Students address a major misconception in astronomy, the understanding of scale. The lesson is designed to introduce students to both celestial coordinates and to the first rung on the distance determination ladder, parallax.

Students will determine distances to nearby stars using parallax. In this Astronomy lesson plan, students will use a web program, trigonometry, and sketches to determine the distance of stars.

Students are introduced to both celestial coordinates and to the first rung on the distance determination ladder. They convert spherical coordinates to Cartesian coordinates to construct a three dimensional model of a constellation...