What do these phrases mean in this article? (A dictionary and thesaurus will help!)

• cloudless and moonless night
• drink up the stars
• the extra stars popping into view
• executed with military precision
• sheep duffers
• standard astronomical reference
• surrounding the entire globe
• a cosmic duty

1. How was looking at the stars dangerous for Karl?

2. What happens as your eyes adjust to the dark?

3. How many stars can you expect to see in the sky?

4. What is "atmospheric extinction"?

5. Why are some stars visible all night, but some only for a few hours?

6. What did Jack Holtz find?

Here are some extracts from the article. Complete the sentences by filling in the spaces.

After you've been staring at the _______ Way and the rest of the _______ for a while, you'll start to wonder just _______ many stars you can actually see. Well, it might seem _______ millions, but it's closer to a thousand! If a _______ is close enough, and bright enough, you will be _______ to see it with your naked eye. Now the _______ measure the brightness of stars in Magnitudes. In a fairly dark suburb on an average _______, the faintest star you can see registers _______ Magnitude 5.5.

So, if you _______ up a standard astronomical reference like Sky Catalogue 2000.0, you'll find a _______ showing how many stars of each _______ of brightness you can actually see. According to _______ modern and highly respected text, there _______ a total of 2,862 stars visible down to a brightness of Magnitude 5.5. Of _______, these stars are surrounding the entire _______ of the Earth, so you'll be _______ to see only about half of these _______ above your local horizon at any _______ time - say about 1,400 stars.

This article has a number of sections. Each section has a main point. Write down the main point of the sections named here.

An incident at night

How many stars you can see

Why you cannot see all the stars

Seeing the most stars you can

Think of all the arguments for and against this statement. (To help you, use this article and others that you can find.)

"We have a cosmic duty to look at the evening sky every night."

Use this article, the Internet and libraries to find information on one of these topics:

1. What can "databases" tell you about stars? Use one to map the brightest twenty in the sky.

2. Ptolemy - his achievements and his errors.

3. "Light pollution"

4. The Best-Known Stars

5. The Milky Way, our galaxy.

Use the library or the Internet to collect information about the topic. Find at least four different articles or chapters.

Write down about three ideas from each article you find.

You now have about a dozen ideas on this topic. Choose which idea is the most important, which is second-most important, and so on.

Write them in order, from most important to least important.

Write a paragraph to explain each idea.

Write down where you found the information you used. This is your "bibliography".

Be prepared to deliver your report on the date it is due!

• Meanings
• Questions
• Cloze Activity
• Summary
• Debate
• Research
• Instructions to Students
• Teachers' Guide