SkyWatch: the sky you can see and the machine that makes it -- apparent motion against actual, seasons from tilt not distance, phases from geometry not shadow.
SKYWATCHEarth & Space Science -- sky, seasons, moon6-8 -- the machine
PredictTestExplainReviseDefendTransfer0/6 evidence steps
MISSION -- ECLIPSE GEOMETRY
The Moon's orbit is tilted 5 degrees. Most months, it misses. Call which months will eclipse from the node geometry.
SPACE VIEWEXAGGERATED -- The readout is the measurement, not the picture.
GROUND VIEW -- NORTHERN OBSERVER
drag the Earth around its orbit, or tap a month -- the ground view answers
·Act 1: Closest and coldest
·Act 2: Two hemispheres
·Act 3: Flat orbit
·The mechanism
OBSERVATION RECORD
nothing observed yet
THREE PREDICTABILITIES
odds-per-year (Geo Forge: floods, volcanoes)
where-without-when (Geo Forge: earthquakes, plate boundaries)
clockwork — exactly when, centuries out (skywatch: eclipses, planetary positions)
Floods give you odds. Quakes give you a where. The sky gives you the minute -- centuries out.
SCALE BENCH
LINEAGE HANDLES
The sun is a star. The brightness tells the distance.
PROVENANCE
Ephemeris: US Naval Observatory Astronomical Almanac 2024; NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory Horizons ephemeris system
Axial tilt: 23.44 deg | Moon orbital tilt: 5.14 deg
Perihelion: January 3 (0.983 AU) | Aphelion: July 4 (1.017 AU)
Synodic period: 29.53 days | Night observation required: never
Exaggerated surfaces: orbit, moon bench, scale bench -- The readout is the measurement, not the picture.