Build Your Own Galaxy
Galaxies come in many shapes and sizes. Our Milky Way is a spiral galaxy, which looks like a pinwheel with arms of stars, gas, and dust. You can make your own Milky Way galaxy with materials you can find at a craft store. Before you begin this activity, review the section Galaxies: Cities of Stars and look for key information about our galaxy.

Download this activity (1.8 Mb PDF)

Spring and Summer Stargazing Activities
Spring: Orion Nebula, Hyades Cluster, Sirius, and Taurus, the Bull
Summer: Galactic center, Antares, M4

Download the spring and summer activities (208 Kb PDF)

Autumn and Winter Stargazing Activities
Autumn: Cygnus, the Swan; Albireo; Hercules; Globular Cluster M13; Milky Way
Winter: Pegasus, the Flying Horse; 51 Pegasi; Andromeda; Andromeda Galaxy (M31); The Pleiades (M45)

Download the autumn and winter activities (108 Kb PDF)

Resources: General Sites
StarDate Online
Universo Online
McDonald Observatory
NASA
European Space Agency
Hubble Space Telescope
Spitzer Space Telescope
Chandra X-Ray Observatory
National Optical Astronomy Observatory
European Southern Observatory
National Radio Astronomy Observatory
Windows to the Universe
U.S. Naval Observatory Data Services

Resources: Stars
Stars/Star of the Week
Notable Nearby Stars
The Constellations and Their Stars

Resources: Extrasolar Planets
Extrasolar Planets Encyclopaedia
Planet Quest
SETI Institute

Resources: Galaxies
Messier Objects: Galaxies
Cambridge Cosmology: Galaxies
The Galaxy Catalog

Resources: Cosmology
Stephen Hawking's Universe
Cosmology: The Study of the Universe
Cambridge Cosmology

Resources: Energy
Multiwavelength Astronomy
Electromagnetic Spectrum

Resources: For Teachers
StarDate Online
Universo Online
McDonald Observatory Teacher Workshops
NASA Educational Pages(by grade level)

Resources: Texas Astronomy
What Are Astronomers Doing?
McDonald Observatory Homepage
Department of Astronomy

Resources: Astronomical Images
NASA Image Exchange
Hubble Space Telescope
National Optical Astronomy Observatory/
European Southern Observatory
National Radio Astronomy Observatory
2MASS Atlas Image Gallery
McDonald Observatory