written by Mario Belloni

The Measurement of the Sidereal Day with Tracker Lab uses the Tracker video analysis tool to measure and analyze the motion stars near Polaris (the North Celestial Pole) to determine the length of the sidereal day.

Requires Tracker version 4.6 or greater.

The zip file contains the lab instructions, the series of still images that will be made into a movie, and a sample Tracker file.

Measurement of the Sidereal Day with Tracker Lab is one of several Tracker models used to incorporate computational and video analysis techniques in introductory astronomy. Tracker, a video analysis program with dynamical modeling, is an Open Source Physics tool.  Additional models and programs can be found by searching ComPADRE for Open Source Physics or Tracker.

• Download polaris_sidereal.trz - 791kb Tracker Document Set

Published January 9, 2012
Last Modified April 24, 2023

This file has previous versions.

A pdf set of instructions for use with the Measurement of the Sidereal Day with Tracker materials

• Download tracker_sidereal_instructions.pdf - 135kb Adobe PDF Document

Published January 9, 2012
Last Modified January 9, 2012

This file is included in the full-text index.