It is kind of hard to understand- I got used to the stately march of the stars across the sky as the year went by as a kid- had to, to figure out what would be available to look at if I took my 'scope out that night. And this was in the days before sky map programs for personal computers; indeed, before personal computers. I remember one particularly helpful book for beginning stargazers that contained a series of pictures showing what the sky should look like if you looked in a given direction at a stated time in the middle of each month (in the middle latitudes of the Northern Hemisphere, of course).

I haven't stargazed in years, but I still notice the changes in the night sky over the course of the year; seeing an "old buddy" move through the sky with the changing seasons remains a pleasant feature of life in the unfashionable end of the Galactic arm.

How anyone could reach adulthood and remain oblivious to this, or how it relates to our orbital motion, or how the notion that we're stuck in our December orbital postion is completely and perfectly disproved by the fact that you don't see Orion in mid-sky at a suitable time for skywatching on a school night- is an utter mystery to me.

Not to mention a considerable bummer.