Mapping the Motion of Saturn in the Sky

Follow the instructions in the Mapping the motion of a planet in the sky lab. For Saturn in Spring 2004, you will need a 200% blow-up of the SC001 star chart (the long one) around the region of Leo. Observe the position of Saturn every week.

NOTE! Do not record your Saturn observations on the chart long which reads "SC001 Constellation Chart" at the top! Record them on the 200% blow-up of that chart, which you were given the first day in class! You will be docked points for recording your observations on the long chart.

Start Date: Right away. Your first observation must be no later than the week of January 26. You will do better if you start before that.

Due Dates: The lab needs to be completed on April 23, when your whole observing log is turned in. On February 13 and March 26, you will turn in a lab report with steps 1-4 of the Procedure and steps 1-3 of the Lab Writeup completed for those observations you have already done. Your first observation must be no later than January 30. By February 13, you must have completed at least three observations, and by March 26, you must have completed at least seven observations; observations must be spaced by at least 5 days but no more than 14 days. (Observations spaced by less than 5 days will not count as distinct observations toward the required four; doing all of your observations in the last week before the lab is due won't cut it!) By April 23, you must have completed at least eleven observations each spaced by 5-14 days. If you take more than the required number of observations, it is OK if they are less than the 5 days apart from each other; indeed, this extra data will only help improve the quality of your results!