Classroom under the stars


created: Tue, 23 Apr 2013

April 19th, 2013
La Hita Astronomical Observatory

This activity was the culmination of a serial of four workshops dedicated to Astronomy that have been taking part during the current academic year (2012-2013) at 'Leonor de Guzmán' secondary school in La Villa de Don Fadrique, a municipality in the province of Toledo.

Contents have been adequate to the students needs according to the criteria showed by their teachers (engaged on Discover the Cosmos project).

After learning about terrestrial orbit, the origin of orbital stations in space and phenomena related to the Sun and the Moon, this activity consisted in an observation during the night at the Observatory.
Some telescopes at the Observatory were dedicated specifically for the night activity, including TEDI telescope (recently released). Teachers guided the students to the observatory and some family came along with them to the observation.

After visiting the buildings and explaining the scientific research that takes part at La Hita Observatory, the group headed a brief orientation to understand cardinal points and observe the International Space Station passing by the sky.

After the introduction, TEDI telescope was used to observe Jupiter, the Moon, some galaxies and some celestial objects.

50 Students learned how to identify craters by type, they observed Jupiter's atmosphere and were able to take some images from the Moon with their mobile phones through the telescope.