Seeing the Seven Ages a visual journey through the first half of cosmic history
The midterm is a group astrophotography project — built over three weeks and delivered as one report and one talk. Each group of 5 tells the story of the Universe's first three ages — Particle, Galactic, and Stellar — through real archival images taken across the full electromagnetic spectrum. You build it in three in-class steps — Gather, Develop, Weave — using Aladin Lite, a browser sky atlas that shows any patch of sky in radio, infrared, visible, X-ray, and microwave light.
One spectrum, five voices.
Each student takes one role. Role 1 opens the story and Role 5 closes it, and every part hands off to the next — so the five voices read as a single continuous story from the Particle Age to the Stellar Age.
- Role 1 ↳ Ch 0.4The Cosmic CameraHow telescopes read the Universe
Narrator and visual guide for the group. Explains why we need different telescopes for different wavelengths using the electromagnetic spectrum from Chapter 0.4, and introduces the specific telescopes — Planck, Hubble, JWST, Chandra, ALMA — that the other four students draw from. Opens the story: telescopes are time machines, each image a photograph of a different era of cosmic history.
- Role 2 ↳ Ch 1The Oldest LightImages of the Particle Age
Works with CMB maps from the Planck satellite — the earliest photograph of the Universe at 380,000 years old. Explains what colour variations mean (density fluctuations, the seeds of future structure), compares COBE, WMAP, and Planck maps to show improving resolution over decades, and hands the CMB's density seeds forward to Role 3's first galaxies.
- Role 3 ↳ Ch 2The First GalaxiesImages of the Galactic Age
Works with deep field images — the Hubble Ultra Deep Field and JWST deep fields. Explains that looking deeper into space means looking further back in time, identifies the difference between nearby and distant galaxies in the same image, and hands those galaxies forward to Role 4 as the places where stars are born.
- Role 4 ↳ Ch 3Stellar Nurseries & GraveyardsImages of the Stellar Age
Works with two contrasting sets of images: star-forming regions (the Pillars of Creation, Orion Nebula in infrared from JWST) and stellar remnants (Crab Nebula from Chandra in X-ray, Hubble planetary nebulae). The arc is the complete stellar life cycle — birth to death — told across infrared and X-ray, then hands one rich, multi-wavelength object to Role 5.
- Role 5 ↳ Ch 0.4One Object, Many EyesA multi-wavelength story
Takes a single famous object — Centaurus A or the Crab Nebula — and shows how it looks completely different across radio, infrared, visible, X-ray, and gamma-ray wavelengths, explaining what each reveals. Closes the story, tying every age back together: the full history of the Universe needs the full spectrum of light.
Three weeks, three steps.
The project isn't built the night before — it grows over three in-class sessions, each submitted as a progress report on Kriterion. Every step is a small, real piece of the work: up to 100 words and one annotated image — hand-drawn or AI-assisted, either is fine. Gather finds the evidence, Develop explains it, Weave connects it — and together they become the report you write and the talk you give.
- Progress report 1 · in class 01Gather
Find the real telescope images your part of the story is built from.
- Open Aladin Lite and the archives; pull 2–4 real archival images for your role.
- For each, note the object, telescope or mission, wavelength, and archive.
- Choose ONE as your anchor — the single image you'll explain next week.
You submit≤ 100 words listing your images and your anchor, plus one annotated image — arrows and a label (object · telescope · wavelength · archive).
- Progress report 2 · in class 02Develop
Turn your anchor image into understood science.
- Work out what your anchor shows and why it looks that way at its wavelength.
- Back it with one comparison to a second image.
- Check your explanation against your course chapter — correct, not guessed.
You submit≤ 100 words naming the cause, not just the picture, plus one annotated science diagram whose arrows and labels explain WHY (“deeper = older”, “X-ray shell = dying star”).
- Progress report 3 · in class 03Weave
Link the group's five parts into one continuous story.
- Order the five parts along the Particle → Galactic → Stellar timeline.
- Work out your two handoffs: what you receive from the role before, and set up for the role after.
- Agree the shared thread and lock your one or two hero images.
You submit≤ 100 words naming the roles before and after you and each handoff, plus one annotated storyboard — your hero image, an arrow in from the previous role and out to the next.
Archives & atlases.
Every image is public — no original capture required. You start pulling them from the Gather session and keep drawing on them through Develop and Weave.
- Aladin LiteBrowser sky atlas, all wavelengths↗ open
- NASA HubbleSiteHubble image archive↗ open
- JWST Image GalleryJWST processed releases↗ open
- ESA Image ArchiveEuropean Southern Observatory images↗ open
- NASA APODAstronomy Picture of the Day↗ open
- Chandra Photo AlbumX-ray astronomy gallery↗ open
What each group submits.
Your three weeks of Gather, Develop, and Weave now converge into two deliverables, both submitted per group on Kriterion — not Google Classroom. All five students prepare their own part; one person merges everything and submits a single file or link on behalf of the whole group.
This is the structure your presentation must follow. Copy it into your own Canva and edit it together as a group — each student builds their segment on the same theme and layout.
Each student writes 400–600 words on their role — the images they gathered, the science they developed, and how their part weaves into the group's story — with their annotated figures. One member merges all five sections plus a shared intro and conclusion into a single PDF and uploads it to the Mid report on Kriterion. One PDF per group — not per student.
Each student presents their section for 3–4 minutes (Role 1 → Role 5 in order), minimum 4 slides each including a title slide, following the sample structure above. One member merges every segment into a single Canva deck and submits its link in the presentation section of Kriterion.
When you log into Kriterion you'll see the option to submit from your group. The moment one member submits, the submission locks — no one else in the group can submit after that. So decide who is responsible ahead of time. That person must gather all five parts into the single merged PDF and the single merged Canva deck before submitting, and everyone must confirm they're working on a consistent theme and structure (different topics, same look) before it goes in. There is no individual submission and no resubmission.
30 marks, split evenly.
Both halves are 15 marks, and each breaks into three equal parts of 5. The report is scored on the three steps you already did — Gather, Develop, Weave; the talk on Content, Delivery, Interaction, graded live on Kriterion.
- 5Gatherreal, correctly-labelled images
- 5Developthe science, tied to the chapters
- 5Weaveyour part connects into one story
- 5Contentinformative, organised slides
- 5Deliverypreparedness and clear speech
- 5Interactionengaging the room, body language
Maximise the presentation score.
Present the work you built — the images you gathered, the science you developed, the story you wove. The talk is graded on Content, Delivery, and Interaction, 5 marks each. A few tips for each.
How informative, ordered, and well-organised your slides are.
- Curate, don't cram — pick the most interesting points you can summarise well, but never skip the core concepts from class.
- Bullets, not paragraphs — short lists, and balance each slide so it's neither empty nor overloaded.
- Title slide: your name and the title of your assigned part.
- Build from the course materials, not random websites or AI summaries.
- Use explanatory images and diagrams — you may reuse infographics straight from the course pages.
How prepared you are and how clearly you convey the material.
- Present entirely in English.
- Rehearse until your speech is fluid and confident.
- Speak to the slide on screen — follow its bullets in order and walk the audience through each image.
- Cut filler: keep only the slides you'll actually present.
- Stay on time — finish within your allotted minutes.
How you engage the screen, the audience, and your body language.
- Speak spontaneously — don't read off a phone, laptop, or paper.
- Split your focus between the screen (point out details) and the audience (make eye contact).
- Move around and point toward different parts of the screen; don't freeze in one spot.
- Use natural hand gestures to emphasise your points.
Maximise the report score.
The report is your three progress reports, polished and merged into one PDF. It's graded on the same three steps — Gather, Develop, Weave, 5 marks each. A few tips for each.
The evidence — real images, correctly identified.
- Use real archival images with real names — “Crab Nebula · Chandra · X-ray”, never “a space picture”.
- For every image give the object, telescope or mission, wavelength, and archive.
- Include your annotated figures — hand-drawn or AI-assisted — a clean, unmarked screenshot doesn't count.
The understanding — the science behind the picture.
- Explain the cause, not the caption — why the feature looks that way at that wavelength.
- Anchor every claim to your course chapter; don't guess the science.
- Back your anchor with one comparison — COBE → Planck detail, deeper = older, X-ray vs optical.
The synthesis — five parts, one continuous story.
- Hand off cleanly — name what you receive from the role before you and set up for the role after.
- Keep the shared thread visible — the spectrum, “looking out = looking back”, “deeper = earlier”.
- Read as one Particle → Galactic → Stellar story, not five stapled essays.