In 2010 long ago long ago when I was a Adult Education Teacher( just in living memory) following on after the success of my earlier numeracy sessions on escape from death star maths and what do I weigh on other planets worksheets
I planned to deliver a session on internet astronomy search for SETI and exoplanets.
For this I prepared resources and work sheet to introduce community learners to my favourite websites such as Solstation, Astronexus and star gen showing how exoplanet data that could be used in spreadsheets and basic calculation of viewpoints using a expanding balloon as scale.
Useful if mainly clicking mouse session made people aware of distances even if before the only planets they had heard of were Earth and Mars
I had fun anyway with the group using the star flight navigator simulator Astrofly program a sort of an electric astrolabe which like Astronexus offers full star catalogue but can only focus on a low focus fly to the alien star centred on where the sun is in that alien sky where as Astronexus provides focus on sun plus north and south hemispheres alien constellation views.
some basic screen prints .making night sky views that resemble dreaming under the wild moons of Blue Antara or "Tau cygni 5 as your Earthlings call it"
Astronexus is in its hemispheres based on Earth tilt perceptions and the simple mathematics of two points in space and distance for example an typical nearby exo planet has higher axial tilt at 27 o and with two suns a less visible night sky
both astronexus and astrofly are old points of viewing 3D sphere programs
As far back as 1973 in his cosmic connection book Carl Sagan used Cornel university main frames to create early views of sun in centauri and sun from tau ceti new constellation where the sun appeared at the arcturus plumed tail top of a six legged Unicorn horn Regulus to Rasalas
so playing with astronexus and astrofly you cannot help starting to make constellations patterns ie "archer, harper, dragon slayer, bird catcher, clothes maker" from the slightly off centre alien skies
Looking back over my 2005 -2012 back of flyer notes that I had kept in an old envelope struck by the fact that when employed full time I tended to fantasise a lot at end of working days devoting myself to flights of imagination and lesson planning in equal measure .
This fantasying or "creativity" was mainly at the end of the day pausing to speculate on at least 150 alien planetary life forms who could be watching Earth at that moment as I closed up.
At home on sunday afternoons forgetting about the teaching professionalism and writing the outlines of at least 30 fantasy and sci fi novels avoiding the Galactic "Pow" Dreadnought and Empire cliché which however did not survive until first teaching session Monday morning.
As part of the audience or even deliverer of presentations I remained dedicated note taker despite the bored temptation to chronicle five different Future Earth millennium histories during the key note speakers address on stakeholder policy
Now with all this redundant time and endless empty days lacking in day dreams and something to be distracted from!
I found post redundancy I do not write the fourth novel in a fantasy trilogy , I do not speculate on Plastiform Sentient life forms 62 light years away, or explore the best possible landing ground for an Alien Expedition to Earth in the Cretaceous period as I used to do. All the fun went out of my life when I lost my job.
Sometimes feel like Yoda on Dagobath
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