Hello, folks. It's me the conductor. Today we're going to
Learn how some of the stars in the sky make groups called
Constellations, so come along with me on the dinosaur train.
All aboard!
♪ Dinosaur train ♪ [whistle blows]
♪ Dinosaur train ♪ ♪ once upon a time
There was a mom her name was mrs. Pteranodon
Sitting on her nest she heard a scratching
And said... ♪ Oh, boy! My eggs are
Hatching!
♪ One by one her kids popped free
Baby pteranodons , , ♪
I'll name you tiny, shiny, and don.
♪ But tiny said... ♪ Wait! There's one more, mom!
♪ Last little baby was a different size
With teeth and a tail and big green eyes
He didn't look anything like the rest ♪
What am I doing in a pteranodon nest?
♪ But dear, old mrs. Pteranodon said... ♪
Oh, this is your family, and I'm your mom. You may be
Different, but we're all creatures. All dinosaurs have
Different features. Come on, buddy. We'll take a vacation.
I'll get us a ticket at pteranodon station. We'll
Travel the world in sunshine and rain and meet all the
Species on the...
♪ Dinosaur train ♪ ♪ dinosaur train ♪
♪ Dinosaur train ♪ ♪ dinosaur train ♪
♪ We're gonna ride ♪ ♪ ride, ride, ride, ride ♪
[Whistle blows] ♪ the dinosaur train ♪
[Roaring]
Look at that one really bright star. I think sometimes
Stars seem to make pictures in the sky.
You're right, buddy. A star picture is called a
Constellation.
[Train whistle blows] it's the night train!
[Cheering] welcome, pteranodon family.
Ooh! I'm tickled orange that all of you are here.
Hello, mr. Conductor!
Ready to ride the night train and do some stargazing?
[Cheering] I can't wait to learn more
About the stars! I have so many questions.
Ooh! I like questions. Ooh.
And I have one. Why aren't we already on the night train?
Blooouuuggh!
Ohh! Ohh!
All aboooooaarrd!
Mother, I am supposed to say that. Ahem. All aboard!
Wow.
So let's talk stars, a dazzling part of nature at
Night.
Wait. Stars are a part of nature?
Absolutely, shiny. All stars are part of nature, but here's
A question. Is the sun part of nature? Let's take a look.
Well, I'm pretty sure that if there wasn't a sun flowers
Wouldn't grow, so I think the sun is part of nature.
Exactamundo, tiny! Our sun is part of nature and--hold
Your beaks and toes--the sun is also a star just like the other
Stars you see in the sky.
Our sun is a star?
Wow!
Heh. Learned something new tonight.
Mr. The conductor, why does the sun look so big if it's a
Star?
Our sun looks bigger because it's the closest star to earth.
Other groups of stars are much further away. Ooh! Speaking of
Which, groups of stars have a special name.
Constellations!
Right. Now gaze upward.
Wow!
It's a star show. Some stars in the sky do seem to group
Together and make constellations, which are like
Connect-the-dots. In this case, we connect the stars to make
Pictures.
Awk! Ohh! I love this view.
This is so cool.
♪ La la view ♪ hey! That constellation
Looks like a twinkling fish.
Yes. In fact, tiny, that's the constellation we call--ha
Ha--the fish.
That's like a dinosaur with a long neck.
We troodons call it the sauropod, and this time of
Year, you can see it on most clear nights.
He stars twinkle, but they don't seem to move around at
All. I have a hypothesis. The stars in the sky are always in
The same spot every night and don't ever move.
Hmm. Interesting hypothesis, buddy.
I'm trying to connect the stars and find my own
Constellation, a donstellation.
Ha ha ha!
Well, mr. The don, you have a full night ahead to try to
Spot your donstellation.
Tonight, we'll travel to see the night sky far away in
Another part of the cretaceous.
There's that really bright star again.
Mm-hmm!
Hmm. Where do the stars get their light from?
Each star makes its own light.
Ha ha ha!
Oh, mother. Mother taught me that and so much else about the
Stars. We used to gaze at the night sky when I was a little
Troodon.
Oh, ho ho ho, sonny boy.
You're still my little shining star.
Awww.
[Watch chimes] ahem. Oh, my, oh, my! We're
Getting close to our stop, where you'll meet sydney
Sinovenator.
Is he a friend of yours, mr.
Conductor?
Sydney is from the troodontid family of dinosaurs,
So he's much like a troodon.
Cousin sydney is quite an energetic creature. Ha! And he
Loves stars very, very much.
Do you think the sky will look the same where we're
Going, like it does here?
Well, we'll find out very soon because our next stop is
Sinovenator station.
Sinovenator station in another part of the cretaceous time
Period!
And now more of our nighttime stargazing adventure. Well,
Here he is--sydney sinovenator!
Hello! I'm sydney sinovenator--oh! Hey, cuz. Long
Time, no see.
Indeed! Wonderful to see you, sydney.
Hi, sydney!
I'm tiny pteranodon. This is my sister shiny and my brothers
Buddy and don, and this is my mom and dad.
Hello, hello, hello, hello.
Nice to meet you all. Welcome to my starry, starry night.
You look at the stars a lot, right?
Oh, yes, I do! I look at the stars more than I look at
Anything else. The stars and I are friends to the end.
Sydney, I've been looking at the stars for a donstellation.
A donstellation?
Yep. A star picture that looks like me.
Hmm. Haven't seen a donstellation, don, but my
Stars, I would really like to!
Sydney and mr. Conductor, since you're troodontid
Cousins, I was wondering if we could compare your features.
Excellent suggestion, buddy.
Let's compare!
Hmm. Sydney is shorter. Now may we see your claws, please?
A big claw on sydney's toe!
And a big claw on mr.
Conductor! So you're both nocturnal. Sydney, you have
Really big eyes.
Yes! The better to see at night. It's another troodontid
Family trait like our eyeshine.
The moonlight reflects off our eyes.
Time for a tour, a sky tour!
You came on a great night, just a sliver of a moon. We should
Hurry. We don't want to keep the stars waiting too long, hmm?
Sydney, we saw that really bright star earlier at home in
The same spot.
Oh, yes! That's the star of the nightly starry show! Bravo!
That star can be found in the same spot pointing toward the
North. I call it bright star!
How about the sauropod constellation? Shouldn't it be
Right where I saw it?
Good question, tiny. Often it is hard to find certain
Stars and constellations. Do you know why?
Because there's so many stars up there?
I like that answer.
Me, too, and you're right, buddy. From here on earth, we
Can only see thousands of stars, but there are soooo many
More stars up there in the sky that we can't see.
Millions, right?
Actually billions.
My cuz is right--billions and billions of stars.
Impossible to count them all.
, , , , , Million.
Yup. Looks like billions to me.
[All laughing] but, sydney, the sauropod
Constellation isn't in the same spot where it was before.
Yeah. I wonder if my hypothesis was right. Aren't
The stars always in the same spot?
I think I can help with this "where are the constellations"
Question. Who wants to go to my superspecial stargazing site?
If you do, say, "I do, sydney."
I do, sydney!
All right. Let's go to starry hill.
Behold! The best stargazing site ever!
Wow!
I feel like I can reach up and grab stars right from the
Sky.
Me, too.
Awk!
Awk!
Huh? Oh.
Hmm. I can't find the fish constellation.
It probably moved like the sauropod did. Where are you,
Sauropod? There you are! You did move!
So I guess stars do move around, right?
It may look like the stars have moved, but no! It's not
The stars that are moving. It's the earth that's moving! The
Stars--yes, stars, I'm talking about you again--they just look
Like they're moving!
The earth is moving?!
Cousin, will you help me out and pretend to be the sun? Just
Stand still.
Well, uh, ok. Heh.
Good. You're mr. Sun, and I am the earth. I spin around.
Uh-uh-uh-ooh-yee-yee! And at the same time, I the earth
Slowly travel around the sun.
So the creatures on earth get to see different parts of the
Sky!
Oh. So it only looks like the stars and constellations
Move.
Right. Our sauropod constellation looks like it
Moved to a different place in the sky from earlier tonight.
But the earth was the thing that moved.
Huh. Learned another new thing today.
But what are those two glowing things? They're moving
Faster.
Huh?
Bloouuugh!
Aah!
Hello, sonny boy.
Mother!
Oh, hello, sydney. Lovely stars tonight.
Hello, auntie. Yes. Whew.
Stupendous stars.
Aw, you always loved the constellations. Well,
Pteranodon family, time to head back to the night train. All
Abooooard!
Mother, as I said earlier, that is my job.
Oh, right. Ha ha ha! I keep forgetting.
Oh, all aboard.
Sydney, thank you for a starrific evening!
Thank you, sydney!
We learned so much!
Bye!
Hoo hoo hoo! Thanks for visiting, pteranodon family.
Keep stargazing and follow the stars!
Bye, sydney.
Bye, cuz.
Ha ha ha!
Look! It's the fish.
Ooh! There's the sauropod!
Hey! If you connect those stars, it makes a constellation
That looks like a shell.
Ohh! Look, look up there!
Connect the stars. It's my donstellation!
[Cheering] way to go, don!
Good job!
Great!
Hi, there. I'm dr. Scott, great job!
The paleontologist. And this is sinovenator. Like its cousin,
Troodon, sinovenator may have been nocturnal, which means it
Was most active at night. We humans tend to be most active
During the daytime, but it's a lot of fun to go outside at
Night. Hey, there's sidney
Sinovenator pointing out all the stars. On a clear night
Like this, you can see hundreds of stars in the sky.
Look at them all. Come on, let's count them. Are you
Ready? , , ...oh, forget it! It's hard to believe,
But there's actually billions of stars out there in the
Universe. If you look closely, you can see constellations--
Groups of stars that form a pattern. It's kind of like
Playing connect the dots, but at night. Now, if we connect the
Stars over here, we get a constellation called the big
Dipper. And here's a constellation called the little
Dipper. And that bright star is called the north star, or
Polaris. You can be a stargazer too. Just get outside into your
Backyard, or better yet, far away from all the city lights,
And look up at the hundreds of stars. I'll bet you'll be able
To find plenty of cool constellations. Ok, keep
Watching for more dinosaur discoveries.
Hello, folks. It's me the conductor. Today buddy, tiny,
Shiny, and don decide to start their own club all about nature,
So come on along with me on the dinosaur train. All aboard!
Ha! You sure love digging holes, don.
I do. Want to help me dig another one?
My little t. Rex arms are tired. I think I'll just see
What tiny and shiny are doing.
Ok. More holes for me.
Hey, buddy, my old buddy.
Hi, tiny. What you doing?
Watching shiny. She's building something amazing out
Of shells.
See. It's a little nest.
Ooh.
It's just the right size for my tiny dolls. I'll be right
Back.
Your shell nest looks so cozy, shiny. I wish I could just
Curl up inside it and take a nap.
Don, what a great idea.
A nap?
No. The nest.
I don't think I can fit in the nest, buddy. Maybe if I make
Myself really small...
No. I mean, why don't we make your own kid-size nest right
Here on the beach.
Huh?
Yeah. Out of sticks and branches and stuff. It would be
Our very own beach nest. We could play in it.
And take naps in it?
Well, sure, don.
Let's do it!
Whew.
Rark! Over there. Not like that. Good.
Uh!
[Snoring] wow. It's perfect.
And it would make a perfect clubhouse.
Yeah!
Yay!
Wait! If we're going to have our own clubhouse, we have to
Decide what our club is about.
I never thought of that.
Hmm...
Well, we all love exploring and having adventures. It could
Be a club about exploring.
How about collecting things?
I could start a new nature collection down here and keep it
In the nest.
It could be a club where we play our games, like tracking
All the creatures that live around us. You know, out here in
Nature.
Yeah, tracking means following a creature's tracks.
We all love nature, so let's make it about loving nature.
Yeah. The we all love nature club?
Hmm. Needs to sound more adventurous.
The nature exploring adventurers?
Keep trying. We all like being outside.
The outsiders? The outsidees?
Don, aren't we pretty much always outside?
We all like tracking. That's adventurous.
Hmm. Ah. I know. The nature trackers.
Yeah! We're the nature trackers! Woo!
Fantastic. Now, let's get this club organized. First thing
We do-- wait, wait. How come you're
In charge?
Because the nature trackers club was my idea.
Hey, it was just as much my idea or buddy's.
Come on, nature trackers, the first thing we'll do is explore
What's way up high in the air.
Uh, shiny, I can't fly.
Then...let's play a game where we can explore what's down
On the ground. We'll call it how low can you go.
Ok, nature trackers, what amazing nature do you observe
Down here on the ground? Observe means to look closely and
Carefully.
Well, I discovered that lots of things in nature are really,
Really small.
Yeah. And if you take the time to look carefully really
Close to the ground, you can find all kinds of things.
Yeah, like bugs.
[Chomp] don, we're observing the
Nature that we find, not eating it.
Ha ha.
Did you ever notice that when you look at a leaf really
Closely, you can see these little lines in them?
No. And did you ever notice there are teeny tiny flowers
Down here?
And tiny little shells. I think it's some kind of a snail.
Aah! Well, that's enough exploring down here on the
Ground. Let's explore something else. Go nature tracking down at
The shore.
[Humming] ah!
Hmm?
Rark! Hey, come on!
But shiny, we were just getting started finding cool
Stuff down here on the ground.
Yeah, see how low we can go.
Well, now it's time to do something else.
So how come you're in charge again?
'Cause we're the nature trackers, and we're tracking
Nature. And because I thought of it.
But pretty much kind of everybody thought of it, and--
Now we're all going to the edge of the water and turn rocks
Over. Come on, nature trackers, let's see what kind of nature we
Can find under rocks. Rark!
Ooh, look at all these little crabs.
Don, don't eat the nature, remember? We're observing it.
Hey, I think I found a hermit crab.
Oh! I know all about hermit crabs. Hello. You're a hermit
Crab, aren't you?
Huh? Why, yes, I am.
What are you?
We're pteranodons, and my brother is a t. Rex. My name is
Shiny.
Hello, shiny. My name is herbie. Herbie hermit crab.
Actually, herbie, you look a lot like another hermit crab I
Know. He's from the big pond, and his name is henry.
Henry? You know old henry?
Please say hello for me the next time you're at the big pond.
I will. I like your shell.
How long have you lived in it?
Yeah, it's nice, isn't it? I moved into this one a few weeks
Ago.
I'm always looking for new shells, too. But I don't live in
Them. I collect them, especially the shiny ones.
You don't say?
Yep. We started a club. We're the nature trackers. We're all
Outside observing nature.
That's why we observed you.
Oh, ha ha. That's very flattering.
Like I noticed that your shell is blue but with little
Darker blue spots on it.
Well, what do you know?
You're right!
And right now we're down here at the edge of the wat--
What? Excuse me a moment.
Sure!
Rark! Come on, you guys, we're still exploring along the
Shore!
No. We're putting the stuff we found in our new clubhouse.
I'm gonna start a beach collection.
But we were tracking nature.
Come on back where we were before.
We're having fun over here.
No. We have to be organized!
We're the nature trackers.
Hey, if you're just gonna boss us around, maybe being
Nature trackers is a bad idea.
What?
Yeah, maybe we shouldn't be nature trackers anymore. Maybe
We should quit.
Rark! But tiny, you can't quit!
Oh, yeah? I'm quitting right now.
What's going on? Wait a minute. I got a mouthful of
Fish. Ptoo! There. Now that's better. What's the problem, tiny
And shiny?
Well, it all started when shiny made a nest out of shells.
And then buddy thought we should build a nest of our own
To play in.
Hmm. Well, that is some nest, kids.
Thanks. So we built it, and then shiny said--
That since we have a new clubhouse, we should be a club,
And we all thought of names...
Like the nature exploring adventurers!
And the outsidees! 'Cause we're always outside.
And then I thought of the nature trackers, and everyone
Agreed, so there you go!
But now shiny wants to be the boss!
Well, I did think of the idea for the club and the name!
[All arguing] rrrrrrr!
Wait a minute! This is all great. You built your own
Clubhouse. And then you started a nature trackers club.
Fantastic, team. So why are you fighting about anything?
'Cause we couldn't decide who was in charge?
Well, you kids are on the right track to get out into
Nature and make discoveries.
And no one has to be in charge.
But there's so much to learn about nature.
We have to do it right! What if we make mistakes?
You can make mistakes. You don't have to know everything.
If you did know everything, well, then you wouldn't be able
To make any new discoveries.
Really?
Really. You figure it out as you go. What have you discovered
So far?
We brought everything we found back here to the
Clubhouse. Don wants to start a beach collection.
Yeah! And maybe even a museum.
Wow! Leaves, shells, feathers, and look at this
Little piece of coral. Did you know that coral is made by tiny
Animals that live in groups?
They're called colonies.
Really? Who told you that?
Oh, my dad, probably.
He taught me all kinds of stuff about the sea. I still
Learn new stuff about fishing, and I've been fishing since I
Was your size.
Wait. You were once my size?
I sure was.
Whoa.
The point is, there don't have to be any rules to be
Nature trackers. You just need to remember to have fun, look
Around you. There's trees, the sea and sand and plants and
Animals. Nature is incredible.
Ah! Dad's right. We don't have to know everything or do
Everything right. We just have to get outside, get into nature,
And make our own discoveries.
Yeah!
Rark!
♪ Get up, get outside get into nature
Get into nature get up, get outside
Get into nature meet a new creature
There's living things all around
Just look around yeah, down on the ground
If you really get close and pay attention
There's almost too many things to mention
So get up, get outside get into nature
Get into nature get up, get outside
Meet a new creature check out his features
Instead of looking for great big things
Look for something tiny you might find something
Down in a hole you might find
Something shiny rark!
So get up, get outside get into nature
Get into nature get up, get outside
Get into nature get into nature
Oh, get into nature yeah ♪
Let's go, nature!
Well, nature trackers, it's time for dinner. Let's go up to
The nest and eat.
Well, wait, hon. What if we have dinner down here at the
Kid's new beach nest clubhouse?
That is, if it's ok with the nature trackers.
Yeah!
That's ok!
Hi, there. I'm dr. Scott, the paleontologist. And it's
Time for nature trackers.
The nature trackers! Yeah!
The ocean is a fantastic place, because it's home to
All kinds of plants and animals. One of the best
Places you can explore the ocean is a tidepool. A
Tidepool is a body of salt water left by the ocean at low
Tide when the water level is at its lowest. There are so
Many types of organisms here, like seastars, mussels, and
Barnacles. Scientists use tidepools to learn all kinds
Of things about all kinds of creatures. It helps them
Understand more about the environment we live in. You
Can study tidepools too. Why not plan a scavenger hunt at
The beach and see how many plants and sea creatures you
Can find? Science and nature are everywhere. So remember,
Get outside, get into nature, and make your own discoveries.
We love playing games like "all aboard." You can play
Too, online at pbskids.org.
And lots of other games.
There's so much to learn about all kinds of dinosaurs.
We're gonna ride the dinosaur train ♪
♪ Dinosaur train ♪ ♪ dinosaur train ♪
♪ Dinosaur train ♪ ♪ dinosaur train ♪
♪ Dinosaur train ♪ ♪ we're gonna ride ♪
♪ Ride, ride, ride, ride ♪ ♪ the dinosaur train ♪
02x04 - Stargazing on the Night Train/Get Into Nature!
Watch/Buy Amazon Merchandise
Set in a whimsical prehistoric world of jungles, swamps, active volcanoes and oceans, all filled with dinosaur and other prehistoric animal life, and connected by a train line known eponymously as the Dinosaur Train
Set in a whimsical prehistoric world of jungles, swamps, active volcanoes and oceans, all filled with dinosaur and other prehistoric animal life, and connected by a train line known eponymously as the Dinosaur Train