Room 4's Trip to the Observatory

Our class looked forward to our trip to the Observatory on Thursday May 22. It was a very informative session with our topic about the Solar System and the Night Sky.






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When we arrived we were given instructions on what we needed to do and the things we would be learning.


This is the huge black dome.





Here we're entering the door of the black dome. It was so dark inside and we had to sit on the mat.

We were amazed at the scenes we watched inside the observatory. These were what we saw and each of these were explained.




This is the sun the biggest and the brightest star.



Do you know that the moon is the earth's constant companion in space?



The moon spins on its axis in exactly the same time it takes to go around the earth. This means that the people on earth can only see one side of the moon with the other side permanently hidden from view.


Mercury is the closest planet to the sun. It is also the smallest planet and the fastest moving.


Venus was named from the Roman goddess of beauty. Although it looks like a brilliant jewel from space, it is featureless because of it's thick clouds.


The Earth is the largest world in the inner solar system. It is unique because of its abundant water and life. It has abundant water because of its position in the solar system - it's neither hot nor cold, but just right - just like Goldilocks' porridge!


The earth always rotates from space it looks like a blue marble because it is dominated by water.







Mars is sometimes called the Red Planet. Its atmosphere is thin and contains no oxygen and humans can't breathe it. It is closer to the Earth.



Jupiter is so big that more than1,300 Earths would fit inside it. It has a very short day, rotating once every 10 hours.




Saturn has a beautiful ring around it. It is the second largest planet.



Uranus looks like a blue-green sphere. Its moons and a faint set of rings closely circles the earth.


Neptune is almost a twin of Uranus. Neptune's moons look like faint points of light in the sky.




Pluto shows broad light and dark areas. Its moon, Charon is about half the size of the planet itself.








These are the scenes from the night sky. Sorry you can't clearly see from here. At the observatory we saw the Milky Way, the different stars, constellation, the Southern Cross, a set of stars looked like a scorpion and other fascinating things in the sky at night.







Before we left we were allowed to ask questions. At the end the lady mentioned our questions were sensible.




We're really happy to have the experience of going to the observatory. It was a very interesting trip and we learned a lot.