Ancient Astronomy Lab Schedule

A Workable Schedule of Labs

Note: an appropriate schedule actually depends on the timing of astronomical events (such as the exact date and time of 1st quarter moon, maximum elongation of Venus,… The following schedule is one that works in terms of three different lab groups that have about an equal amount of work (i.e. same number of “long” labs and “short” labs,…), and that review each other’s reports and reference each other’s reports in order. If the timing of astronomical events is such that the labs have to go out of order, I suggest that the reports of the earlier labs that lack the information to finish the calculation give the results with the unknown quantity as a variable. This is, essentially, what happened historically with the distance of the Sun (Aristarchus obtained a measurement of the ratio of the Moon and Sun distances before Hipparchus inferred the distance of the Moon). The instructor needs to determine the timing of the relevant events in advance and then adjust the schedule appropriately, in advance. The fact that some labs are two to four weeks long can make the scheduling difficult. It is quite fun, though, when you get it all to work (such as with the schedule below).

Week No. Lab Group A Lab Group B Lab Group C

1 “Size of the Earth” “Rotation of the Earth” “Apparent Motion of the Sun“

2 1st draft of lab #1 due 1st draft of lab #1 due “Apparent Motion of Sun” (cont)

3 “The Moon’s Orbit” “Distance and Size of the Moon” “Apparent Motion of Sun” (cont)

Review (of B #1) due Review (of A #1) due

4 “The Moon’s Orbit” (cont) “Dist. & Size of Moon” (cont) “Apparent Motion of Sun” (cont)

Final draft of report #1 due Final draft of report #1 due

Class Journal Volume #1 (containing reports A1 and B1) published

5 “The Moon’s Orbit” (cont) 1st draft of report #2 due 1st draft of report #1 due

(requires citing paper A1)

6 “The Moon’s Orbit” (cont) “Venus’ Orbit” “Distance & Size of the Sun“

+ Review (of C #1) due + Review (of B #2) due

7 1st draft of report #2 due “Venus’ Orbit” (cont) “Dist. & Size of Sun” (cont)

+ Final draft of report #2 due + Final draft of report #1 due

Class Journal Volume #2 (containing reports C1 and B2) published

8 “Distance of an Outer Planet” “Venus’ Orbit” (cont) 1st draft of report #2 due

(requires citing paper B2)

+ Review (of C #2) due + Review (of A #2) due

9 “Dist. of Outer Planet” (cont) “Venus’ Orbit” (cont) “PuttingItAllTogether“