Malcolm the Astronomer

Today Room 8 had a very special visitor. Malcolm Locke from the astronomy society came to talk to us about the Moon, the Sun and the stars. We contacted Malcolm through the astronomy society so that we could learn more for our class provocation. We sent him an email and we were very excited when we received a reply from him.

Firstly some of us shared what we had learned so far. A few of us read our descriptions about the Sun and the Moon. Malcolm was impressed.

Malcolm told us some amazing things. He told us that the Moon is made of volcanic rock and that the planet Jupiter has 63 Moons! How amazing would that look at night time?

Then we did an activity that showed us how big the Moon is in comparison to the Earth. For this Malcolm had a soccer ball that represented the Earth and a tennis ball that represented the Moon. This showed us that the Moon is a lot smaller than the Earth.

Today is also Matariki! What a shame it is cloudy because we wont be able to see the stars out tonight. The stars of Matariki will be shining brightly right up until April so we will be able to search for them another night. Maybe you could help your child find them in the night sky.

How to find Matariki

Matariki is found low on the horizon in the north east of the sky. Try looking here between 5.30 a.m. and 6.30 a.m.

The pot

1. First find the pot (the bottom three stars of the pot are also called Tautoru, or Orion’s Belt). To find Puanga (Rigel) look above the pot until you see the bright star. To find Matariki, keep going.

2. To the left of the pot, find the bright orange star, Taumata-kuku (Alderbaran).

3. Follow an imaginary line from Tautoru (the bottom three stars of the pot), across to Taumata-kuku and keep going until you hit a cluster of stars.

4. That cluster is Matariki. If you have good eyes you should be able to pick out individual stars. If it looks fuzzy, look just above or just below and the stars will be clearer.

Matariki in the night sky