Eclipses, Planets, and Stars

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There is no doubt in my mind that Nature's most exciting spectacle is a total eclipse of the sun. Rather than being an event to be witnessed, a total solar eclipse is an exhilarating experience. Every fiber of a human being becomes involved. So too birds, animals, and even plants are affected by the onset of darkness at midday.

The apparent wanderings of planets through the background of stars is always intriguing. That they are capable of stopping their motion, turning around, stopping again, and then resuming their original direction has captivated human minds since antiquity. How? and indeed why? are queries needing answers.

Stars bright and faint, of every color of the rainbow, in an ever-changing parade of beauty night after night throughout the year seize imagination and evoke wonder. What is a star? Where do stars come from? Where do they go? And as we gaze at their patterns, what really do we behold?

Eclipses, planets, stars! Excitement, imagination, wonder!

It all adds up to ASTRONOMY!

Moon Walk
One million people watched from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida as the ship's engines fired and smoke filled the sky. At 9:32 a.m., on July 16, 1969, Apollo 11 lifted off. Three astronauts were onboard the spaceship and on their way into history.

The Phoenix Has Landed
The Phoenix Mars Lander mission hopes to find ice and traces of ancient life on Mars. If it succeeds, it could be the most important NASA mission in decades.

LESSON PLAN	Lesson 2: Phases of the Moon In this lesson and worksheet, students learn about basic moon phases, and then color in sections of moon according to its pattern.
ONLINE ACTIVITY	The View from Hubble See what the Hubble Space Telescopes sees in this slide show.