Astrodome Mobile Planetarium

Please do the Astrodome Quiz BEFORE going over these terms with the students.

In preparation for the ASTRODOME visit it would be useful if you could spend some time with the children discussing the following terms and concepts.

ASTRONOMY Astronomy is the study of the stars, planets and space. It should not be confused with
ASTROLOGY which is the belief that the stars and planets can influence our lives. Astronomy is a science. Astrology is not.
ATMOSPHERE The Atmosphere is the layer of gases which surrounds a planet or other object.
ATMOSPHERIC POLLUTION/LIGHT POLLUTION Smoke and other fumes from vehicles and factories form a haze in the atmosphere. This makes it difficult to see the Stars in the night sky. Light Pollution it the popular name for sky glow, it is caused by poorly designed lighting units.
CONSTELLATION A constellation is a group of stars which appears to make a pattern in the sky.
DAY The Earth is a planet which is rotating. It turns once every 24 hours, (one day) or to be precise 23-hours 56-minutes 4-seconds.
DAY TIME When our part of the Earth turns towards the Sun it is daytime.
GALAXY An independent star-system which can contain many thousands of millions of stars. The Sun is part of the Milky Way Galaxy which contains about 100,000 million stars.
HEMISPHERE The Earth is a sphere which can be divided into two halves or hemispheres. The imaginary line which separates the northern and southern hemisphere is called the EQUATOR.
LIGHT YEAR A light year is a very large unit of DISTANCE (not time). It is the distance travelled by light in one year. One light year is about 5,880,000 million miles or 9,460,000 million kilometres.
MOON The Moon is a satellite of the Earth. It completes one orbit of the Earth every four weeks (more exactly 27.3 days).
NAKED EYE Looking at something with the "naked eye" means without using binoculars or a telescope.
NIGHT TIME When our part of the Earth turns away from the Sun it is night-time.
ORBIT An orbit is the path taken by one object as it moves around another. For example, the path taken by the Earth as it moves around the sun.
PLANET A planet is an object which orbits the sun (or another star). It does not produce any light of its own but shines by reflecting light from the sun.
SATELLITE A satellite is a smaller object which moves in orbit around a larger one. The Earth is a satellite of the Sun. The Moon is a satellite of the Earth.
SOLAR SYSTEM The Solar System comprises the Sun and all the objects which orbit it. These include the nine known planets, their satellites, minor planets, comets, meteoroids, gas and dust.
SPACE PROBE A space probe is an unmanned craft sent to explore space. For example, Voyager 2 is a space probe which was sent to explore Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune.
STAR A star is a very large ball of gas which produces light and heat from nuclear reactions.
SUN The Sun is a very ordinary star. It is the nearest star to the Earth. The Sun provides all our light and heat. Without the Sun there could be no life on Earth.
SUNRISE Sunrise happens when the Earth turns so the Sun appears above the horizon. At sunrise night-time ends and daytime begins.
SUNSET Sunset happens when the Earth turns so that the Sun disappears below the horizon. At sunset daytime ends and night-time beings.
YEAR The Earth is moving around the Sun. It takes 365 days to go once around the Sun. This is called a year.
ZENITH The zenith is the point in the night sky which is directly overhead.