How many stars can you see at night?

News Release

Longueuil, Quebec, August 24, 2006 – NASA and the Canadian Space Agency (CSA) are collaborating on a new education activity that lets students become amateur scientists by inputting the number of stars that they see in their night sky along with information on the viewing and atmospheric conditions in their area into a North America-wide database. Participants can then use the results and the information found on the Star Count website to investigate the visual quality of the nighttime sky.
The Star Count Project, suggested and supported by STS-115 CSA astronaut Steve MacLean, is designed to engage U.S. and Canadian students. MacLean will perform the Star Count experiment this summer during STS-115, the assembly mission to the International Space Station that will deliver a new set of energy-generating solar arrays.
While in space, MacLean will upload data from the experiment into a database via the Star Count website. Students will not try to count every star in the sky but will learn how to estimate a total number based on random samples of sections of the sky. They will then enter the number of stars and information about their viewing conditions and location in an online database.
The Star Count activity promotes the agencies' major education goal of attracting and retaining students in science, technology, engineering and mathematics disciplines. To compete effectively for the minds, imaginations and career ambitions of the nation's youth, the CSA and NASA are committed to engaging and retaining students in disciplines that are crucial to future space missions and endeavours.
Star Count is a collaborative project of the CSA's Space Awareness and Learning Program and the NASA Student Observation Network.
About the CSA Space Awareness and Learning Program
The Canadian Space Agency's Space Awareness and Learning Program develops and supports learning opportunities for Canadian educators and students to increase the scientific literacy of the next space generation and to encourage the pursuit of careers in science and technology.
About the NASA Student Observation Network
The network is a collection of online inquiry-based activities that challenge students to find answers to research questions. They do this by making their own observations and interpreting actual NASA research data. This type of hands-on activities and projects help inspire and excite students in the science and mathematic educational fields.
For more information on the Star Count project on the Internet, visit:
www.space.gc.ca/stars
or
www.nasa.gov/audience/foreducators/starcount/home/index.html
For more information on the CSA's Space Awareness and Learning Program visit the Educator section at: www.space.gc.ca
For more information about other Student Observation Network activities on the Web, visit: http://son.nasa.gov

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For further information:

Charles-Henry Guillaume
Media Relations
Canadian Space Agency
(450) 926-4370
www.space.gc.ca

Sonja Alexander
Headquarters, Washington
NASA
(202) 358-1761
www.nasa.gov

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How many stars can you see at night?

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