Motions of the Sun Lab – Pedagogical Objectives
- Student will understand that the earth must rotate more than 360° each 24 hours/solar, the geometry around this phenomena, and how the terms sidereal and synodic are used in this context.
- Student will be able to quantify the numerical difference between the earth's sidereal and synodic days as 4 minutes or 1° and its directionality (lags eastward).
- Student will be able to calculate the meridional altitude of a star given its declination or the sun given a time of year and latitude.
- Student will correlate the 1° easterly lag of the sun with the change of the sun's position with respect to the stars, specifically, with respect to the Zodiac.
- Student will correlate the seasonal variation of the night sky visibility of the stars with the easterly lag of the sun with respect to the Zodiac.
- Student will be able to distinguish clearly between diurnal and seasonal motions of the sun.
- Student will be able to draw the path of the sun in the sky for a given date or identify the date from a depicted path.