The Night Sky from Your Backyard
Like Duolingo, but for The Night Sky from Your Backyard. Tomo turns the whole topic into a game you play five minutes a day, until it actually sticks.
For the part of you with thirty open tabs that never became anything.
A short one: 12 levels across 2 sections, about 24 minutes end to end, roughly 5 days at five minutes a day. It moves through Your First Night Out and Finding the Wanderers. It starts from scratch.
Free forever · No credit card · iPhone & Android
Key ideas in The Night Sky from Your Backyard
- Eyes require a significant adjustment period for night vision
- The Earth's axis points toward Polaris
- Peak sensitivity to low light takes approximately twenty minutes of darkness
- Polaris remains fixed in the sky while other stars appear to circle it
- Exposure to bright light resets this adaptation process
- Polaris serves as a reliable constant for navigation
- The hand acts as a consistent angular ruler when held at arm's length
- Artificial light scatters in the atmosphere, creating a glow
- The unique stationary property of the North Star
- Specific hand shapes correspond to specific degree measurements
- Light pollution outshines the faint light of distant stars
- Using hand measurements to estimate degrees in the sky
- The time required for eyes to reach peak sensitivity in the dark
- The center of the eye is less sensitive to dim light than the edges
- The impact of artificial light on star visibility
- Looking slightly to the side of an object uses more light-sensitive cells
You've tried the other tabs
Thirty open tabs. Four facts you actually kept.
You watched. You nodded. By Sunday it was gone.
One answer, then back to scrolling.
Eight weeks. You meant to finish. You didn't.
Tomo gives The Night Sky from Your Backyard the Duolingo treatment: levels, streaks, and quick quizzes that test what you just learned. That game loop is what the tabs above never had, so it's the one you actually finish.
Here's what playing it feels like
A real question from this course. Take your best guess.
Why does the North Star appear to stay in one spot while other stars move?
Get it right to open this lesson and 11 more in the app.
Where The Night Sky from Your Backyard takes you
Learn to navigate the stars and planets using nothing but your own eyes. This course turns the overhead darkness into a familiar map of wonders.
- 1
Your First Night Out
- Getting Your Bearings
- The Moon's Changing Face
- 2
Finding the Wanderers
- Spotting Planets Without a Telescope
- Understanding the Starlight
2 sections · 4 units · 12 levels. Built to play, not to enroll.
You pick the voice
The Night Sky from Your Backyard is taught in the The Bestie style: your friend who just gets it. Want a different feel? In the app you can spin up the same topic in any of Tomo's teaching styles. Same facts, totally different vibe.
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Start The Night Sky from Your Backyard today.
Download Tomo, search The Night Sky from Your Backyard, and play your first lesson in under a minute.