What would be an straightforward, yet useful theme for an Astronomy presentation?
by Chris Maytag
Query by graagh: What would be an straightforward, nonetheless appealing topic for an Astronomy presentation?
For my Astronomy class it has to be fifteen mins long, so anything with a ton of details would be very good.
Finest remedy:
Response by Luthus V
Pluto. Expose the situation of those derelict astronomers that determined to demote Pluto, because they did not have the talent and/or technologies to find new details, they bought occupied with morbid degrading recommendations.
What do you assume? Reply under!
Query by Heidi: Which astronomy magazine would you suggest? (Sky&Telescope or Astronomy) What are the pros and cons of just about every?
I am fascinated by astronomy and want to subscribe to a journal. I you should not know what “space” publications are out there or if they are any beneficial… I’m seeking for information relating to new findings and/or theoretical hypothesis, and NOT SO Significantly “novice/nearby astronomy” details, these kinds of as beginner findings or local events. I also don’t care a great deal for star charts. I just want the newest and best in astronomy information. Can you give me some tips?? Many thanks!
Best reply:
Remedy by keyur G Suthar
sky and telescope
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July 19th, 2011 at 6:58 pm
I’d recommend quasars or gamma ray bursts, both really cool objects and used to study the early universe.
July 19th, 2011 at 7:35 pm
well you could use the stars and how they are in shapes, what caused them, what they really are and some other mumbo jumbo
July 19th, 2011 at 8:09 pm
do how the moon’s gravity the sun’s gravity and the rotation of the earth effect the tides during the day and the monthly tides (spring and neap tides are monthly tides)
July 19th, 2011 at 8:12 pm
I think it would be interesting to prepare a talk on how Claudius Ptolemy used his system of epicycles to compensate for his inability to calculate elliptical motion and to understand that the Earth and other planets orbit our Sun. His methods gave pretty good predictions of planetary positions, not equalled until Kepler and Newton. Even Kopernik’s model (better at first glance, because it was much simpler) needed a lot of fudge factors because he used circular orbits, and that gave poor predictions.
Wikipedia might be a good place to start your research.
July 19th, 2011 at 8:39 pm
talk about the moon of saturn Titan which they say has liquid and an atmosphere its sort of like earth
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Titan_%28moon%29
Hope this helps
July 19th, 2011 at 9:08 pm
Pluto. Explain to those who can’t accept the truth, that Pluto should never have been called a planet in the first place. Explain that this tiny piece of ice (only 1/6 the mass of the Moon) is not much more than a very large comet with a companion (or three).
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Actually, you will find that 15 minutes is rather short.
You should tackle a useful topic instead. For example, the life story of a star is determined by its mass at birth.
The initial mass of the star, when fusion begins, determines its size, its rate of fusion, its luminosity, its color, its expected life and its ultimate fate.
July 19th, 2011 at 10:01 pm
How we cant see the edge of our universe not because or technology but because it is physically impossible. the universe is around 14 billion years old, meaning we can only see 14 billion lightyears away since the way we see things are through light. This would mean that anything 14+ billion lightyears away can’t be seen.
July 19th, 2011 at 10:21 pm
A fairly easy presentation would be to explain galaxy types. You might want a visual aid such as this:
http://static.howstuffworks.com/gif/galaxy-8.gif
There are four major categories of galaxies: spiral, elliptical, lenticular, and irregular.
Normal spiral galaxies are represented by the bottom-right branch in the diagram. They are flat and pancake shaped, which spiral structures in their outer regions. They range in classification from Sa to type Sc. Type Sa have large central regions and faint tightly-wound arms. Type Sc have small central regions and bright widely-splayed arms. Type Sb are intermediate between these.
Barred spirals are represented by the bottm-left branch. They are similar to spirals but contain a central bar, or an inner region where the arms go straight out from the core instead of in spiral pattern. Otherwise they’re basically the same as spiral galaxies, but classified as type SBa to SBc. Our own galaxy is actually a type SBc.
Elliptical galaxies don’t have a spiral structure. They are classified from type E0 through type E7. Type E0 are perfectly sphereical, although densest near the core and grow fainter with distance from the core. Type E7 are hightly prolate, meaning cigar-shaped. E1 through E6 are progressive stages between these two shapes.
Lenticular galaxies are intermediate between spiral galaxies and elliptical galaxies. They are oblate shaped instead of prolate (meaning like a flattened basketball), and have no spiral structure. They are classified as S0.
Irregular are not represented on this particular diagram, but have irregular shapes, as the classification suggests. Two of our galaxy’s satellites, the Large and Small Magellanic clouds, are irregular galaxies. They are classified IRR.
There are also what’s called Dwarf Galaxies, which have the same general types but are smaller.
These are rather straight-forward explanations, and if you need additional time you can explain how elliptical galaxies are ususally a result of collisions between spiral galaxies. When they collide, they lose their spiral structures and becomes just featureless balls of stars. You could also preamble the presentation with a short discription of what galaxies are (i.e. huge collections of stars ranging in the billions or trillions). Also, another distiction between spiral and elliptical galaxies is that spirals contain a lot of gas and dust with which to create new generations of stars, whereas ellipticals do not, having used it all up. There are reasons for this, but I’ve probably already given you a half hour or so of discussion points.
July 19th, 2011 at 10:55 pm
“Why is the sky dark at night”
This is Olbers’ Paradox. Look it up here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Olbers%27_paradox
You’ll blow their minds ….
July 19th, 2011 at 11:48 pm
An interesting and highly visual topic would be the Hubble Space Telescope and the fantastic photos we have obtained thru it. You could display some of the photos with a short explanation of the photos importance. It found areas of space that seem to have older dying stars. It also found nebulas with star “nurserys” light years in size where new stars are being born.
You could talk about HST initial focusing problem and correction but I would concentrate on the results.
You want to keep it highly visual as most people are visually oriented and good photos with a good story are memorable.
good photos plus interesting facts equal good grade
July 19th, 2011 at 11:56 pm
I have much experience in making presentations on astronomy. Two beginnings I would recommend you consider would be to talk about the Huygens Probe which went into Titan or another example would be to talk about the solar nebula theory and the formation of the solar system.
July 20th, 2011 at 12:10 am
Sky & Telsescope is written by astronomers who can write, Astronomy is written by writers who know about astronomy. Both are good but I think S&T has the edge with “serious” amateurs.
July 20th, 2011 at 12:27 am
For a Canadian flavour – SkyNews magazine.
July 20th, 2011 at 12:54 am
I get them both and like them for different reasons. Both of these magazines are, however, geared toward amatuer astronomy, and therefore heavy on observing and equipment, the things you say you are not interested in. In my mind, Astronomy has more news type information (little snippets), but S&T seems to have more in depth articles and technical speak. I don’t think either is what you are looking for, but if you go with one, i think you would like S&T better.