where do you start?!

First thing I do when I enter a mall? Look for the map. Then I look for the red dot!

Over the course of the evening while looking at planets and moons and finally seeing the Milky Way emerge, I gained a sense of what it is like for someone not at all familiar with astronomy. Ronnie did not know, really, where we were, how the planets worked, and what the Milky Way really was.

He's a very smart guy.

But it's a big subject... Difficult to convey briefly in the late evening, after a long day, after a grueling lawn chair race, all without diagrams or props, and after a few Stella Artois and/or Jägermeister.

Maybe I should get Ronnie a "You Are Here" shirt from ThinkGeek.

I shall definitely have to develop some better analogs...