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My neighbor's kid saw my Jupiter shot and asked a question I couldn't answer
Honestly, I was just setting up my 8-inch Dobsonian in the driveway last Tuesday night to test a new camera. The 10-year-old from next door, Leo, came over and watched me take a 30-second exposure of Jupiter. He pointed at the screen and said, 'Why are the moons in a straight line?' Tbh, I realized I knew how to stack the images but couldn't explain orbital planes simply. Has anyone else had a kid ask them a basic space question that made you go look it up?
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alex3072mo ago
@bennett.vera's cosmic school picture is perfect.
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kelly_craig2mo ago
Actually, the moons aren't always in a straight line (they orbit in a plane, but we see that edge-on sometimes).
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bennett.vera2mo ago
Oh right, the "edge-on" thing, thanks @kelly_craig. I mean, I guess my brain just pictures them lined up like little ducks in a row every time. So you're telling me they're out there doing their own wobbly space dance and sometimes it just looks tidy from here? That's actually way funnier, like they're all trying to stay in line for a cosmic school picture but they keep messing it up.
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