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Sorry, I suck at this because I learned my constellations the old fashioned way off a paper chart with a red-light flashlight. (And I still highly recommend people learn their constellations over looking at a cell phone screen- your eyes adjust much better!)

The one I do recommend to everyone though is Sputnik! which is a free iOS app to track the space station. I'm playing around with Satellite Tracker right now to see if I like it, as it has more, but that's a subscription based one so I'm not sure yet. Otherwise, if you're not on iOS definitely get the heavens above Android app- frankly I wish they had an iOS version of that anyway as the website is great, and that's usually where I go to look up what satellite I saw!

Hi! Sorry, was traveling!

So true thing, I'm actually working on a paper about how we deal with Radio Frequency Interference (RFI, as it's known in radio astronomy lingo). The default technology we use is similar to what you found, in that we use algorithms to filter out RFI signals, but much more complex than that paper for the most part. My telescopes uses one called AOFlagger which is an algorithm that relies on thresholding (basically, finding islands of noise), various background fitting techniques, and other details like that. Overall it's pretty darn accurate. Overall you're probably only flagging about 2-4% of a data set for RFI usually at my radio telescope.

I can keep going into more detail if you want, but this is definitely a "how long is a piece of string" type thing for me, so let me know if you have further questions.

Check out IFTTT (If this then that.

You create "recipes". Events trigger automated responses. Compatible with smart bulbs.

For example,

If you receive an email then flash this light

Very easy to use.

Hi there,

Honestly, I'm not the best at this answer because I don't really have much personal experience in teaching this age range (I assume by younger children you mean like preschool to first grade type thing?). I will say though, a lot of planetariums and science centers do have shows aimed for different age levels, so I would check it out before writing them off!

But otherwise, I think the neatest thing to do with kids that age is just take them out and show them stuff. I have a 4 year old niece and when I visit we talk about why the moon goes through phases, I point out what planets there are in the sky and our favorites, how far stars are, etc. That's been pretty fun. :) Here is a good monthly sky map if you aren't sure what's up there. And if your kid is into dwarf planets, this book might be a good one!

As for how things are defined, the people in charge of what becomes a dwarf planet is the International Astronomical Union. You basically need to present evidence that your discovery fits the criteria, and then every few years they meet to update the list (I'm not sure about the details beyond that though).

Hope this helps, sorry I can't be of more use!

If anyone is interested in the history of cosmology, I'd recommend Discovering the Expanding Universe. It's a great book that discusses the long road to Big Bang cosmology and most of the important scientists who contributed.