Scouting, Volume 39, Number 10, December 1951 Page: 18
40 p. : ill. ; 28 cm.View a full description of this periodical.
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WINTER SKY
(Looking North)
STARS OUTDOORS
(Looking South)
G<
head out. Go some place where you can
get a clear view of the sky — perhaps a hilltop or
an open field.
Men who study the stars are called astronomers.
Did you know that some of these stars are not stars
but planets similar to our earth? They travel
around the sun like the earth, each has its own
path. The sun with its nine planets and their moons
form our neighborhood in space. We call it our
"solar system."
Our earth would be a cold, dark, lifeless place
without the sun. Our earth and the other planets
and their moons have no light of their own. They
act as giant mirrors and we see them because they
reflect the sun's light. Real stars are hot and fiery
like our own. They appear small because they are
so far away. Many of them are really much larger
than the sun.
Let's pretend the sun is a hollow glass globule
and a small b-b shot represents our earth. It would
take more than one million "earth balls" to fill it.
This makes us realize how small our earth is by
comparison. The illustrations on the four preceding
pages will show relative size and distance of the
planets from the sun.
Boys may ask, do people live on the planets?
There may or may not be life on Mars. Oxygen is
thought to be more rare there than on top of Mt.
Everest, the highest mountain in the world.
Venus might be called a twin sister of the earth.
It is nearest our size and closest to us. Except for
the moon it is the brightest object in our night sky.
It is hidden by layers of clouds which indicates
some atmosphere and possibly vegetation.
No one has ever seen the other half of the moon.
As it rotates around the earth it also spins on its
own axis enough to keep the same half toward us.
An airplane traveling 500 miles per hour non-stop
would reach the moon in 3 weeks. That's about 10
Umes^around the wcrld.
On the moon you could jump 6 times as high
and bat a ball six times as far as you can on the
earth.
Light travels 186,000 miles per second. This
means that before you could sneeze, it has traveled
a distance equal to seven times around our world.
Even at this tremendous speed it takes 8 Vz minutes
for the sun's light to reach us. Over 12 minutes to
Mars, and over 42 minutes to Jupiter.
The naked eye can see from 6,000 to 9,000 stars;
a large telescope reveals about 1,000,000,000.
Eclipse of the sun occurs on the earth when the
moon passes between the earth and the sun so the
sun is completely or partly hidden from certain
sections of the earth.
Eclipse of the Moon occurs when it passes into the
earth's shadow.
A Pin Point Planetarium
Use an oatmeal box with a flashlight or low
power electric bulb mounted inside. Take small
cards and punch perforations for the stars according
to the form of the constellations. Place these cards,
one at a time, over the open end. Turn on the light
and in any dark space these formations will show
the constellations as they appear in the sky.
A Shadow Stick and Sun Dial
A Den may take a stick approximately 3 feet
long and set it vertically in the ground. On a clear
day Cub Scouts may place a small stick at the end
of the shadow cast at hourly intervals by the longer
stick. The final position of these sticks will show
the changing position and length of shadow as the
sun moves across the sky. The following day this
project could serve as a sun dial.
Mr. Robert R. Coles of the Hayden Planetarium
helped us with this month's theme. If there' is an
observatory near you why don't you ask for help.
You might find someone just as helpful as Mr. Coles.
IB
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Boy Scouts of America. Scouting, Volume 39, Number 10, December 1951, periodical, December 1951; New York, New York. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth329201/m1/20/: accessed April 19, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Boy Scouts of America National Scouting Museum.