So what does a light year look like.

[Crossway]

During a recent  session with binoculars  , my grandson  asked what  a light year looked like!!!  .   We were using Stephen O' Meara's  fine book on binocular  viewing with particular attention to the   the chapter on Ursa Major  and later noted that in a diagram of the constellation he  had stated  the distance in light years of  the main stars.  Mizar and  the adjacent  Alioth  being given as   81 light years. .   We took an approximation of the  angular separation between the two stars as about six degrees and  worked a  simple Trig calculation  which  gave  the distance between the stars as 8.4 light years.!!   A unique figure for those two particular stars at that distance.  And an awe inspiring specatacle we thought. .

 

   

[cloudsweeper]

Good question!  And a good way of thinking about it.  

And I agree with your calculation - 8.48ly.

Great that the lad has an interest in these matters that can be satisfied!

Doug.

[DRT]

That's a very good way to look at this question

If your grandson is interested in astronomical distances perhaps he will be interested in this article that a friend of mine wrote a couple of years ago: The Solar System, to scale, for a school yard.

[laudropb]

It's always nice to engage with the kids.

[Bizibilder]

This is a fun way to show Solar System distances:  http://joshworth.com/dev/pixelspace/pixelspace_solarsystem.html  It would take a long time to get to the stars!!!

[Dave In Vermont]

Here's one that will place YOU - the Observer - on a photon of light leaving from our Sun. And going to and passing our nearest neighbors in space - in real-time as you travel at light-speed. Give this a try!

https://vimeo.com/117815404

It truly makes me think/feel that light-speed is actually pretty slow! Very interesting work done to create this.

Enjoy!

Dave

[DRT]

That is excellent, Dave, thanks for posting.

You are spot on, it does give the impression of light being slow until you consider the prospect of jumping on a photon as it passes Earth and being on Jupiter in less time than it takes for a Mak to cool down