KS2  Solar System  - Teaching Notes using Celestia Planetarium
Setup: 
Under Render – View Options   menu
Show- galaxies, stars, planets
Atmospheres,clouds,cloud shadows, Night side lights
Grids- none ticked.
Orbits/Labels- Planets ,Moons, Minor Moons  (all others blank)
DSO Labels-  galaxies only
Script file name:  ED-PlanetsKS2.cel

Note that all the captions relate to these notes

-1- Our Sun (Centre)
�	All the stars you can see are in our Galaxy
�	Billions of them. Old (5 Billion years)

-2- We will travel away from our Sun.
�	To look at our Galaxy (Green X)
�	A spiral galaxy with billions of stars like our Sun
�	It would take Millions of years to travel this far.

-3- See where our Solar System is in the Galaxy (Green X)

-4- See our Solar system
�	These are the outer planets most distant from the Sun.

-5- Zoom in to the Inner Planets where our Earth is located.
�	Note that we have increased time to show the orbits of the planets.
-6- Closest to the Sun – Mercury.
�	Very hot  430C
�	Very little if any atmosphere.
�	Orbits in 88 days
�	Diameter 4880 km

-7- Second from the Sun -  Venus
�	Also very hot 470C
�	Acid (Sulphuric) atmosphere (very bad for space craft)
�	Orbit 220 days
�	Diameter 12,100 km
-8- Third planet from the Sun – The Earth and the orbiting Moon
�	Moon orbits Earth
�	Q: How long does it take to Orbit Earth (You can measure it with the clock top right.)
�	A: 1 month or 27.3 days.
�	Now look at the Earth
�	Clouds
�	Atmosphere
�	Q: How long does it take to rotate? (clock)
�	A: 24 hours (approx)
-9- Back to look at the Moon
�	Moon orbits the Earth and the position of the Sun causes the “Phases” of the Moon
�	Some time to observe this.
-10- Final Inner planet – Mars
�	The “Red Planet”
�	Orbit 2 years
�	Temperature -25C
�	Ice on polar region
�	A quick look at one of the two moons of Mars.
End