Building

an ASTROLABE
MATERIAL:

You will need:

1 soda straw of about 27 cm in length and about 0.5 cm in diameter;
1 wire (preferably dark - black color will be suitable) about 20 cm long. It can be crochet or other, as
long as it is easily handled and allows knots.
1 small but heavy object (a fishing catch, a washer, a plasticine ball, an old house key or another) that
will serve as a weight;
1 relatively hard A4 paperboard (100 g);
1 scissors;
1 tube of glue (not suitable for lipstick);
1 glue lipstick (used if the astrolabe is printed on a sheet of A4 paper to be glued on the paper);
1 thin, pointed screwdriver (or other object you can use as a punch);
PROCEDURE:

1. Print the "protractor" on a

sheet of A4 paper or directly
on the cardboard (which,
remember, must be hard). If
you have printed on an A4
sheet, use the glue stick for
the collars on the poster
board.

2. Cut it out.
ATTENTION: at the top of the
astrolabe, do not cut close to the
dashed line. Leaves a margin of
about 1 cm.

3. Hold the weight at one end of

the line so that it is taut when
in the astrolabe.
4. With a screwdriver, drill a hole
in the location marked on the
astrolabe by the cruz cross.
Pass the free end of the line
(which does not have the
weight) through the hole you
made. It gives 4 or 5 knots so it
does not go through the hole.

ATTENTION: You must pass

the wire through the printed
part. The nodes should be in
the unprinted part.

5. Glue the straw over the dashed

part (use the universal glue
tube). The straw should
occupy the entire diameter of
the protractor (you have to
"go from one end to the
other"). Be careful to leave it
completely horizontal.

6. Placing the astrolabe in the

horizontal position, you will see
that the wire is exactly vertical
and passes the 0 mark. If you
point to the zenith (the sky point
just above your head), the wire
will touch the 90 mark, since
that is the height of the zenith.
NOTES:
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