Experiments: Stars
Locate the South Celestial Pole
Find the Southern Cross constellation and the two Pointers in the night sky. Draw an imaginary line extending 4 1⁄2 times the long axis of the Southern Cross. Then draw another imaginary line which is the perpendicular bisector of the line joining the Pointers. The two imaginary lines will cross at the South Celestial Pole. This is a point directly above the Geographic South Pole. It is also a point around which all stars in the southern hemisphere revolve.
Draw Star Diameters to Scale
Materials you need are:
a ruler
a pen
a sheet of cardboard
Use the table below to draw circles to represent the star diameters.
To change the real diameter in kilometres to the scaled diameter in centimetres, you must divide by 1 000 000.
| NAME OF STAR | APPROXIMATE DIAMETER OF STAR (km) |
SCALED DIAMETER OF STAR (cm) |
| Sirius B | 10 100 | |
| Sun | 1 392 900 | |
| Aldebaran | 100 000 000 | |
| Antares | 544 000 000 | |
| IRS5 | 14 800 000 000 |