Heliocodex

Learn / Outward from here

Finding your way

On the scale of light: here, on the ground. 8 lessons, in the order to read them.

  1. Start hereHow big is spaceThe true spacing of the Solar System and the stars, on a scale you can walk.First look · How it works
  2. Measuring distance: kilometres, au, light years and parsecsWhy astronomers keep four different rulers, and when each one is used.First look · How it works
  3. SeasonsWhy it is the tilt of the Earth, and not its distance from the Sun, that makes summer and winter.First look · How it works
  4. Phases and eclipsesWhy the Moon changes shape every month, and why eclipses are much rarer than that.First look · How it works
  5. ConstellationsA constellation is a pattern of stars as seen from the Earth, and one of 88 areas the sky is divided into. Its stars are rarely together in space.First look · How it works
  6. Why the sky turnsThe stars wheel overhead every night because the ground under you is turning. One point in the sky stays still, and how high it sits tells you where you are.First look · How it works
  7. The sky through the yearWinter and summer have different stars because the Earth's night side looks out a different way each season. The Sun's path among them is the zodiac.First look · How it works
  8. Looking up for yourselfYou need no telescope to begin. Find somewhere dark, give your eyes half an hour, and know what to look for.First look · How it works

Outline Still to be written here

  1. Binoculars and a first telescopeWhat to buy, what to point it at, and what you will really see.
  2. Finding the planets yourselfWhich planets show to the eye, when, and how to tell them from stars.