 Greetings and welcome to the Introduction to Astronomy. The purpose of this video is to introduce a second observation that we will do. We talked previously about observations of the sun during the day. One of the other observations you are assigned during this semester is to observe the constellations and our moon in the evening. So it's a chance to get out and look at some of these things, and a chance to be able to see some of the objects that we talk about in the class. Now this is set up, again many of things can be seen. You don't need a telescope, you don't need binoculars, you don't need anything else other than your own eyes to look at this, and then a camera to record. And actually a cell phone camera works fine with this. You don't need to get any fancy pictures. I am just looking for a little bit about what you were able to see in these. So there are two things to observe. You are going to make observations of the constellations and of the moon. Now you don't need to do them on the same day. You might find a day where you can see the stars, but the moon may not be out at the time, yet you are observing. That's fine, you can observe the moon a few days later or a week later or whenever it is available for you to be able to see. You need to do this three times during the semester, and I will give you in the syllabus you will see the specific weeks those are due. However, you don't wait until that week because if you do, you know what will happen, and the weather will not cooperate that weekend before they are due, and you are going to be unable to get an observation. So you will normally have several weeks to be able to do these, and bad weather is not going to be an excuse for an extension on it. The weather is bad those couple days before it is due, you are just going to end up submitting it late if at all depending on the weather. So you want to look at that and start looking at it early on. I do require a photograph of each observation, so you do have to take a photograph. Nothing high quality, nothing detailed, I am not expecting amazing pictures like we see in the textbook or online, you are not going to get those. These are things you can use just a phone, just a telephone camera and be able to get those. Now if you happen to have a telescope and you want to try to take some other pictures, that's great, but it is not required. The requirement is the ones that are taken just with the camera. So you can certainly take additional photos if you have access to that equipment. But the ones I like are just pictures of the sky. Now in order to find these, the moon easily visible from any location, you are not going to have a problem seeing that, you can easily get photographs from that even from brightly lit areas. The key when you are taking the pictures is to make sure you don't include the bright lights in that, in the camera. So if you are taking it from a parking lot you want to point up above the lights for example and try to exclude them from the camera and you will then be able to get an image. I am really looking for what you are able to see here. So it's not that you have to get great detail and in fact there are some specific things I do not want you to tell me. So don't give me an exact rising or setting time unless you physically watched the moon or that constellation come up above the horizon or fall below it. That's just things you can look up, that's meaningless for this project. I don't want to know that the moon was 32.8% illuminated that day. Again, that's not something that you can see, it's illuminated. Now if you want to tell me roughly what phase it was based on knowledge that you have gained in previous lessons, that would be fine. I am looking for what you see. So you want to look at those things specifically that you were able to find. And then you want to write up a paragraph for each of these and discuss what you were able to see and put your photos in with that and that would be your submission. Again, if you tell me it was rainy the whole time, you're not going to get credit. Normally, especially for my full semester classes, you have about a month to get this and it was not going to be rainy the entire month or cloudy the entire month. Again, if you need help identifying things, there are a number of apps that you can use and there's a number of smartphone apps that you can use to help you identify objects. You may be able to find some planets as well. Again, make sure the photos are just of the sky. I don't want screenshots of the app will not count. Some of those will show all the constellations and their outlines. That's not what we want to see. Only the sky. So you can certainly use those to help you identify various areas if you're having difficulty. That's fine. But when you actually take the pictures, you need to take pictures of just the sky itself. Again, what you're going to look at. Can you find any planets? Depending on the semester, there will always be some planets visible, but they will vary and the times that they're visible, whether in the morning or the evening, will change. Now, as you look at this, again, this is a chance. If you have an eclipse, that's also another thing to be able to look at. And yes, that would count as an observation of the moon if you can get an observation of a lunar eclipse. Now, again, that will vary by semester. Some classes will have no eclipses. Other classes might get an eclipse or might get planets visible. It really just depends on when you happen to be taking the class. Now, that's the guidelines for what you need to do. Some observing hints, and I've given you some of these, will go through, you know, what do you want to look at for the moon? Kind of things that you want to see. The fall constellations. And I break those down as to what you're able to see here and give you some ideas of what you might see in the fall, might what you might see in the winter and spring, and what you might see in the summer. And again, we look at these circumpolar constellations as well. And these will give you some idea of the different things that you might be able to see here. So, again, this is an observing assignment, giving you a chance to get out and look at the sky at night, take a couple pictures of that, write it up, and again, I grade this on your attempt. So make the attempt, take the photos, and submit what you were able to see. Tell me you tried to look for something else that you weren't able to find. And that's perfectly fine as well. I'm looking for what you are able to be able, what you are able to see in the evening sky. So that concludes this lecture on the observations assignment, looking at the moon and constellations. We'll be back again next time to continue our journey through the universe. So until then, have a great day, everyone, and I will see you in class.