Supplies & Materials: Celestial Studies

Celestial Studies emblem

Come up to the tower, little scholar. You will be glad to hear that this whole course begins with nothing but your eyes and a notebook, exactly the way every skywatcher in history began.

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Back to the Celestial Tower

A Note from Professor Glimmerwick

Professor Glimmerwick's wax seal

The sky provides most of this course's equipment. What you bring is a notebook, warm clothes, and your patience. A dim red light protects your night sight. Everything else on this page is refinement, not requirement.

PROFESSOR VESPER GLIMMERWICK
Celestial Studies
Astronomer & Celestial Historian

What You'll Need

Level One: The Household Road

Level One is the household road. Everything on this side is a household item, a free material, or an inexpensive basic, and it is the whole course: every lesson runs on Level One stores alone. If you only ever shop this list, the course is complete for you.

Observing essentials

  • A safe, familiar observing spot and an adult companion (Level One, U1-U6)
  • Sky Log journal or any notebook (Level One, U1-U6)
  • Pencils (Level One, U1-U6)
  • Dim flashlight (Level One, U1/U4/U6)
  • Red cellophane or red paper, to cover the flashlight and protect night vision (Level One, U1/U4/U6)
  • Warm clothes and something to sit on (Level One, U1-U6)
  • Blanket or reclining lawn chair, for meteor watches (Level One, U4)
  • A clock, watch, or phone, for recording times (Level One, U1-U6)

Demonstration and activity supplies

  • Straight stick, for shadow and solstice work (Level One, U1/U6)
  • Chalk or a stone, to mark an exact standing spot (Level One, U1)
  • Garden stakes, small stones, and a ball of string, for horizon sightlines (Level One, U1)
  • Magnetic compass or phone compass (Level One, U1/U6)
  • Lamp and a ball, for the moon-phase demonstration (Level One, U2)
  • Two stiff white cards or index cards, a pin, and tape, for the pinhole projector used in indirect solar viewing (Level One, U2/U4)
  • Two paper plates, two coins, and a length of string, for the retrograde demonstration (Level One, U3)
  • Eighteen index cards and a large sheet of paper, for the planet sort (Level One, U3)
  • Shallow tray or baking sheet, about thirty paper clips, and two magnets, for the orbit-clearing demonstration (Level One, U3)
  • Large sheet of paper and a protractor, for the Babylonian twelvefold circle (Level One, U5)
  • Internet access, for published tide tables, NASA solar images, and aurora forecasts (Level One, U2/U4)

Build project materials

  • Sundial build (L29): sturdy paper plate, straight straw or pencil about 15 cm, protractor, ruler, tape, marker (Level One, U6)
  • Planisphere build (L30): two large sheets of white card or thin cardboard (cereal-box card works), ruler, drawing compass, scissors, craft knife (an adult handles this), brass paper fastener (split pin), clear tape (Level One, U6)
  • Paper astrolabe build (L31): card stock, scissors or craft knife (an adult handles this), drawing compass with a sharp point, pin or brad, thread (Level One, U6)
  • Capstone builds: paper, card, scissors or craft knife (an adult handles this), adhesives (Level One, capstone)

What Evershade Provides

These come free with the course. You never need to buy them.

  • Lesson packets for all 33 lessons and the capstone (lesson, assignment, and lexicon PDFs)
  • Sky Log pages and workbook pages
  • Moon Journal pages for the full-lunation journal
  • Star charts and constellation charts for the locating lessons
  • Planisphere star coordinates and measuring tables (L30 assignment packet)
  • Astrolabe cutting list, measurements, and latitude tables (L31 assignment packet)
  • Sundial layout guidance (L29)

Level Two: The Historical Road

Level Two is the historical road: specialty purchases and historically closer materials for the same lessons, gathered slowly. Nothing on this side is required, and no lesson asks for it before its Level One version has been taught. It is the same course, on an older road.

Level Two (purchases: optics and solar safety)

  • Binoculars (Level Two, U1-U4/U6)
  • Small telescope (Level Two, U1-U4/U6)
  • Telescope tripod, for steady viewing (Level Two, U3/U6)
  • ISO 12312-2 certified solar viewers (eclipse glasses or a handheld viewer), for solar observing only (Level Two, U2/U4)

Never look directly at the sun. Direct solar viewing is safe only through ISO 12312-2 certified viewers, inspected before every use. The pinhole projector is for indirect viewing only: you watch the image on the card, never the sun itself.

Nice to Have

  • Camera or phone camera, for documenting sunset positions and the Moon Journal (optional, U1/U2)
  • Heavy watercolor paper or Bristol board, for a sturdier planisphere (optional, U6)
  • Self-healing cutting mat and metal-edged ruler, for cleaner build cuts (optional, U6)
  • Fine technical pen, for drawing star points by hand (optional, U6)
  • Laminating pouch or clear adhesive film, for weatherproofing the finished planisphere (optional, U6)

That is the whole list, and most of it is already in your home. The sky asks very little of you, and gives back a great deal.

PROFESSOR VESPER GLIMMERWICK
Celestial Studies
Astronomer & Celestial Historian