Measuring Star Brightness - Absolute vs. Apparent Magnitude Virtual Lab

In this 3-part virtual lab, students will understand the ways in which astronomers measure star brightness. This lab covers both apparent and absolute magnitude. In Part 1, students watch a short video and read through a small webpage to answer 7 background questions about magnitude. In Part 2, they use the "Apparent magnitude, Absolute magnitude, and Distance to stars" JavaLab, created by DongJoon, to practice adjusting star brightness to their absolute magnitude by moving them to a distance of 10 parsecs away from the Earth. The data collected from this virtual lab will be organized in a data table which students will use to answer 4 follow-up questions. Finally, students will mathematically calculate the absolute magnitude of 2 stars using their apparent magnitude and distance. An additional video has been included in this part which explains how to do the first math problem if students struggle with the calculations.