On Monday, August 4, 2014 5:37:44 PM UTC+1, Bill Owen wrote:


That, and just spending time under the Milky Way

pointing out the constellations and telling their stories.



We stayed until about 10:30, looked the crescent moon, Mars and Saturn,

Albireo (my colleague called it "the UCLA star" to the dismay of the USC

fans present), epsilon Lyrae ... M31 was a good target although it was

still low in the NE ... don't know if any of them found M57 although we

mentioned it.



I love doing this sort of thing. Not only is it fun to spread the joy

and wonder of the night sky, it also helps me stay in touch with my roots..



-- Bill Owen


Did you explain to them how to reference the annual motion of the constellations behind the Sun in sequence due to the orbital motion of the Earth. From this point of view these students get to appreciate the separate resolution for inner planetary retrogrades where Venus and Mercury swing out from behind the Sun in the opposite direction of the background stars (which are themselves moving due to the orbital motion of the Earth) and then swing back in front of the Sun and in the same direction of those stars -

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MdFrE7hWj0A

This is entirely new and considering retrogrades haven't been touched for the last 500 years since Copernicus wrote the Commentariolis back in 1514, I suggest you teach them the difference between inner and outer retrograde motions and their separate resolutions.

Did you explain to them that the great astronomers used a different system where the Sun moved through the constellations in order to determine the orbital period of each planet.