Stars Above, Earth Below

Resource Guide

For the book

"Stars Above, Earth Below:

A guide to astronomy in the national parks" by Dr. Tyler Nordgren

A multidisciplinary popular science book connecting what you the visitor can see in the national parks to the fields of history, art, philosophy, astronomy, geology, and planetary science.

For the past five years I have been working with Park Rangers at the National Park Service Night Sky Program to help bring science and astronomy education to the national parks. Through appreciation and understanding science and astronomy we help create a public that will support the preservation of the night sky.

My work with the parks has produced these principle products:

1. My new book Stars Above, Earth Below: A guide to astronomy in the national parks available on Amazon.com and in many park bookstores.


2. A collection of fine-art photography highlighting the national parks at night.


3. A series of 1930s "WPA-style" travel posters inviting you to "See the Milky Way" in America's national parks.


4. A second series of 1930s "WPA-style" travel posters (on T-shirts and other products) for national parks on other worlds. They are available for purchase from The Planetary Society on Cafe Press.


My art posters have been used to advertise the past two years of the Acadia Night Sky Festival in Bar Harbor, Maine outside Acadia National Park. You can still buy coipies of these posters at their homepage.

Since August 2007 I have been traveling the national parks giving talks on the enormous range of ways that park visitors can experience astronomy in the parks. This is material that eventually became the subject of my book, illustrated with my photographs and posters. You can download an anotated version of the PowerPoint Presentation I gave in Spring 2008 at Yellowstone National Park here (Powerpoint).

For educators considering using my book "Stars Above, Earth Below" for their General Education astronomy or planetary science classes, here are:

Sample Course Syllabus (pdf) or (MS Word)

Discussion Questions (pdf) or (MS Word)

With supplemental laboratory exercises for select chapters:

Chapter 1: The Milky Way

Galaxy Classification Lab(pdf) or (MS Word)

Chapter 3 or 4: Jupiter and Saturn

Scale Solar System Lab(pdf) or (MS Word)

Chapter 5 or 6: Planetary Surface Processes

Planetary Surfaces Lab(pdf) or (MS Word)

Chapter 7: Impact Hazards

Cratering Lab(pdf) or (MS Word)

Chapter 8: Stars

H-R Diagram Lab(pdf) or (MS Word)

Chapter 10: The Big Bang

Expanding Universe Lab(pdf) or (MS Word)

Some material on this page is in PDF format. If your computer does not already have it, you will need to download Adobe Acrobat Reader (free software) to view that content.

Get Adobe Acrobat Reader


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Page last modified 1 October, 2010