars and constellations are visible on any given night!
Material List
- 2Sheets of printer paper
- 1Pair of scissors
- 1Planisphere PDF Printout
- 1Printer
- 1Roll of tape
Instructions
- 1Carefully cut out the star wheel and planisphere pieces.
- 2Fold the planisphere along the dotted lines and tape the edges in place to form a pocket.
- 3Slide the star wheel into the pocket so that the stars are visible.
- 4Align the current date on the star wheel with the current time on the planisphere.
- 5The stars visible on that day and time will be shown.
- Important Note:The planisphere provided here assumes you are in the USA. If you are somewhere else, please print a modified planisphere from this web page after entering your latitude.
How It Works
Planet Earth rotates on its axis every 24 hours so we can constantly see a different part of the sky. We also orbit the sun once a year, and that changes which constellations we can see. The planisphere tells you which constellations are visible on any given date and time. As we learn in the lesson about the sun and other stars, the distance and size of a star determine how bright they appear to us in the night sky. Our sun is a star too! It is much closer to us than other stars so it can warm the Earth, and it makes patterns like day and night.
Check out the Full Lesson on Sun and Other Stars
In this lesson, we learn that:
- Our sun is a star of average size and brightness.
- Stars come in different sizes and distances from Earth.
- Stars that are farther away appear smaller and dimmer.
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