Introduction

If you were like me, you were told in elementary school about the planets, shown pictures of them, and maybe constructed a hanging solar system model with them. When I was young, the Voyager 2 spacecraft was sending back the first-ever large photographs of Uranus and Neptune in full color. Yet, in all this excitement, no one ever told me that I could see most of the planets with my own eyes looking at the sky (Uranus and Neptune are too dim to see without help). In this module, you will learn how to find the planets in the sky and what to look for to distinguish them from stars. Until the development of the telescope, this was all our forebears had to go on in understanding the planets. You will learn about how the planets move and change in brightness and how we track them through both their brightness cycles and positions against the stars. In addition, you will learn the basic mythological views the Greeks and Romans had about the planets. These will set us up for understanding native American views on the planets (or lack thereof, for many cultures; as we will see, tracking planets is a patience-demanding experience).

Module Objectives

1. You will be able to find planets in the sky among the stars.
2. You will be able to distinguish inferior and superior planets through their conjunctions with and oppositions to the Sun.
3. You will be able to differentiate planetary motion along the ecliptic and relate this motion to planetary brightness.
4. You will learn to track sidereal and synodic period of planets.

Module Structure

• Readings
  • Textbook Section
    • 2.2 Ancient Astronomy
  • Online Resources
    
    • Mercurius
    • Venus
    • Mars
    • Iupiter or Iupiter Conciliatrix
    • Saturnus
• Reading Check
  • Check Your Planets Reading
• Activities
  • Build Planets Pages in Your Star Group
  • Discuss Planets with the Class
  • Discuss Synodic and Sidereal Periods of Planets with Your Greek Letter Group
  • Make Observations of the Sky for the Planets Module
• Learning Check
  • Check Your Planets Module Learning
• Reflection
  • Reflect on Planets Module Time