According to the official Handbook of the Boy Scouts, if you are a Scout and want to win a merit badge for starcraft, you must
(1) Have a general knowledge of the nature of the stars and planets.
(a) By the nature of the stars and planets is meant their colors and what they are made of. Their sizes and their distances from the Earth in a general way may also be included.
(b) It is easy to tell the color of both the stars and the planets by looking at them, or by looking them up in the foregoing chapters.
(c) The spectroscope shows that the stars are made of metals and gases and other substances which we have on Earth. The planets are probably made of the same kinds of metals, gases and substances as those which form the Earth, but there is no way of proving this, for the planets shine by reflected light, and in this case the spectroscope is of little use.
(d) The stars are known to be suns as large or larger than our Sun; while the planets are about as large as our Earth—some smaller and some larger.
(e) All of the planets are within 2,800 millions of miles of the Earth, while the nearest star, except our Sun, is 25 trillions of miles from the Earth, or 8,000 times as far away.
(2) Have a general knowledge of the movements of the stars and planets.
(a) While all the stars revolve in orbits and are moving through space at high speed, they are so far away from us that they seem to be fixed and for all practical purposes they may be considered to be fixed in their positions.
(b) All the planets turn on their own axes and travel in orbits round the Sun.