Astronomy

Arlington, VA (PRWEB) July 26, 2010

Fourteen educators have claimed “Gold Star” honors in the NASA-sponsored Top Stars contest, which invited U.S. formal and informal educators to submit their best examples of using NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope in science, technology, engineering or mathematics education.

Examples of Gold Star-winning products include:

*Playground Planetarium: A curriculum that teaches elementary school students about constellations and the myths surrounding them. Younger students design and create their own planetarium using a dome-shaped playground climber, while older students analyze Hubble images.

*Twenty Years of Hubble: Middle school students create a timeline of Hubble events and discover new vocabulary using foldable cards.

*The Life and Death of Bob (a.k.a.NGC 6397): A slide show and supplemental images chronicle the use of Hubble images through a semester-long, college-level introductory astronomy course.

The Top Stars contest was conducted by the Institute for Global Environmental Strategies (IGES) in cooperation with the Space Telescope Science Institute. Submissions were accepted from individuals and from teams of up to four members, and included any combination of text, graphics, video and photos.

Gold Star status was awarded to the best of the best — as judged by IGES and NASA scientists and educators — from the entries selected as “Top Stars” during the contest’s four rounds of competition. The Showcase section of the Top Stars Web site — http://topstars.strategies.org — includes downloadable materials from all Hubble activities selected as Top Stars.

Gold Star winners receive the following prizes (in addition to previously awarded Top Stars prizes):

*An official letter of commendation from NASA;

*An invitation to present their entry to other educators nationwide using the NASA Digital Learning Network;

*A pair of IMAX movie tickets that can be used to see “Hubble 3D;” and

*A “Hubble 3D” movie poster for classroom display.

Educators selected as Gold Stars also will be featured in articles on NASA’s website.

“All of our Gold Star and Top Star winners should be extremely proud of their work,” said Bonnie McClain, NASA Hubble education plan co-lead. “Educators and students around the world will benefit from their effective use of Hubble in high-quality education products and activities.”

The following is a complete list of Gold Star winners:

*Jacky Byatt, Houston, Texas: “Twenty Years of Hubble” (middle school);

*C. Renee James, Huntsville, Texas: “The Life and Death of Bob (a.k.a NGC 6397) in an Introductory College-Level Astronomy Course” (undergraduate);

*Sheree’ Kearns, Jacksonville, Fla.: “Galactic Brain Buster” (high school);

*Joan Labay-Marquez, Boerne, Texas: “Playground Planetarium” (elementary school);

*Carrie Murray, West Chester, Ohio: “Hubble Space Telescope Inspired Research Wiki Pages” (elementary school);

*AmyJo Proctor, Ron Proctor and Stacy Palen, Ogden, Utah: “Expanded View” (informal education);

*Stephanie Slater, Timothy Slater and Daniel Lyons, Laramie, Wyo.: “Using HST to Scaffold Student-driven Scientific Inquiry” (undergraduate);

*Keith Turner, Noblesville, Ind.: “Adopt A Constellation: Final Project” (high school);

Andrew Vandenheuvel, Coopersville, Mich.: “Make an HST Photo” (high school); and

*John Williams, Golden, Colo.: “Hubble Star Cards” and “StarryCritters – What do you see in the night sky?” (informal education).

For more information, please visit:

http://topstars.strategies.org

ABOUT THE HUBBLE SPACE TELESCOPE

The thousands of stunning images captured by Hubble since its launch 20 years ago have made possible numerous breakthroughs in our understanding of the universe, and thanks to a recent servicing mission Hubble is expected to live on through at least 2014.

ABOUT IGES

Located in Arlington, Va., IGES was established in 1994 and is a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization supported by public and private entities. IGES is a trusted leader in Earth and space science education, communication and outreach, and in fostering national and international cooperation in observing the Earth.

CONTACT

Dan Stillman

Institute for Global Environmental Strategies

(703) 312-7138 (Phone)

(703) 312-8657 (FAX)

Email: dan_stillman(at)strategies(dot)org

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More Astronomy Press Releases

(PRWEB) February 14, 2005

?Roses are red, violets are blue ? virtual guidance on romance, love under the stars at Astrolovemates.com is the answer for you – find out about night sky stars at Astronomy too.?

Fiona Stewart is an award-winning communicator, psychologist, who says, ?for FREE guidance visit Astronomy articles for weekly mind-stimulating feature stars updates and read your zodiac love stars for romance of the heart at Astrolovemates.? Fiona Stewart predicts in the Chinese Year of the Rooster that, ?magical romance moments for many will come home to roost, need guidance on how then see Astrolovemates.com your weekly love life destiny boost.?

Fiona Stewart is a star writer, editor for Astronomy on the internet reaching millions interested in astronomy worldwide and creator, writer for Astrolovemates.com for soulmates, love under the stars. She offers personally written advice and articles – quality, independent editorial for women with a following by men too.

You may ask what does astronomy have to do with love under the stars? She smiles, ?A passionate, intelligent, enquiring mind provides great personal fulfilment. More people than ever before are now choosing to spend a night with likeminded others and their love passion under the stars – astronomy – as the study of the stars grows in popularity.? She adds, ?Many stars, as well as shooting stars and a rare comet, can easily be seen on a clear sky night through your window at home, with the naked eye too.?

She concludes ?With Astronomy, I stimulate your mind every week with new features, your passion to ask questions and develop understanding about the stars, universe.? Today she launches a Mars ? Venus Challenge quiz, for you to test your Mars ? Venus knowledge, which reveals your score and stores the top scores in the Astronomy Hall of Fame, can you get 100%?

Fiona Stewart has written many top-ranked google, yahoo and alexa (amazon.com) articles, investigative enquiring journalistic reports to name but a few – Life on Mars? Venus Earth?s Life Future? Alongside popular reader Astronomy- space features on Saturn, Titan, Meteorites, Zodiac Constellations, Famous Astronomers, History.

Seeking romantic love, wealth, health in abundance? Request your special Astrolovemates reports to reveal your love life destiny potential, passion, sexuality, soulmates, and your very own soulmate symbol, Astrolovemates star crystal for luck.

For further information, logon to Astrolovemates.com

Biography – About the Astronomy Editor

Fiona Stewart, BSc. Biochem.MPhilPsych.NLP, award-winning communicator, psychologist, international and UK writer author with articles published in nationals, news, consumer, health, medical, psychology, astronomy, astrology and women’s interest. Awards include a Financial Times Business of The Year Award; Prestigious Driver Prize from top 3 UK Psychology University and most unusual SPICE Adventure Group Award. Trained by leading international stars in corporate crisis issues management, photo-journalism and as a media spokesperson.

NLP Business Practitioner for corporate and personal development, who supports conservation of souls, wolves and hawks. Passionate about the stars in the sky since childhood, an astrology newspaper column 1994-5 and today hosts the worldwide website Astrolovemates.com about the stars and much more. Astrolovemates means Soulmates Love Under the Stars.

Fiona Stewart, author writer, is also working on her second book ‘Is This the New Atlantis?’ using her astronomy skills to unravel ancient mysteries, mathematics of astronomer astro-physicists about mythical Atlantis rumoured to be from the stars beyond. Fiona Stewart, author writer, is almost ready to publish ‘Find Your True Self, Love Under The Stars’, a star guide 12 zodiac signs. She also writes a ‘weekly stars’ column which has a growing following called ?Your Zodiac Signs – Love Stars, using a unique scientific planetary alchemy tables, her own stars formula and intuition. Fiona lives in the beautiful countryside vales of the Lambourn Valley, Royal Berkshires. She finds the peaceful protected countryside inspiring.

Often while writing in her cottage, she watches the crystal clear water flowing from an ancient watermill and the night sky view of the stars above. Her other interests are her star dog “yang”, home feungshai, reiki practitioner and crystals, theatre, cooking, reading and photography.

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La Verne, CA (PRWEB) August 20, 2011

Barska, a leading manufacturer of binoculars, telescopes, and sport optics products has improved its selection of large astronomy binoculars with the introduction of a new line of zoom binoculars designed for long distance, high magnification viewing of astronomical and celestial objects.

Many great advantages come with using a pair of astronomy binoculars as apposed to a traditional telescope such as comfort and ease of use. Further, using a telescope with a single light path for astronomy results in a flat image with no depth of field whereas a high powered zoom binocular provides a stereo 3-D view of an object which provides the user a much more in-depth and profound view. Typically binoculars don?t have as high of magnification or ?power? that a telescope may have, resulting in a distant view of an object in the sky. Barska?s new high power zoom binoculars allow the user to increase the magnification of an image from a stand distant view to a close-up detailed view effortlessly.

It should be noted that zoom binoculars for astronomy allow for much more than high magnification viewing. The zoom function makes it very simple to target an object that one wants to view. Astronomers know, finding an object in the sky is a time consuming job even if one knows when and where to look. Barska astronomy binoculars can be used at low power to view a large section of the sky. The zoom can be adjusted and increased very efficiently with the simple turn of a zoom lever which makes the job of targeting an object in the night sky a real cinch.

The new Gladiator zoom binoculars by Barska are designed for beginners to professionals. The highest power Gladiator zoom binoculars being the 20-140x80mm (Model AB11184) feature a built-in tripod mounting post for astronomy viewing. At a maximum magnification of 140x this is the highest zoom power binocular Barska has ever designed for astronomy. The 3-D depth of field image delivered by the gladiator binoculars is extremely detailed. The multi-coated prisms combined with large objective lenses allow maximum light transmission for brighter images. Next in line is the 15-125×80 power (Model AB10594) binocular which will provide the user an exceptional peek at the glorious universe. Smaller powers of 20-100×70 (Model AB10592), 12-60×70 (Model AB10172), and 12-36×70 (Model AB10170) are also available. The Barska Gladiator series will allow both amateur and experience astronomers to enjoy stereoscopic amazing views of the marvelous night sky.

Barska, with corporate offices, warehouse and distribution in La Verne, CA (Southern California), is a worldwide sport optics company with strong brand recognition in the optics industry. Barska offers an extensive line of precision binoculars and sport optics. Barska is committed to delivering a superior quality product at an affordable price to our customers around the world. For more information, please call Barska at 1-909-445-8168, or visit them online at http://www.barska.com.

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