Graphical way to remember planet names (from Stargazing Ploy lesson)

Thanks a lot! Very nice graphical explanation. Didn't Jenny mention some kind of proverb or something to memorize all the planet in the correct sequence from the sun?

She had just said the elements that go with the planets: 水金地火木土天海(冥)

great - thank you Rich. How do you say milky way galaxy?

Milky Way - 银河 yínhé

Here is a list of the solar system's moons, I compiled a while ago. * Moons of Mars - 火星的卫星 huŏxīng de wèixīng * 火卫一 huŏwèi yī - Phobos * 火卫二 huŏwèi èr - Deimos * Moons of Jupiter - 木星的卫星 mùxīng de wèixīng * 木卫一 mùwèi yī (also 艾奥 àiào) - Io * 木卫二 mùwèi èr (also 欧罗巴 ōuluóbā) - Europa * 木卫三 mùwèi sān (also 盖尼米得 gàinímĭde) - Ganymede * 木卫四 mùwèi sì (also 卡利斯托 kălìsītuō) - Callisto * 木卫五 mùwèi wŭ (also 阿曼尔提亚 āmànĕrtíyà) - Amalthea * 木卫六 mùwèi liù (also 希马利亚 xīmălìyà) - Himalia * 木卫七 mùwèi qī (also 艾拉华 àilāhuá) - Elara * 木卫八 mùwèi bā (also 帕西法尔 pàxīfăĕr) - Pasiphaë * 木卫九 mùwèi jiŭ (also 希诺佩 xīnuòpèi) - Sinope * 木卫十 mùwèi shí (also 丽西提亚 lìxītíyà) - Lysithea * 木卫十一 mùwèi shíyī (also 加尔尼 jiāĕrní) - Carme * 木卫十二 mùwèi shíèr (also 安纳金 ānnàjīn) - Ananke * 木卫十三 mùwèi shísān (also 雷塔 léită) - Leda * 木卫十四 mùwèi shísì (also 亚特斯提尔 yàtésītíĕr) - Thebe * 木卫十五 mùwèi shíwŭ (also 阿德拉斯蒂尔 àdélāsīdìĕr) - Adrastea * 木卫十六 mùwèi shíliù (also 墨提斯 mòtísī) - Metis * 木卫十七 mùwèi shíqī - Callirrhoe * 木卫十八 mùwèi shíbā - Themisto * 木卫十九 mùwèi shíjiŭ - Megaclite * 木卫二十 mùwèi èrshí - Taygete * 木卫二十一 mùwèi èrshíyī - Chaldene * 木卫二十二 mùwèi èrshíèr - Harpalyke * 木卫二十三 mùwèi èrshísān - Kalyke * 木卫二十四 mùwèi èrshísì - Iocaste * 木卫二十五 mùwèi èrshíwŭ - Erinome * 木卫二十六 mùwèi èrshíliù - Isonoe * 木卫二十七 mùwèi èrshíqī - Praxidike * 木卫二十八 mùwèi èrshíbā - Autonoe * 木卫二十九 mùwèi èrshíjiŭ - Thyone * 木卫三十 mùwèi sānshí - Hermippe * 木卫三十一 mùwèi sānshíyī - Aitne * 木卫三十二 mùwèi sānshíèr - Eurydome * 木卫三十三 mùwèi sānshísān - Euanthe * 木卫三十四 mùwèi sānshísì - Euporie * 木卫三十五 mùwèi sānshíwŭ - Orthosie * 木卫三十六 mùwèi sānshíliù - Sponde * 木卫三十七 mùwèi sānshíqī - Kale * 木卫三十八 mùwèi sānshíbā - Pasithee * 木卫三十九 mùwèi sānshíjiŭ - Hegemone * 木卫四十 mùwèi sìshí - Mneme * 木卫四十一 mùwèi sìshíyī - Aoede * 木卫四十二 mùwèi sìshíèr - Thelxinoe * 木卫四十三 mùwèi sìshísān - Arche * 木卫四十四 mùwèi sìshísì - Kallichore * 木卫四十五 mùwèi sìshíwŭ - Helike * 木卫四十六 mùwèi sìshíliù - Carpo * 木卫四十七 mùwèi sìshíqī - Eukelade * 木卫四十八 mùwèi sìshíbā - Cyllene S/2003 J 9 to S/2003 J 23 are currently unnamed * Moons of Saturn - 土星的卫星 tŭxīng de wèixīng * 土卫一 tŭwèi yī (also 美马斯 mĕimăsī) - Mimas * 土卫二 tŭwèi èr (also 恩克拉多斯 ēnkèlāduōsī) - Enceladus * 土卫三 tŭwèi sān (also 特提斯 tétísī) - Tethys * 土卫四 tŭwèi sì (also 狄俄涅 díéniè) - Dione * 土卫五 tŭwèi wŭ (also 雷亚 léiyà) - Rhea * 土卫六 tŭwèi liù (also 泰坦 tàităn) - Titan * 土卫七 tŭwèi qī (also 许珀里翁 xŭpòlĭwēng) - Hyperion * 土卫八 tŭwèi bā (also 伊阿珀托斯 yīàpòtuōsī) - Iapetus * 土卫九 tŭwèi jiŭ (also 菲比 fēibì) - Phoebe * 土卫十 tŭwèi shí (also 杰纳斯 jiénàsī) - Janus * 土卫十一 tŭwèi shíyī (also 埃庇米修斯 āibìmĭxiūsī) - Epimetheus * 土卫十二 tŭwèi shíèr (also 海琳 hăilín) - Helene * 土卫十三 tŭwèi shísān (also 泰莱斯托 tàiláisītuō) - Telesto * 土卫十四 tŭwèi shísì (also 卡吕普索 kălǚpŭsuŏ) - Calypso * 土卫十五 tŭwèi shíwŭ (also 阿特拉斯 àtélāsī) - Atlas * 土卫十六 tŭwèi shíliù (also 普洛米修斯 pŭluòmĭxiūsī) - Prometheus * 土卫十七 tŭwèi shíqī (also 潘多拉 pānduōlā) - Pandora * 土卫十八 tŭwèi shíbā (also 潘 pān) - Pan * 土卫十九 tŭwèi shíjiŭ (also 伊米尔 yīmĭĕr) - Ymir * 土卫二十 tŭwèi èrshí - Paaliaq * 土卫二十一 tŭwèi èrshíyī - Tarvos * 土卫二十二 tŭwèi èrshíèr - Ijiraq * 土卫二十三 tŭwèi èrshísān - Suttungr * 土卫二十四 tŭwèi èrshísì - Kiviuq * 土卫二十五 tŭwèi èrshíwŭ - Mundilfari * 土卫二十六 tŭwèi èrshíliù - Albiorix * 土卫二十七 tŭwèi èrshíqī - Skathi * 土卫二十八 tŭwèi èrshíbā - Erriapo * 土卫二十九 tŭwèi èrshíjiŭ - Siarnaq * 土卫三十 tŭwèi sānshí - Thrymr * 土卫三十一 tŭwèi sānshíyī - Narvi * 土卫三十二 tŭwèi sānshíèr - Methone * 土卫三十三 tŭwèi sānshísān - Pallene * 土卫三十四 tŭwèi sānshísì - Polydeuces * 土卫三十五 tŭwèi sānshíwŭ - Daphnis S/2004 S 6 to S/2004 S 18 are currently unnamed * Moons of Uranus - 天王星的卫星 tiānwángxīng de wèixīng * 天卫一 tiānwèi yī - Ariel * 天卫二 tiānwèi èr - Umbriel * 天卫三 tiānwèi sān - Titania * 天卫四 tiānwèi sì - Oberon * 天卫五 tiānwèi wŭ - Miranda * 天卫六 tiānwèi liù - Cordelia * 天卫七 tiānwèi qī - Ophelia * 天卫八 tiānwèi bā - Bianca * 天卫九 tiānwèi jiŭ - Cressida * 天卫十 tiānwèi shí - Desdemona * 天卫十一 tiānwèi shíyī - Juliet * 天卫十二 tiānwèi shíèr - Portia * 天卫十三 tiānwèi shísān - Rosalind * 天卫十四 tiānwèi shísì - Belinda * 天卫十五 tiānwèi shíwŭ - Puck * 天卫十六 tiānwèi shíliù - Caliban * 天卫十七 tiānwèi shíqī - Sycorax * 天卫十八 tiānwèi shíbā - Prospero * 天卫十九 tiānwèi shíjiŭ - Setebos * 天卫二十 tiānwèi èrshí - Stephano * 天卫二十一 tiānwèi　èrshíyī - Trinculo * 天卫二十二 tiānwèi　èrshíèr - Francisco * 天卫二十三 tiānwèi　èrshísān - Margaret * 天卫二十四 tiānwèi　èrshísì - Ferdinand * 天卫二十五 tiānwèi　èrshíwŭ - Perdita * 天卫二十六 tiānwèi　èrshíliù - Mab * 天卫二十七 tiānwèi　èrshíqī - Cupid 　 * Moons of Neptune - 海王星的卫星 hăiwángxīng de wèixīng * 海卫一 hăiwèi yī - Triton * 海卫二 hăiwèi èr - Nereid * 海卫三 hăiwèi sān - Naiad * 海卫四 hăiwèi sì - Thalassa * 海卫五 hăiwèi wŭ - Despina * 海卫六 hăiwèi liù - Galatea * 海卫七 hăiwèi qī - Larissa * 海卫八 hăiwèi bā - Proteus * 海卫十 hăiwèi shí - Psamathe S/2002 N 1 to S/2002 N 4 are currently unnamed * Moons of Pluto - 冥王星的卫星 míngwángxīng de wèixīng * 冥卫一 míngwèi yī (also 卡戎 kăróng) - Charon * 冥卫二 míngwèi èr (also 尼克斯 níkèsī) - Nix * 冥卫三 míngwèi sān (also 许德拉 xŭdélā) - Hydra

Wow, thanks, Rich! Very useful. It would have been good if we could have included this kind of thing in the lesson, but we can't include anything. Good thing we have helpful users like you! :)

不敢当 ;) And users like Bazza, who just listed hundreds of moons I don't know about. :P How does a Chinese person remember which moon is the first, the second, the third... the 20th? :P Are they in order by size, or how we found them? And how do so many moons for one planet not collide? What an amazing, organized system we live in.

I can just now see the degree Bazza will take this Stargazing ploy too... "Hey baby, have you ever seen 木卫四十五? (due to modern science, we can now see it with the eye, etc. etc.) Let me tell you about it... and its 47 siblings..." Zzzzz..... ;)

It seems clear to me that the Chinese names for Uranus, Neptune and Pluto are all modern translation, using a cultural cross-over and they're referring to western ancient mythology. Much more interesting the names for Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn, all visible by a naked eye. No question about the first three, for their colour, brightness or appearence. I'm only wandering how ancient could be the name 木星 mùxīng: Jupiter, and also 土星 tǔxīng: Saturn; of course you can see them very clearly, and you could say that Jupiter is very brighgt indeed, but I fear that a naked eye could say very few more about its colour or what else. So my question is: anyone of you knows clearly how ancient are these two planets Chinese name? I also want to notice one more thing, the most astonishing indeed: the fact is that the name of our beloved planet, 地球 dìqiú (without any doubt a very ancient one) it unequivocally shows tha fact that ancient Chinese culture was fully aware of the spherical shape of the Earth!! If you think that it's a little thing, well,try to consider how was lost this aknowledge from the ancient Greek culture in Western culture for many centuries during the Middle Ages, and how difficult was to reject all the strange teories about the "flatness" of the Earth, to eventually return to the correct one!! I hope to be enough clear... Let me only propose again this link: http://www.stellarium.org/ you can freely download a beautiful and usefull program that shows the sky, with a huge number of stars, planets, nebulas, and many others. You can choose the time, you can make it run faster or slower, you can choose the place from which you want to simulate the stargazing. And also you can shows the constellation of different cultural zone. (same stars are framed not only with different names, but in different patterns, structures. Definitely I've learned a lot about sky, stars, planets etc., Have a try! ciao michele.

rich, I think they're usually in order of distance from the planet, although obivously newly discovered ones will have to be added at the end of the list.