Skip to content
Smartable Academy
Smartable tools

← Earth, Moon, and the Sun

Your progress

Checking your sign-in…

Who's learning?

Each profile keeps its own read lessons, badges, streak, and practice scores on this device.

Lesson 13 of 19

The night sky changes through the year

Show on a big screen

5 min

Text size

The stars you see after sunset change from March to September.

Loading lab…

The idea

Earth goes round the Sun. The path it takes is its orbit. Going round the Sun is revolution.

The Sun, and Earth's orbit round it.
Step 1 of 6
  1. The Sun, and Earth's orbit round it.
  2. In March, the night side of Earth faces stars A.
  3. In June, it faces stars B.
  4. In September, it faces stars C.
  5. In December, it faces stars D.
  6. After one year, Earth is back. It sees stars A again.

A star rises about 4 minutes earlier each night. After one year it is back at about its first time.

Each night Earth is a little further along its orbit. So the night side faces slightly different stars.

Watch out!

Earth turning makes stars move across one night. Earth going round the Sun makes them change over the year.

Try the lab to finish this lesson.