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Basic Coordinates & Seasons – Student Guide There are three main sections to this module: terrestrial coordinates, celestial equatorial coordinates, and understanding how the ecliptic is related to seasons on the Earth. Each of these sections has its own simulator(s). The background material necessary to utilize these tools is contained in each section.
Terrestrial Coordinates
Work through the explanatory material on units of longitude and latitude, finding longitude and latitude, and a bit of history (optional). * Open the flat map explorer. * Familiarize yourself with the cursor and how it prints out the longitude and latitude of the active map location. * Note that you can vary the central …show more content…

While the globe map is still a sphere, and therefore has a point to represent each coordinate on the world as a single location. Question 5: Compare the relative sizes of Greenland and Australia in the two maps? The true values of the surface areas for these countries are Greenland (2.2 million km2) and Australia (7.7 million km2). Does each map demonstrate these true values?

The globe map does a better job of portraying the true values for the countries, however it is not accurate either. At best Australia seems to be maybe 2.5 to 3x the size of Greenland on the globe map, when based on true values it is actually almost four times the size of Greenland. The flat map is even more distorted since Greenland is towards the top of the map and was therefore stretched out. This portrays it as larger than Australia.
Celestial Equatorial Coordinates
Work through the introductory material on the page entitled Celestial Equator, Declination, Right Ascension. * Open either the Flat Sky Map Explorer or the Sky Map Explorer. * Familiarize yourself with the same set of features (cursor movement, shifting the map, decimal/sexagesimal) that were available on the previous maps. * Make sure that you understand what each check box does.
Question 6: Where is the star Polaris located on this map? What are its