Kids at the Telecsope

Posted by Kelly Whitt Sep 1, 2007

The other night my kids had a sleepover at our house. There were two 4 year olds, a 5 year old, and two 6 year olds. I wanted to get my telescope out because Vesta was right next to Jupiter and I hadn't had a chance to see it yet. I aimed the telescope at Jupiter. All four of its moons were also on display that night. I called the kids out to see Jupiter. They seemed to see it but did not linger at the eyepiece. Fun was being had indoors.

I then got Vesta in the field of view and just called my son out. He is interested in astronomy and appreciative of the fact that he was seeing the fourth asteroid to be discovered. (And he could tell you as much, too.)

Then I decided to turn the telescope on the moon even though it was full. (Not the best time to observe the moon.) I put it on a lower magnification so the entire orb showed in the eyepiece. Then I brought out the kids again. The first child, a four-year-old, I had to help up onto a step stool to see into the eyepiece. Once he got there he stood quiet and still for quite a few moments. Which is a hard thing to get a four-year-old to do. Then the rest of the kids took their turns. They seemed to think it was pretty neat. I asked them if they could see the light and dark spots. One of the children described the moon as "crackly looking". I agreed that it was.

One of the first things they told their mom at pick up the next day was that they got to see the moon through the telescope. I considered it a successful first introduction to stargazing.