One thing I could have done better was taken better pictures of the sun set. Some of the pictures where had more of a zoom than others which resulted in alignment of the horizon to be a little off from what I had expected. I also would have gotten better azimuth measurements if I would have used a better tool.
Very fun project! Start early so that you can get in all 10 weeks of observation. Once you go through the concept of celestial motions things start to “click” more and it will be easy to complete your data analysis. Pick a spot where you wont have to travel far to take your pictures (mistake that I made) and hold your camera at the same height while standing in the same spot.
The one thing I would recommend, which I ended up not being able to do, is take pictures to help support your sketch. The photos will make it much more interesting and it is a very quick process obviously.
Make sure you read the directions beforehand. I know it sounds silly, but for real. It will help you choose a location where you can get the best possible photos. Choose some kind of landmark to help line up your shots so that they’re relatively the same viewpoint each time. And don’t stare at the sun! :O
I can not stress enough on how important it is to ask questions when you don’t understand something. Don’t just guess or tell yourself that you’ll figure it out or imagine that the answers will come to you through some last minute moment of enlightenment. The description and rules to your project does tell you everything you need to know but there are things that need to be clarified in person. Repeatedly check in with Mrs.Follette as you make progress every week or two in order to catch any mistakes early so that you’ll have time to get yourself back on track. You don’t want to find out the day before the presentation that all your calculations are wrong or that the whole time you weren’t drawing the sun against the horizon like you were supposed to. If you choose to take pictures, you should definitely check in to make sure they are what they are supposed to look like. Also, be very careful with the horizon you choose and you finger/fist measurements on your sketch, it can mess all your numbers up.
One thing I could have done better was taken better pictures of the sun set. Some of the pictures where had more of a zoom than others which resulted in alignment of the horizon to be a little off from what I had expected. I also would have gotten better azimuth measurements if I would have used a better tool.
Very fun project! Start early so that you can get in all 10 weeks of observation. Once you go through the concept of celestial motions things start to “click” more and it will be easy to complete your data analysis. Pick a spot where you wont have to travel far to take your pictures (mistake that I made) and hold your camera at the same height while standing in the same spot.
The one thing I would recommend, which I ended up not being able to do, is take pictures to help support your sketch. The photos will make it much more interesting and it is a very quick process obviously.
Make sure you read the directions beforehand. I know it sounds silly, but for real. It will help you choose a location where you can get the best possible photos. Choose some kind of landmark to help line up your shots so that they’re relatively the same viewpoint each time. And don’t stare at the sun! :O
Start the project on week one. The weather only gets worse as the semester goes on.
I can not stress enough on how important it is to ask questions when you don’t understand something. Don’t just guess or tell yourself that you’ll figure it out or imagine that the answers will come to you through some last minute moment of enlightenment. The description and rules to your project does tell you everything you need to know but there are things that need to be clarified in person. Repeatedly check in with Mrs.Follette as you make progress every week or two in order to catch any mistakes early so that you’ll have time to get yourself back on track. You don’t want to find out the day before the presentation that all your calculations are wrong or that the whole time you weren’t drawing the sun against the horizon like you were supposed to. If you choose to take pictures, you should definitely check in to make sure they are what they are supposed to look like. Also, be very careful with the horizon you choose and you finger/fist measurements on your sketch, it can mess all your numbers up.