Instructify

July 21, 2010

While reviewing another space-related website, I came across this one, Starry Night Sky Chart, and decided it was cool enough to warrant its own post. At this site, you can enter your ZIP code and get a picture of what the night sky will look like in your area.

This website is part of a larger website, Starry Night Education, that offers extensive (paid) resources for teaching space science and astronomy. However, the interactive sky chart is free. Its operation is pretty simple. Enter your ZIP code and you will be presented with a picture of what the sky will look like at approximately 9 p.m. as you face south on that day. You can change the viewing time and a few other simple options, like labeling constellations and planets. You can also see what the view would look like if you were standing on the moon — how cool is that?

There are some other free resources provided that you might enjoy as well. There are some interactive astronomy tutorials that can be viewed right in your browser, and even a downloadable, 192-page introductory text on astronomy. These plus a few other free resources can be found here.

I came to this website because I found the Sky Chart and thought it was really neat and worthy of passing on. Then, I found the aforementioned additional free resources. I hope that you will find something interesting to share with your students as well.

Starry Night Sky Chart

Other free resources from Starry Night

Peek into space with Windows on the Universe