Project Tasks and their Statuses

Undergrads + GSMST summer interns

• Michael Cai: with UE5,
  1. project NASA deep sky image onto the celestial sphere
  2. create a right camera with good FOV
  3. rotate the celestial sphere based on the observer's location and time.

Previous tasks (2024 Summer):

• Raghav Sharma, usa.raghav.sharma@gmail.com [GSMST]:
  1. Create a set of prefabs for Sun/Moon/Planets (use DRP or HDRP) (under Scripts/Assets/Unity/Prefabs/)
  2. UI to accept 6 orbital elements + a function to display the orbit (under Scripts/Assets/Unity/Functions/)
• Opeoluwa Oyerinde, opemoyerinde@gmail.com [GSMST]
  1. Mars retrograde motion: Camera control (under Scripts/Mars_Retrograde/)
  2. Calculation of orbital solutions from orbital elements (under Scripts/Assets/Functions/)
• Nisa Charania, nisacharania27@gmail.com [GSMST]
  1. eclipse shadow cone: selectable, a function to place eclipse eclipse shadow cones for a given Sun-Moon-Earth system
  2. a function to display a path of orbital motion

3-D Modeling

• Tu Nguyen (GSMST Fall Intern): Creation of the accurate Solar System. Check tu_nguyen for detailed description of the assigned tasks.
• Aiza Ahmad (2nd year astrophysics major): Creation of the Eclipse. Create a separate page for her here.
• Jack Armstrong: Creation of the Virtual Night Sky in Unity
• Gioia Zincone: Creation of the “simplified” Virtual Night Sky and python controls for “seasonal constellations”

Specific Modeling Tasks for 2024 Summer: With Unity

• User Interface (UI)
  • Set observer's location (longitude & latitude) + observing date: Input: [long, lat, yy, mm, dd, hh, mm, ss] –> output: modified Julian date & position (long + lat)
  • UI to accept 6 orbital elements
• Models/Materials/Prefabs
  • Create a set of prefabs for Sun + 8 planets and Moon (use
  • Eclipse shadow cones: selectable [color shade level, apex position, height, radius]
• Functions:
  • A function to place eclipse shadow cones for a given Sun-Earth-Moon system
  • A function to calculate precise orbital solutions from given orbital elements
  • A function to display a path of orbital motion
  • A function to set precise rotations of major Solar-System objects (Sun + planets + Moon): rotation speeds & obliquities.
• Specific Models:
  • co-moving camera(s) for displaying a specific eclipse
  • Earth co-moving camera pointed to Mars: to see Martian retrograde motion
  • simulation/demonstration of orbital elements: i.e., creating pyorb simulation in Unity (VR, AR, WebGL)
  • effects of light pollution against visible stars: simulating a range of light pollution (intensity) versus a number of visible bright stars.
  • simulating analemma for parameter dependencies: see the shape dependence on Earth's eccentricity, inclination, etc.
  • liberation of the Moon (phase change + tilt + wobbling): dependencies on lunar orbital motion, Earth's rotation)
    • see NASA Video showing the liberation of the Moon
    • simulate this with Unity: User changeable parameters (inclination of the lunar orbit, Earth's obliquity, etc.)
• Check the possibility of using NASA's Eyes with VR (may need to contact a NASA scientist).

Analysis of student performance with Educational Theories

This page contains tasks for (1) survey preparation, (2) survey question creation, (3) survey plan, (4) analysis plan, (5) publication.

Robin (and David) Project

Initial Research Plan for Robin (and David):

  Identify and enumerate currently available 2-D and 3-D resources.
  Select a subset of these resources and distribute them to students for feedback via surveys (we could use the lecture sections or a lab section).
  Administer standardized astronomical tests to gather preliminary data that supports our claims regarding the limitations.  (which will support our claim on limitations))
  Utilize educational theories, such as representations and social semiotic resources, to articulate the identified limitations. (which will solidify our claim on limitations)  - David and Zain are now reading on Semiotic recourses

  Utilize our simulations alongside pre-existing versions to either perform comparisons or focus on the improvements our versions offer.
  Employ new surveys and standardized astronomical tests.

Virtual Reality Telescope/Microscope

VR Laboratory using VR telescopes and/or microscopes.

Low-Cost Telescopes

Hina Shaikh was hired as a full time lecturer for AY24-25 and the major portion of her time will be devoted to create astronomy lab curricula. Her official start date is late Oct 2024. I met with her on Oct 10 to discuss her tasks. She agreed to the following tasks.

• identify two “trial” projects and carry out them before the end of 2024.
• try to identify additional, suitable project topics
• create detailed documentations for the two projects

Anna-Sophia Mehta: AnnaSophia.Mehta@uga.edu, 1st year Math and Astrophysics major. Had experience on astrophotography and high altitude balloon. Interested in the low-cost telescope project. Meeting her on Feb 13, 11:30 AM.

• Tasks:
  1. Using Celestron's FirstScope, perform a project of creating a beautiful astrophoto. Document all steps and develop a lesson plan of relevant astronomical concepts.
     • Selecting appropriate celestial objects (observabilities, angular sizes, brightness, etc.
     • Actual usage of the telescope and smartphone (as a digital detector; right parameters in the app)
     • Creating a final photograph from a stack of images (image alignment, median combining, etc.)
  2. Make a telescope from parts. Detailed documentation on each step of telescope assembly ⇒ Develop a lab manual of telescope making.

Undergrad Support

• As of mid May, we have \$2,332 of remaining balance from the EETI fund. This needs to be spent by 06/30/2024 –> \$1,000 will be used to support Michael Cai and the rest will be “carriedover” to FY25.

Other project tasks

Brianna Wong - creating Storyboard for Micheal Cai's simulation (Cass's video can be broken into 3-activities using Micheal cai's simulation)