Teacher's Guide With the celestial sphere, students are able to model the apparent daily motions of the stars and the sun for a variety of latitudes and for any day of the year. The activity includes data that the students can use to see that the seasons are not caused by the distance between the earth and the sun. The activities and sphere will help with using the sky for navigation and explaining the cause of seasons on the earth. They can experiment with the sky in the laboratory and at home. Recommended for astronomy and earth science at the junior high school through college level.
Many students believe that the sun is at zenith at noon for every day of the year.
By making this model, they will learn the true daily path of the sun. Repeating the same thing one month later, they will compare the daily paths of the sun for different seasons of the year and be active participants in long-duration observations. Galileo's first telescopes lacked precision and clarity. Nevertheless, he made astonishing discoveries with his crude instruments. This simple lab enables students to build a telescope that is similar to Galileo's.