North & South

[Play/Download Movie (7 MB)]

Students sometimes find it very confusing that stars don't rise up. If you're in the Northern Hemisphere, stars appear to rise up and to the right in the East.

Many of them memorize this fact, and have trouble generzalizing the celestial sphere model to figure out what it would look like for a southern himesphere observer.

This movie attempts to show the students how to rotate the celestial sphere model back and forth so as to see which way stars will appear to rise for an observer in the Northern Hemisphere, and for an observer in the Southern Hemisphere.

As with many of my movies, there is no narration or sound. It's designed to be used by a lecturer, who will pause it at opportune places to discuss it or ask questions of students.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons License.

Earth texture by Rick Kohrs.

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