We’ve been investigating the question If the stars are all around us, why can’t we always see them? In the last lesson we saw that when stars are farther away, they appear smaller. But, what about brightness?
Let’s look at an example that will help us think about if a star’s distance from Earth affects how bright it is.
Describe the difference between the two headlights in the two images.
Car headlights 1, the lights look ____.
Car headlights 2, the lights look ____.
Think - Write - Pair - Share
Someone says, "Stars are like the sun, except stars are very tiny." What would you say?
I would say ____
Think - Write - Pair - Share
Someone says, "The sun seems brighter because it is bigger than other stars." What would you say?
I would say ____
Is the sun the only star in the sky during the daytime?
Explain your answer for Question 5. Use evidence from the sim.
Sentence starter: In the sim it shows _____________
Criteria For Success (CFS)
Read the labels for each column
Read the numbers
What do the numbers (data) show?
What is the closest star to earth?
Sentence starter: The closest star to earth is _________
Explain your answer for Question 8. Use evidence from the data table.
Sentence starter: In the data table, it shows __________
Criteria For Success (CFS)
Read the labels for each column
Read the numbers
What do the numbers (data) show?
Is the sun the biggest star?
Use evidence from the data table to explain your answer for Question 9.
Sentence starter: In the data table, it shows __________
If the sun is not the biggest star, why does the sun look big and bright to us?
Even though it’s a star, you won’t see the sun on any of the star maps in our books. That’s because to us on Earth, the sun seems to move through the sky from one constellation to another. The sun is not actually moving through the constellations, it just looks that way from our moving planet.
You can’t observe constellations when the sun is in the sky because the light from the sun overwhelms, or blocks out, the light from all the other stars. The sun is much closer to Earth than any other star, so the sun’s light looks much, much brighter than the light from other stars.
Based on the article, why can't we see stars in the daytime?
At time 00:16 of the video
Are the stars still in the sky, even though almost none can be seen?
What kind of lights are in the video at time 00:16?
When compared to the stars, are these lights actually small or large?
When compared to the stars, are these lights close or far away?
Why isn’t it possible to see all the stars in this night sky?
Sentence starter: We can't see all the stars in this night sky because the city lights are __________
