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Stars vs Planets Training Center

Ari Raider's Training Materials · Eclipse Chase · Training Center 3 of 6

Stars vs Planets

The Glass Sky is full of specks of light that won't hold still — and not everything shining up there makes its own light. Sorting the shiners from the reflectors is the fix.

What you're training for

At the Glass Sky, some specks are stars and some are not. They lock into place for whoever can sort what makes its own light from what only borrows it. Train here first; prove it in the simulation.

The science

  • Stars make their own light — the Sun, Sirius and Polaris are all burning with their own fire.
  • Planets and moons make none — the Moon, Mars and Saturn only shine because sunlight bounces off them.
  • Stars look like tiny specks only because they're so far away — many are bigger than our Sun.
  • A field trick: stars tend to twinkle, planets shine steadier — which is often how skywatchers tell them apart.

Teach it today — a flashlight and a mirror

Shiner or reflector? Lights off. Hold up a flashlight — it makes light: that's a star. Hold up a mirror — nothing, until the flashlight hits it: that's the Moon and every planet. Then run the sky roll-call — Sun, Moon, Mars, Sirius, Saturn, Polaris — and students call "flashlight!" or "mirror!" for each.

Trained and ready? Prove it at Stop 3 — the Glass Sky. Free, no logins, progress saved on the device.

Enter the Realm at Stop 3

Resources in this training center

Worksheets, reading passages, flashcards and printables for this lesson are being added — new resources land here first. Get one email a month when they do, or browse the whole free library.

The hands-on half: the Eclipse Chase Adventure Kit puts six real specimens — snowflake obsidian included — plus six Digs, six Gemlings and the Realm map in your students' hands. $19.99, or $15 a student for classrooms.

More Eclipse Chase training

Day & Night · Constellations · Stars vs Planets · Moon Phases · Eclipses · The Seasons · Enter the Adventure →

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