Combining classroom and vacation is easy when you bring your homeschool classroom on the road to Alabama’s Gulf Coast. Both Gulf Shores and Orange Beach feature many attractions that afford educational experiences covering a wide range of topics, including the environment, ecosystems, animal habitats, biology, oceanography and marine life, avionics and history. Let your kids have the best of both worlds – interactive and educational experiences that fit your curriculum and make it fun to learn, and when school’s out, head straight to the beach for fun in the sun!

Packing your classroom for a trip to Gulf Shores and Orange Beach doesn’t involve packing lots of books, either. Your Gulf Shores and Orange Beach education partners are accustomed to accommodating the needs of homeschool families and frequently have a curriculum in place, including handouts, activities and quizzes. With a little pre-planning, covering the textbook work before your trip allows your kids to let the words come to life, and let them experience a variety of field trips that create long-lasting memories. Consider a day trip to the Dauphin Island Sea Lab to learn about marine biology and the ecosystem of the Gulf – a short ferry trip away. Or plan a day to spend at the Alabama Gulf Coast Zoo, visiting the animals and learning about their habitats. If history is your focus for the time you are with us, be sure to plan visits to the Orange Beach Indian & Sea Museum, Gulf Shores Museum, the USS Alabama, Fort Morgan and Fort Gaines.

Gulf Shores and Orange Beach education opportunities are not solely about spending the day on a guided tour or in a museum – our destination offers options for families with kids of diverse ages who want to learn and experience together. Stop by any of our local eateries and pack a picnic lunch to take with you while you learn about Alabama flora and fauna. Explore the Hugh S. Branyon Back Country Trail, which traverses four different ecosystems, and Gulf State Park is sure to please with a nationally recognized scenic nature trail. Indoor/outdoor discovery and exploration are easily found at Weeks Bay National Estuarine Research Reserve and Bon Secour National Wildlife Refuge. All are great for hands-on experiences, and create memories for the whole family.

Whether you plan to come take your field trip with us for a day, a week, or a month, we are sure our affordable accommodations will provide the environment you are looking for. Our accommodations include a wide variety of options, from hotels and resorts to rental homes and condos, and our family friendly casual vibe makes Gulf Shores and Orange Beach the natural choice for homeschooling parents looking for a wide range of learning in one destination. We know children learn the most when they’re having fun, and our 32 miles of uncrowded, sugar white beaches and turquoise water provide a fun and exciting way for them to learn. And for your family to experience a whole different state of togetherness.

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Somerset, Kentucky, December 6, 2012 — Twenty years ago Homeschooling Today magazine was founded by homeschooling parents with a vision to encourage and assist homeschooling families. Today, that magazine returns to the family as Alex and Ashley (Strayer) Wiggers, homeschool graduates and owners of Paradigm Press LLC, became the new publishers of Homeschooling Today magazine. The leadership team includes parents Greg and Debbie Strayer (cofounders of the magazine in 1992) and Josh and Cindy Wiggers, owners of Geography Matters.

“We are thrilled to have the opportunity to once again equip and encourage homeschoolers through the vehicle of Homeschooling Today magazine,” said one of the Executive Editors, Debbie Strayer. “Our family grew up with Homeschooling Today and now its ministry continues through our adult children,” she said. “We couldn’t be happier!”

“Despite their youth, Alex and Ashley are uniquely equipped to take on this new venture. They have several years experience in writing and publishing through their work at Geography Matters. Their heart to touch lives and impact the homeschooling community will be evident as the editions start rolling off the presses. We could not be more proud to see them taking up the mantle of publishing Homeschooling Today magazine,” said Josh and Cindy Wiggers of Geography Matters.

Homeschooling Today magazine focuses on providing information, encouragement and tools for those who homeschool, shared from a Christian perspective. The magazine doesn’t just offer encouragement but also ready-to-use lessons and activities for anyone who wants to expand the educational experience of their children, while keeping the approach to learning natural. The multigenerational make-up of the magazine’s team brings a youthful enthusiasm to the publication while also keeping in mind voices of experience.

“We are thrilled that the vision we sought to promote with Homeschooling Today will continue with the new owners,” commented Steve and Kara Murphy, the former owners and publishers of the magazine. “We are confident that this team is exactly what the magazine needs to continue equipping parents for the work of discipling their children.”

The magazine anticipates an early 2013 publication date with its Twentieth Anniversary Issue. With the leadership of the next generation, we look forward to celebrating many more anniversaries with Homeschooling Today magazine.

He was only two, nearing his third birthday, but in his mind, he was a giant. And in my heart too. Dressed in jeans and overalls, we became farmers.

For a fun field trip, another homeschooling mom invited a group of us friends to her farm for a picnic. We relished the time away from the city. Deeply breathing the fresh air, we watched the animals around us. Horses. Ducks. Chickens. And the cows.

The horses stamped their hooves and swished their tails in salutation to our calls and hoots. The children were thrilled to see the display and fed them handfuls of freshly culled hay—little hands offering grass, dandelions, and love. With this first stop, our field trip had already succeeded.

We moved on and saw that the duck’s pond water was a dirty gray-brown. Not clean. No way. Yet the children begged to wade in it. With mini-lessons on germs and diseases, we tried to convince the children that we were right in our refusal. Distracting them, we counted the baby ducklings instead, matching them to their mothers. Fifteen for one, nine for the other, and six or seven ducklings for the white one whose babies waddled into the nearby grass too quickly for us to determine the exact count. Our family of ten felt right at home.

Finding eggs in the henhouse was a slice of heaven to our offspring. Digging deep into the hay nests, their hands felt around for that smooth surface, eyes dancing in response to their discovery. Who would find the next one? Where would it be? Would the egg be white, brown, pink, or blue? Our friend told us that the type of chicken determines the color, and they lay that shade all their lives. She allowed us to put the ovoids in little produce baskets to carry home with us. This convinced our children that life doesn’t get better than living on a farm. Then, with another mini-lesson on bacteria, we sanitized their hands.

Yet it was with the cows that my little son proved a hero. Stepping into the barn, we were elevated about three feet above ground level. The cows were in the pasture, so we felt safe. Our friend showed us the milking machines and explained how they worked. Suction, similar to a baby’s nursing, pulls the milk from the udder, down a tube, and into the waiting tank. As we entered the milking stanchion, the cows, thinking perhaps it was time for dinner, rushed the stall. Screeching and running ensued as our little ones dove for the safety of mother’s nearness. Knowing the cows couldn’t jump up the three feet to enter, the adults recognized we were in no danger. Nevertheless, my son was convinced we were about to be trampled. Ever the brave one, he planted his little self between the charging bovine and me, waved his chubby arms, and yelled at the top of his lungs, “No! No! No!” He saved me from the stampeding herd—in his mind, at least. My everlasting hero.

Growing Courage

After the stampede, I realized that as mothers we have the privilege of giving our children courage. Homeschooling can multiply these opportunities. As the ant feels courageous near home base, so our children gain courage when we are nearby. When we homeschool, we have more opportunities and more years to be their anchors and encourage their bravery, at whatever level it comes.

When we teach them about science, we can encourage them to start a leaf collection, to create an ant farm, to memorize the various systems of the human body and their functions. We ground their beliefs on a Creator God.

Language arts give ample grounds for them to find their voices on issues and communicate them well. We give them time to research to their heart’s content, learn from the greats through biographies and historical resources, courageously memorize their speech, and deliver it without a hitch. We make them brave.

They learn history the way it happened, not how the moderns want to counterfeit. Presidents, leaders, wars, peace; they study the events and heroes of the past to become current stalwarts of adventure and faith. Volunteering their time with worthy political candidates—local, state, or national—they valiantly associate themselves with men and women of character and action. This is civics at its best.

Home economics afford our children time to learn the lost arts of the home: sewing clothes for their dolls, then for themselves. From baking cookies to creating an entire dinner to feed the family, they learn to become brave mothers and fathers of the next generation and to raise our grandchildren well, as they make choices that influence their children’s children—generations to come.

Drama class comes alive as the children act out David and Goliath, the Caesars of the past, or Abraham Lincoln giving his historic speech, “Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation . . .”

It happens one day at a time. This day leads to the next, and we are creating a patchwork quilt of our children’s lives, stitched with the everyday events, embellished with the fun and fanciful. We keep them close as long as they need the courage to act valiantly in their world, their sphere of influence.

 —Originally published in Homeschooling Today magazine, “Consider the Ant,”  July/August 2009

As you study history, take time to discover more about houses of the times. Help your children see the impact of where people live on how they live. Near water? In a desert? Nomadic or settled? Seeing structures they built indicates a great deal about their society.

Kids will learn more when they can put themselves into the story, imagining what it was like to live a different lifestyle. In good weather, children can build outdoor houses and forts! This beloved activity for kids of all ages moves to the next level with the project below, with research first and consideration of what type of structure to build.

Hands-On Activity

Build a model dwelling. Your children can make these structures simply with items like sugar cubes, pretzel rods, and building blocks or students can go all out and use a tent, sandboxes, or big cardboard boxes. Older students benefit from doing a little research before building. It would be helpful for them to see images of the housing they are trying to construct; you might do a Google Image search and print a few examples. Remember to take pictures when your children’s construction project is complete.

Questions for students to consider before building:

1. What am I building, and what was its purpose?

2. Who would have lived in (or used) it?

3. What was the weather like at its location?
4. What was the land like (rocky, marshy, hilly, etc.)?

5. What are the most important features I want to include?

6. What materials do I have that could represent or make this structure?

• Igloos served as temporary shelters during winter seal hunts and were perfect for nomads traveling over arctic terrain. Sleeping platforms and tables were made of snow. Burning embers and frozen blubber for whale oil lamps provided heat and light. Seal and caribou skins provided warmth. Make an igloo with sugar cubes.
• Roman houses often displayed small shrines dedicated to household gods. Villas for the wealthy impressed more than provided comfort; they were built of stone, marble, and concrete with rooms built around the perimeter opening to a central courtyard or patio. Surrounded by columned arcades, the open rooms and courtyards displayed paintings and ornaments. Living quarters tended to be smaller and less ornamental. The lower classes (peasant farmers and craftsmen) lived in modest houses constructed of sun-dried or kiln-fired mud bricks, with stone and dirt floors and beams of packed earth and branches. Have fun making a Roman house with Legos.
• The Zulu people of Africa built beehive-shaped huts near a stream. Furnishings were limited to grass sleeping mats with carved wooden headrests. A fireplace kept the hut warm but smoky. Woven saplings, covered with grass thatch and arranged in a circle, formed a pen for cattle. Make a Zulu hut outside with twigs, leaves, dirt, and such.
• In the late sixteenth century, the North American Iroquois tribes (now known as the Haudenosaunee people or Six Nations) built longhouses for large extended families. They were made of posts and poles covered with bark. The interior was divided into compartments for various family units, each of which had its own fire for light, cooking, and heat. Mats and furs covered the inside walls and benches. Build a longhouse with sticks and bark.
• Viking houses were sturdy farmhouses made of stone, wood, or turf to withstand heavy coastal weather. Simple long halls allowed sleeping, cooking, and eating in one big room. Lincoln Logs, anybody?
• The Aztecs of Mexico made homes of adobe (brick) with a single room divided into four equal parts: shrine, sleeping, food preparation, eating. They typically added a second, circular building for a steam bath. Try making an Aztec house from mud or clay.

Or try constructing one of these buildings:

• Anasazi cliff dwelling
• Castle
• Hampton Court Palace
• Nineteenth-century frontier log cabin
• Traditional Japanese house
• Wigwam, tepee, Chickee hut, and other Native American dwellings
• Home in Plymouth (Plimouth) Colony
• Greek city house
• European peasant hut (Middle Ages)
• Famous forts (Soldiers, and often their families, lived in many of them.)
• For the unusual, consider windmills, lighthouses, or space stations.

Do something new to surprise your kids. Have fun! You will never regret spending extra time and energy to make homeschooling memorable!

In 1991, Bob and Maggie Hogan began homeschooling their two young sons. The first years were exciting and challenging, but with little curriculum available, they had to work hard to find or develop their own materials. As they created materials that worked well for their family, Maggie began speaking and encouraging others at homeschool conferences. Her handouts grew longer until Bright Ideas Press was born. Bright Ideas Press promises to publish Christ-oriented, affordable, and easy-to-use curriculum that will fit into homeschoolers’ hectic lives. See their popular products, such as The Mystery of History series, All American History, Illuminations, and recently, WonderMaps, at Bright Ideas Press.

In a matter of seconds, it was done. At the sound of my name, I walked across the stage, received a diploma from the school president, returned to my seat, and turned my tassel with the rest of my graduating class—the culmination of my undergraduate degree.

Throughout my twelve homeschooling years, my parents wondered whether the education they provided would be adequate when it was time for me to attend college. As I review my undergraduate experience, I realize that my four college years were possible largely because I was homeschooled. I believe that homeschooling gave me an edge over many of my peers, especially during my first year at Taylor University.

Benefits of Homeschooling

Homeschooling provided me a chance to study at my own pace and work toward deadlines, pushing myself to learn as opposed to just cramming for tests or throwing together a last-second paper. Sure, my parents encouraged me to work hard and do well, but the emphasis lay on my achievement to succeed. I didn’t have strict class schedules, study halls, and periods to organize my day. Rather, I knew that I had to work exceptionally hard if I were to finish everything given me each week. This independence prepared me perfectly for the pace of college where I faced fewer classes each day and deadlines on a syllabus. I knew that I had to work ahead of time to get things done. I excelled my freshman year when many of my classmates struggled to find the motivation and desire necessary for success.

Not only did I reap the benefits of self-discipline but I also had an advantage of a broader background than many of my classmates. I had taken worldview, Bible, church history, and language classes that had prepared me better than the average undergraduate freshman was prepared. I tested into a Spanish class made up entirely of juniors and seniors, had a familiarity with church history that only a few students from private schools had formulated, knew the Scriptures well because I had been blessed with a great Bible curriculum in high school, and could write better than many other students. During my freshman year, I saw other students struggle to keep up with the academic rigor, but I was more than prepared to handle the added workload and requirements. I do not mention this out of vanity or pride, but rather out of a desire to laud and encourage those parents who try to provide the best education possible to their sons and daughters.

Response to Homeschooling Stereotype

When people hear that I was homeschooled throughout high school, their response is almost always, “Really? You don’t seem like you were homeschooled.” The stereotype that homeschoolers are socially inept due to minimal interaction with their peers during their formative years causes many people to assume that they will go to college and hole-up in a room to avoid people because of innate introverted tendencies. While I was a bit less outgoing than some students were the first year, I would not say that I was socially incapable or overly awkward. I adjusted to classes, made friends, and embraced dorm life while having an absolute blast. My parents did me no social disservice by teaching me at home.

My parents’ encouragement to stretch myself outside my comfort zone gave me the impetus to go after numerous experiences and positions that augmented my education. I tutored at Taylor’s Writing Center, participated in and ultimately co-led the discipleship program in my dorm, played in almost every intramural possible, was a two-time freshmen orientation leader, helped to produce a school sponsored literary journal, traveled for two weeks on an academic trip to Turkey, and spent a semester studying abroad in Israel. I see that without my parents’ example of a full Christian life and their advice to seize opportunities to better myself, I would not have enjoyed college as much as I did.

A Word of Encouragement

Having just completed my undergraduate degree, I look ahead to future graduate studies. I am thankful that my parents homeschooled me. I realize that what I have accomplished would not have been possible without their loving support, instruction and correction, and their willingness to educate me at home rather than entrust that sacred duty to someone else. For parents who struggle with the decision to educate your children or who wonder whether to continue educating through the high school years, I encourage you to stick with it. It will not be easy, but the rewards are worth it. If done well, your kids will be more than prepared for whatever further study they choose to pursue.

Robbie Maakestad graduated from Taylor University in 2012 and is pursuing a Masters of Creative Writing at Ball State University. He loves to worship God as he writes and desires to instill this passion in others. Robbie was homeschooled by his parents, Debbie and Jim, from grades one through twelve. Contact Robbie at robkabob24@yahoo.com. 

Mother and child—our lives together begin with a fragile strand linking one human heart to another, buried deep. But there is a knowing.

God places babies between our arms and beneath our hearts, and we cradle them safely there. We feel every movement, every stretch, every hiccup; it is sweet, this mystical, symbiotic relationship. As they draw life from us, the circle comes around, and we draw life from them.

But soon the space binds, the nourishment wanes, and the letting go begins.

After birth, we cradle him still between our arms and beneath our hearts, but now we must share him. Sharing is good, for joy is meant to be given away; it multiplies as the love grows. Father’s arms cradle him. Grandmothers and grandfathers share the hug for the first time.

Motherhood is a series of letting goes.

As he learns to walk, he walks away and not toward, for our arms release him to explore new places and new people. But he always returns, and we cradle him sometimes only in sleep because he is busy, busy.

In quiet moments we whisper prayers over him, fold his little hands to pray, and tell stories of a giant-slaying, earth-shaking, miracle-working God as we watch his eyes widen at the thought of someone larger than those he sees. He begins to grasp and then believe in a Father even bigger, kinder, wiser, and more wonderful than his earthly father—one who holds him between His arms and beneath His heart. And we release his soul to Him, trusting that He, in the fullness of time, will draw him to Himself.

Motherhood is a series of letting goes.

For a while, everything he needs to know, we know, but he is smart and we are limited. Soon we guide him to other wise teachers, and we release him again.

Motherhood is a series of letting goes.

Then the day arrives when all that we have prayed for and pointed him toward is no longer on the horizon but is today. And we know and he knows that it is time. The future has become the present, and to hold him any longer would be to hinder him.

Motherhood is a series of letting goes.

We hold him between our arms and beneath our heart, and we whisper prayers over him to a giant-slaying, earth-shaking, miracle-working God. We remind him of his calling as an image-bearer of Christ, to let his light shine before men that they may see his good works and glorify his Father who is in heaven. And we commit him to God.

He may drive away just as he has done other times. We know he’ll be back, but this time it is different. It’s not a weekend. It’s not a mission trip. It’s not a semester. It’s a life—a good life—that we prayed for and anticipated. It is an exclamation point at the end of many mothering years. And we cry, because

Motherhood is a series of letting goes.

 Lori Hatcher is a transplanted Yankee living happily in the south with her husband, David, a youth minister, and faithful four-footed friend Winston. A seventeen-year homeschooling veteran with two young adult daughters, Lori has written the devotional book, Joy in the Journey: Encouragement for Homeschooling Moms, available on her blog. A Type-A personality who is learning to be still and sit at God’s feet, Lori writes from the overflow of her heart as God speaks to her. She loves to encourage and equip homeschooling mothers to homeschool with joy. Visit her blog, Be Not Weary, at www.lorihatcher.com.

Spherical astronomy reveals much mathematical symmetry in the sky. Everything in astronomy is balanced, such as day and night, summer and winter, and north and south. Numerous examples abound. At latitude 40 degrees north, the longest summer days are fifteen hours long and summer nights nine hours. Conversely, winter daylight lasts nine hours, and winter night for fifteen hours.

Symmetry and balance exist from one side of the globe to the other. When it is summer in the northern hemisphere, it is winter in the southern hemisphere. This results from the sun’s apparent annual motion along the ecliptic, its circular path through the constellations. The sun moves about one degree per day along the ecliptic, which causes the seasonal variation in daylight and heat. Perhaps the psalmist was referring to this when he wrote, “In them hath he set a tabernacle for the sun,” since the sun “pitches its tent” in a different place on the ecliptic each day.

This short article cannot begin to uncover all of God’s glory in the mathematical science of spherical astronomy. Only a thick mathematical textbook full of equations can fully detail the aspects of this ancient, traditional approach to astronomy. Nonetheless, anyone willing to step outside, look up, and diligently observe His firmament can still explore the wisdom and understanding of this amazing order today. We can rest assured that the Creator has concealed an amazing mathematical order in the sky, one of the ways that “the heavens declare the glory of God.”

Jay Ryan is the author of Signs & Seasons: Understanding the Elements of Classical Astronomy, a homeschool astronomy curriculum, and Moonfinder, a book for every member of the family to learn how to follow the monthly cycle of the moon’s phases. Visit Ryan’s website at www.classicalastronomy.com.

“Their line is gone out through all the earth, and their words to the end of the world” (Psalm 19:4). The word line here is the Hebrew qav, which literally means measuring line, which biblical scholars see as a poetic description (modern translations use voice). However the experts choose to translate it, the stars actually do send out a type of “measuring line” throughout the whole world that has historically provided many useful, practical results.

Angle measurement also enables us to chart positions of the sun, moon, stars, and planets. An angle-based coordinate system exists in the sky, very similar to latitude and longitude on the earth. In the sky, declination measures angular distances from north to south, just like latitude on the surface of the earth. Right ascension measures angular distances in the sky from east to west, very similar to longitude on the globe. Just like on the earth, a celestial equator and celestial poles exist in the sky.

These celestial coordinates of declination and right ascension closely relate to the terrestrial coordinates of latitude and longitude. For any given latitude, the corresponding angle of declination passes directly overhead at the zenith. For example, at latitude 40 degrees north, the stars at declination 40 degrees north pass overhead. Many major United States cities are near latitude 40 degrees north, including New York, Philadelphia, Cleveland, Chicago, Denver, Salt Lake City, and San Francisco, and world capitals such as Madrid, Rome, Istanbul, and Beijing. All of these cities see the same stars directly overhead from night to night.

On the equator the stars of the celestial equator are directly overhead at the zenith, such as Orion’s Belt. At the North Pole, the North Star, Polaris, is at the zenith. For every location on the earth this mathematical correspondence enables an observer to find his latitude from the declination of the stars. This is the basis for celestial navigation. For centuries of preindustrial history, before the development of modern instruments such as GPS, navigators in wooden sailing ships could find their position from this mathematical order of the sky.

Since ancient times, sailors, using simple angle-measuring instruments such as a quadrant, sextant, and cross-staff have been able to measure the altitude of stars and learn their precise latitude while in the middle of the ocean. A basic quadrant is nothing more than a protractor with an attached plumb bob. One simply sights the star and measures the angle of its altitude from an inscribed scale. Relying on such simple devices, Columbus crossed the Atlantic to discover the New World, and the Pilgrims found their way to Plymouth Rock.

Finding longitude is a more complex procedure. The development of mechanical clocks in the eighteenth century made it possible to find longitude at sea. The mariner chronometer keeps an accurate measurement of the time at the homeport. Sailors carefully measure noon at their location at sea, when the sun is highest in the sky, and compare that to the time on the chronometer. The number of hours difference between the local ship time and the time at home helped the sailors discover the “time zone” that corresponded to their longitude. We use the same method today to define the twenty-four standard time zones of the world, each representing 15 degrees of longitude.

In addition to navigation, the art of surveying has historically used the same celestial angle-measurement techniques. English surveyors Charles Mason and Jeremiah Dixon used astronomical techniques to establish the Mason-Dixon Line, the border between Pennsylvania and Maryland. Andrew Ellicott used similar astronomical surveying methods to establish the border between Pennsylvania and Ohio, and the northern border of Florida. Ellicott and Benjamin Banneker, his neighbor and fellow astronomer, used spherical astronomy to survey the streets of Washington, DC. Similar astronomical techniques had been used to survey 1.8 million acres of land in the United States.

Jay Ryan is the author of Signs & Seasons: Understanding the Elements of Classical Astronomy, a homeschool astronomy curriculum, and Moonfinder, a book for every member of the family to learn how to follow the monthly cycle of the moon’s phases. Visit Ryan’s website at www.classicalastronomy.com.

                                                                                                            —Psalm 19:1

Recently my pastor asked me, “How exactly do the heavens declare the glory of God?” After I pondered that question, I explained that the sky is the only aspect of creation that reveals a precise mathematical order. Many mathematical examples exist in creation, from hexagonal snowflakes to the spiral of a snail shell. But hidden in the sky is a complete geometrical system that defines precise quantitative relationships, enabling practical measurements and yielding useful results. When the Bible was written, classical astronomy was the only exact science in practice, and astronomical study resulted in the modern science of physics, the basis of all our modern technology.

Psalm 19 continues, “Day unto day uttereth speech, and night unto night sheweth knowledge. There is no speech nor language, where their voice is not heard.” This passage might puzzle some people who live in a modern American suburb and observe an unimpressive night sky spoiled by street lighting. But David, Israel’s king, spent most of his early life under pristine night skies as a shepherd and soldier. He could hear the inaudible “speech” of the heavens and understood the “knowledge” it showed in a manner nearly forgotten in our high-tech, contemporary world.

The Firmament

Under a perfectly dark sky remote from city lights, all stars seem to be an equal distance away. Thus, the night sky appears to be a great dome of stars, an enormous celestial sphere, with the observer located at the center. We know today that this is an illusion and that the stars are virtually infinite in distance. However, the Hebrew word for “firmament” is raqia, which means expanse, an even better word to describe the vast distances to stars.

Since the sky appears as a great sphere, we can actually treat it as a geometrical sphere and envision circles that lie along the surface of the celestial sphere. Traditional classical astronomy has historically defined a great number of celestial circles, including horizon, meridian, celestial equator, and ecliptic.

Like any other circle, we can divide each of these celestial circles into 360 degrees and measure angular distances between any two points in the sky. For instance, we can measure 90 degrees along the horizon from due north to due east and 180 degrees from north to south. Along the meridian, we can measure 90 degrees between the view sideways to the horizon and the view overhead to the zenith.

We can also envision that any two objects in the sky lie along a circle and measure the angle between them. For example, on a given night, the moon might be passing close to the bright planet Jupiter and be only two degrees apart. Imagine a line extending from your eye to the moon and another line extending from your eye to Jupiter. The lines will form an angle of two degrees. Measuring angular separations in this way is the typical manner of locating celestial objects in the sky.

Since we use angle measurement in the spherical sky, we can also apply standard techniques of geometry. This is the ancient science of spherical astronomy. The great Greek geometer Euclid wrote a treatise on spherical astronomy in about 300 BC, in addition to his better-known work on plane geometry, which still provides the basis for geometry textbooks today.

Angle measurement enables us to measure movements of celestial objects. We can measure that the sun moves 15 degrees across the sky every hour, from rising to setting. The moon moves about 13 degrees each day toward the east, as it waxes and wanes through its cycle of phases. In addition to its daily motion from east to west, the sun also moves about one degree per day from west to east, so we can measure the annual cycle of the seasons. In this way, angle measurement is required for measuring time, the actual purpose for which the sun and moon were created: “And God said, Let there be lights in the firmament of the heaven to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs, and for seasons, and for days, and years” (Genesis 1:14).

Jay Ryan is the author of Signs & Seasons: Understanding the Elements of Classical Astronomy, a homeschool astronomy curriculum, and Moonfinder, a book for every member of the family to learn how to follow the monthly cycle of the moon’s phases. Visit Ryan’s website at www.classicalastronomy.com.