From Stargazers to Starships

by David P. Stern

Welcome!

You have reached the homepage of
a book-on-the-web covering:

Astronomy of the Earth's motion in space.
Newtonian mechanics.
The Sun
Spaceflight and spacecraft

and .... a word of caution!

It also contains

A Math Refresher.
Helpful Material--hints for users, glossary, questions and answers, two timelines etc.
Mainly for Teachers--guide for teachers (high school or undergrad), problems, inventory of concepts, article about this site.

New as of July 2000:

From Stargazers to Starships

here

A Spanish translation of "Stargazers" by J. M. Mendez is now available here.

For teachers! A set of lesson plans is available here for use in class, covering the sections on astronomy, mechanics and the Sun .

For easier reading, view this site with size 14 font (but print out with size 10 or 12). The material is self-contained, at the high-school level, rich in history and is best studied in the order listed below. You are also invited to visit our sister sites--the one on the magnetophere or the one on the Earth's magnetism. or to send comments or questions to the author, David P. Stern.

You will find here:

Astronomy of the Earth's motion in space:

1. Stargazers
1a.    Finding the Pole Star
2. The Path of the Sun, the Ecliptic
2a.    Building a Sundial
3. Seasons of the Year
3a.   The Brightest Moon of the Century
4. The Angle of the Sun's Rays
4a.   The Moon: the Distant View
4b.    The Moon: A Closer Look
5. Latitude and Longitude
5a.   Navigation
5b.    Coordinates
6. The Calendar
6a.    The Jewish Calendar (optional)
7. Precession
8. The Round Earth and Christopher Columbus
8a.    Distance to the Horizon
8b.    Parallax
8c.    How Distant is the Moon?--1
8d.    How Distant is the Moon?--2
    The central role of the Sun
9a.    Aristarchus: Is Earth Revolving around the Sun?
9b.    The Earth's Shadow
9c.    Copernicus, Galileo, and the Discovery of the Solar System
10. Kepler and his Laws
10a.   The Scale of the Solar System
11. Graphs and Ellipses
11a.    Ellipses and Kepler's First Law
12. Kepler's Second Law
12a.   How Orbital Motion is Calculated
.

Newtonian mechanics

13. The Way Things Fall
14. Vectors
15. Energy
16. Newton and his Laws
17. Mass
17a.    Mass Measurements aboard Space Station Skylab
17b.    Comparing Masses without the Use of Gravity
18. Newton's Second Law
18a.    Momentum
19. Motion in a Circle
20. Newton's theory of "Universal Gravitation"
21. Kepler's Third Law
21a.    Applying Kepler's Third Law
22. Frames of Reference: The Basics
22a     The Aberration of Starlight
22b     The Theory of Relativity
22c     Airplane Flight
23. Accelerated Frames of Reference: Inertial Forces
23a     Frames of Reference: The Centrifugal Force
23b     Loop-the-Loop (optional)
24. Rotating Frames of Reference in Space and on Earth
.

The Sun

The Sun--Introduction

S-1. Sunlight and the Earth
S-1A. Weather and the Atmosphere
S-2. Our View of the Sun
S-3. The Magnetic Sun
S-4. The Many Colors of Sunlight
S-4A. Experimenting with Colors
S-5. Waves and Photons
S-6. Seeing the Sun in a New Light
S-6A. Interplanetary Magnetic Field Lines
S-7. The Energy of the Sun
LS-7A The Discovery of Atoms and Nuclei
(A very quick overview of the history.)
S-8. Nuclear Power
.

Spaceflight and Spacecraft

25. The Principle of the Rocket
26. Robert Goddard and his Rockets
27. The Evolution of the Rocket
28. Spaceflight
29. Spacecraft
29a.  Satellites observing the Sun, solar system and the universe
29b.   Satellites observing Earth from above
29c.   Satellites which observe the local space environment
29d.   Satellites for commercial benefits
29e.   Missions to planets and distant space
30. Far-out Pathways to Space: Great Guns?
30a.    Project HARP and the Martlet
31. Far-out Pathways to Space: Nuclear Power
32. Far-out pathways to Space: Solar Sails
32a.    Early Warning of Interplanetary Disturbances
33. Ion Rockets
34. Orbits in Space
34a.    The Distance to the L1 Point
34b.    The L4 and L5 Lagrangian Points
35. Starships
35a.    Planetary Swing-by and the Pelton Turbine

A Math Refresher

Elements of algebra

(M-1) Basic ideas
(M-1A) Algebra Proficiency Drill
(M-2) How it all started
(M-3) Formulas
(M-4) Identities
(M-5) Deriving Approximate Results

(M-6) The Theorem of Pythagoras

Elements of trigonometry

(M-7) What is it good for?
(M-8) How to tell sines from cosines
(M-9) Deriving sines and cosines
(M-10) Going past 90 degrees
(M-11) Deriving sin(a+b), cos(a+b)
(M-11A) Trigonometry Proficiency Drill

Helpful Material

The Answer Man--answers to questions by users of "Stargazers".
Hints to users.
A Glossary of Terms     (Cross-linked, keyed to the text)
Timeline          (A chronology).
Annotated Timeline   (With added dates from history). .
Of special interest to teachers:

'Stargazers' in the Classroom

"Stargazers" and National Science Education Standards

Inventory of concepts, calculations and stories

A list of problems related to the material.

"Using Space to Teach Physics"

The Physics Teacher

"The Exploration of the Earth's Magnetosphere"

gravity

magnetic and electric

Author and Curator: David P. Stern
NASA/GSFC Code 695
u5dps@lepvax.gsfc.nasa.gov
Web Design: Conway Carter
Image Editing: Eddie Welker

Last updated: 1.11.2000