Astronomy Activities & Resources

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  Celestial Treasure Hunt [Activity and Handout]

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  • Child, Teen, Adult

  Give this Celestial Treasure Hunt handout to your star party visitors before they tour the telescopes so they can hunt for different types of astronomical objects!

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  Exploring Strange New Worlds [Activity]

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  • Child, Teen, Adult

  Your visitors become teams of scientists living on a planet orbiting a distant star. They are on the threshold of exploring their own planetary system for the first time

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  NSN Webinar: The Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS): Mission update and early results

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  • Child, Teen, Adult

  NASA Night Sky Network members joined us on August 29, 2018 when we heard from Knicole Colon with an update on the TESS mission.

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  Planetary Postcards [Reference]

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  • Child, Teen, Adult

  These colorful exoplanet postcards, featuring beautiful illustrations by renowned space artist Lynette Cook, showcase some of what's known about planets orbiting other stars. Uploaded: November 2005

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  PlanetQuest Observing Cards [Reference]

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  • Child, Teen, Adult

  This set of cards is designed to give telescope operators and other night sky interpreters a new way of explaining the night sky to your  scope's visitors. You can download the PDFs to your tablet or even print them out onto cardstock.

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  PlanetQuest Outreach Toolkit [Manual]

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  • Child, Teen, Adult

  The PlanetQuest Toolkit's complete manual provides hands-on activities and observing using telescopes to learn about discovering exoplanets: planets orbiting other stars. :

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  PlanetQuest: Our Changing Worlds View [Presentation]

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  • Child, Teen, Adult

  This presentation describes the search for planets around other stars and the Kepler mission that searched for these elusive worlds. Includes suggested script.

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  Star Maps: Where Are the Distant Worlds? [Handout]

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  • Child, Teen, Adult

  Where are the distant worlds in the night sky? Use these monthly star maps to find constellations and to identify stars with extrasolar planets.

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  Why Do We Put Telescopes In Space? [Activity and Presentation]

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  • Child, Teen, Adult

  This activity helps explain why telescopes in space can be more effective than telescopes on Earth. You can demonstrate why stars twinkle and show how atmospheric conditions impact the quality of what telescopes can see..

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  Wobbles and Transits: How Do We Find Planets Around Other Stars? [Activity]

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  • Child, Teen, Adult

  This activity describes techniques scientists use to find planets orbiting other stars, wth a focus on both the wobble and transit methods of detection.

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