Teaching Astronomy for Sunday School (Basketballs and Toilet Paper)

[Gen 1] Then God made two great lights: the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night. [He made] the stars also.

[Gen 15] Then He brought him outside and said, “Look now toward heaven, and count the stars if you are able to number them.” And He said to him, “So shall your descendants be.” And he believed in the LORD, and He accounted it to him for righteousness.

[Deu 4] “And [take heed], lest you lift your eyes to heaven, and [when] you see the sun, the moon, and the stars, all the host of heaven, you feel driven to worship them and serve them, which the LORD your God has given to all the peoples under the whole heaven as a heritage.

[Psa 8] When I consider Your heavens, the work of Your fingers, the moon and the stars, which You have ordained, What is man that You are mindful of him, and the son of man that You visit him?

[Psa 147] He counts the number of the stars; He calls them all by name.

[Psa 148] Praise Him, sun and moon; Praise Him, all you stars of light!

[Mat 24] “Immediately after the tribulation of those days the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light; the stars will fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens will be shaken. “Then the sign of the Son of Man will appear in heaven, and then all the tribes of the earth will mourn, and they will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory.

If the Sun were a basketball in the Big Timber Evangelical Church, what would the sizes and distances of the planets be?

Sun                             Basketball                                Center (Church)

Mercury                      Pinhead                                   36 feet

Venus                         Pebble                                      Pitcher to home plate

Earth                           Pebble                                     1^st base to 2^nd base

Moon                          Pinhead                                    3” from Earth

Mars                            Pinhead                                   .5 football field

Jupiter                         Golf Ball                                 1.5 football fields

Saturn                          < Golf Ball / Rings: .5 cd       3 football fields

Uranus                         Shooter Marble                       The Fort

Neptune                       Shooter Marble                       High School

Pluto                            Pinhead                                   RR overpass

Nearest Star                 Basketball                               England

Rough relative distances from the Sun to the Planets – in Toilet Paper Squares:

Sun 0               Mercury 2        Venus 4           Earth 5            Mars 8

Jupiter 26        Saturn 48         Uranus 97        Neptune 152   Pluto 200