When the moon is new and dark and there are no clouds you can see about 3000 stars in the sky but with a little telescope you can see about 100,000. The brightest star we can see is Sirius. Last night we saw it from our lanai. Jupiter was brighter but it is not a star (Joel, 7 1/2).
The sky is like an umbrella. The North Star is called Polaris and it is the middle of the umbrella. It never moves but all the other stars turn around it. The Big Dipper points to Polaris so you can always know where it is (Titus, 9).
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godmadeknown 
Thank you Titus and Joel for my ‘school’ lesson today!! Wonderful to learn from you! Big Hugs!!!
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Ahhh… stargazing from the lanai in Hawaii… a perfect homeschool lesson! We will look for the North Star, the Big Dipper, and Sirius from here in Arkansas. How neat to think we can see the same things! What a Creator! You must be getting closer to completing this course! I’ve learned a lot! 🙂
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Only 2 more chapters left in the book but I’m reserving a whole month for each and bringing in some more supplemental materials. I’m interested in exploring the Hebrew interpretation of the constellations, what Job would have been thinking of when he spoke of Orion and The Bear. The boys are very eager to get to the last chapter which is on Space Travel and technology so we’ll spend at least a month on that. This year has flown for us, how about you?
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Wow! That really sounds interesting. We have been learning the names of the constellations in our Latin the past few weeks. My oldest has been asking questions about the names and asked if the gods for which the planets and constellations were named could have been fallen angels that Satan used. Can I just forward all of his questions to you? ha ha 😉 I can’t wait to hear all about what you learn! And, we won’t be finished with school until June. It has been going quickly, and I’m very thankful that my first year homeschooling has been successful… for the most part! 😉
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I’m still trying to figure out this thing with Pluto after getting an “F” on it. And you guys have gone to Polaris. I’ll never catch up. How come Polaris never moves? When I was little my uncle told me how to find the North Star. He said you face it and stretch out your arms sideways. Your right hand points east, and your left points west. That means behind you is south. But I learned that if its a cloudy night, you had better have a compass. Hey, there’s no star marking the south pole. What do people who are lost in South America do?
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Don’t be so hard on yourself, Opa! You still know way more than we ever will. Like I tell the boys, “My job is to make you smarter than me, but you’ll never be wiser!” But I’m not too sure about your uncle’s navigation skills. Probably wasn’t the best Boy Scout in the troop.
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This astronomy stuff is sirius business.
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It can also be quite Polarising…
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We thought about you boys this weekend when we went to a planetarium in San Francisco and when we were watching a street artist paint night sky scenes with spray paint. Amazing! Wonder what the planets look like to Juliet in Italy?
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Luckies! I imagine the night sky in Italy looks a lot like it did to Galileo centuries ago. Unless, of course, she’s viewing it from atop a certain leaning tower in Pisa (Galileo’s birthplace). Might be slightly tilted then.
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Are you having spring break? Miss hearing from you guys! 🙂
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Yes, we were! No school last week since Daddy was off and just a light week right now but we should have a new Factoid up on Friday. Sure is nice to be missed! 🙂
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