Interactive Student Light Curve

The HOA curriculum is loaded with activities for both students and teachers. Below are a few examples of the activities included in the Manual.

Core Activities

Are activities necessary for acquiring skills and/or for understanding key concepts.

Plotting an H-R Diagram (beginner)

Variance and the Standard Deviation (intermediate)

Normal Curves Explained (intermediate)

The Standard Error of the Average—The Error Bar (intermediate)

Folded Light Curve of the Variable Star SV Vul (advanced)

Observing Activities

Observing stars is an activity at the very heart of astronomy. It is something everyone can do and requires no special advance knowledge of science or any special equipment other than the human eye and a dark, cloudless sky! Below are two observing activities from the HOA manual. Although they were written for teachers and students, anyone can participate in the activity.

Estimating Magnitudes - Learn what interpolation is to guess a star's brightness (beginner)

Observing Delta Cephei - Make your first real observation of a variable star (intermediate)

Observing Zeta Geminorum - Online exclusive, not available in the HOA Manual

Activities

Some activities are included which are not really necessary for understanding basic concepts or acquiring a necessary skill. Some are further treatments of concepts not easily acquired, and some are merely interesting related topics.

Light Pollution

O-C for Eclipsing Binary Stars

Computer Activities

There are three computer software programs that are included in HOA which provide several interactive activities. A simple visual introduction to variable star light curves requires the user to estimate the brightness of a variable star and builds the corresponding light curve for you. There is also a powerful data plotting and analysis program that plots light curves and performs student-directed analysis such as averaging data and fitting polynomials to the data.