Gazing at the stars and constellations?
Come with me on a trip through the solar system. For kids and newcomers of all ages.
Backyard stargazing for beginners and experts alike can be a fun and inexpensive hobby. You can look up on any clear night and spend hours enjoying the stars.
I know I have.
But the sky is filled with twinkling lights.Which ones are which? Stars fill the sky and with some imagination create the pictures that the ancient's named for their mythological gods. There are also planets,comets,meteoroids,asteroids and more whirling about the solar system and beyond.
So what's what?
Constellations are groupings of stars that seem to form a pattern as we look at them in the night sky. Most people have heard of the Big dipper and the Little dipper or even Orion the hunter but there are so many more.
How about the 12 zodiac constellations? Twelve birth signs supposed to influence our lives based on where the sun and the moon were when we were born.
Planets such as earth are large astral bodies that usually have smaller bodies called moons orbiting them. All seven other planets are visible from earth at one time or another, depending on where they are in their own orbit around the sun. This varies from month to month, year to year and where you are as you view the sky.
Remember-As a general rule stars "twinkle", planets don't.
Comets are gaseous iceballs whizzing through the solar system. Asteroids and meteoroids are giant rocks moving through outer space and sometimes,inner space. Our solar system and the galaxies beyond hold even more.
Want to know the difference between a meteoroid,a meteor, and a meteorite? Or how about the phases of the moon? Click on the links to learn more about a particular subject.
Let's start our trip!