Date: Wed, 11 Dec 1996 21:59:37 -0800
To: pinhole@exploratorium.edu
From: dgray@justin-siena.napanet.net (Dan Gray)
Subject: Geminid Meteor shower
Message-Id: <14F2D4B489E@justin-siena.napanet.net>
If we have clear skies Friday night (and that's a very big IF I guess!)
look to the east toward Gemini for the best meteor shower of the year.
The moon is a small crescent and if the clouds are gone the skies should be
very clean from the rain.
This is a great opportunity for your students to do some real science first
hand. My ninth graders have learned the constellations and the basics of
navigating their way in the sky. I'm having them each do a 40 minute
observation and record the constellation of origin, direction of motion and
meteor length in degrees. Then they'll plot their data on a star map and
they should be able to see that they tend to emanate from a point in the sky.
Of course if it's cloudy.... oh well!
-Dan Gray
Justin-Siena High School