
Learn to observe Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn from the ground, as the course guides inner and outer planets across four parts, plus tech tools to identify observation targets.
Track how the sun moves across the sky from the ground observer, use a 24-hour sun clock, and grasp the ecliptic, noon, sunrise, sunset, and day and night.
Explore how stars move across the sky using Orion as a guide, and learn how the celestial equator and ecliptic explain daily and monthly motion and winter visibility.
Discover why Venus shines so brightly, alternates as the evening and morning star, and traces a 19-month journey around the sun with conjunctions, phases, and rapid forward-back motion.
Explore how Venus appears as a morning or evening star by using Stellarium to locate its position at sunrise and at sunset along the ecliptic on your birthday.
Mercury, named after the Roman god and messenger, follows Venus's rules, stays near the sun, and cycles every four months, reaching 1.5 hours from the sun.
Explore Jupiter's motion as the outer planet, detailing conjunction and opposition, speed changes, brightness variations, and a 13-month cycle, with binoculars revealing its moons.
Discover Saturn, named for the Roman god and Kronos, and compare its orbit to Jupiter’s, noting Saturn completes a cycle in about 12.5 months and brightens at opposition.
Explore Mars, the war god planet, and compare its slow 26-month cycle, brightness variation, and conjunction behavior with Jupiter and Saturn to understand basic planet patterns.
Explore the planets' orbital periods around the sun, from Mercury to Saturn, and see how Earth's 365-day year frames their motion, including conjunctions and oppositions.
Identify planets along the ecliptic—the sun's path—and recognize the zodiac constellations. The moon travels on the same route; practice locating planets at dusk or dawn.
Explore web tools such as time and date.com and stellarium web to locate planets, study the ecliptic, and plan viewing times across seasons.
Use a compass and star chart apps to orient to the ecliptic, identify objects as you adjust date and time, and plan casual stargazing.
Explore how the sun, moon, and the five planets shape the days of the week, and see how Latin and Norse history connect astronomy to everyday life.
Novice stargazers need to know how the planets move across they sky and where to look to find them. Planets do not follow the same easy rules as stars. That's why the ancient Greeks called them 'Wanderers'.
This course focuses on the five planets you can see with your eyes:
Mercury
Venus
Mars
Jupiter
Saturn
The Sun, Moon, and other stars have predictable paths across the sky. Planets break all the rules.
This is a beginner level no-telescopes required astronomy course that teaches you how planets visible to the naked eye move across the sky. We’ll focus an entire course on just Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn.
You'll learn why the 'inner' planets follow different rules than the 'outer' planets. You'll also learn how the planets got their names. This is a great introductory astronomy course for beginners and amateurs.
This unique course looks at the planets from the perspective of a person standing on the ground. We make it as easy as possible to learn astronomy.
How do we make it easy?
First, we'll explore how our Sun and stars move across the sky.
Then, we'll talk about the rules 'inner' planets follow.
After that we'll go through the outer planets.
Lastly, you'll learn about where to look in the sky to find planets, and about what free apps that you can use to plan your planet watching.
What you'll learn is that the planets share similar rules to each other, but each is different. Understanding how the planets move is a key first step to understanding the rest of the solar and the cosmos beyond.
There’s a reason why our ancient ancestors worshiped planets as Gods. Find out inside.