Six Sights For Kids
The laid-back days of summer vacation are an ideal time to introduce children to astronomy. Sure, many kids hear about exotica like the Big Bang and superstring theory on TV. But too few enjoy the primal wonder of seeing the real universe first hand. If you get a chance, show a kid around the night sky this summer. They’ll never forget it. Here are six sights to get you started.
The Basics
• The Summer Milky Way. You need dark clear sky, a blanket to lie on, and that’s about it. The knotted star clouds and dark nebulae never fail to astonish. City kids can’t believe there are so many stars.
• The Moon. Use a telescope at moderate power, at or before first quarter. Look along on the terminator– the dividing line between night and day. Smooth dark lunar seas and the long shadows cast by crater walls and towering mountains reveal a whole new world.
• A meteor shower. Everyone should see the Perseid meteor shower, which peaks near August 12. The anticipation of meteors suddenly streaking across the sky is better entertainment than any TV show. The more southerly delta Aquarids, in late July, aren’t bad either.
A Deeper Look
• Saturn. Many amateurs get hooked after their first look at Saturn through a telescope. If you have good optics, challenge a child to see the Cassini division of the rings. And don’t forget Titan, Saturn’s largest moon. Covered with lakes of natural gas and a dense atmosphere of nitrogen and hydrocarbons, some scientists think it harbors the building blocks of life.
• Open star clusters. Homes to blazing young stars, the sight of an open star cluster gives a first hand introduction to stellar evolution. These are better for older kids who have the patience to learn to look through an eyepiece. Try M11 in Scutum.
• A galaxy. Take your pick: M81, M31, etc. Fire a kid’s imagination by showing them close to a trillion stars at one time.
A Bit of History
Mark Twain’s young protagonist Huck Finn was an amateur cosmologist who recalled his nights spent looking at the sky with his friend Jim: “We had the sky up there, all speckled with stars, and we used to lay on our backs and look up at them, and discuss about whether they was made or only just happened.”
Personal View
Yes, the big questions are important: how did the universe start, how old is it, and how will it all end. But it’s all so abstract. Not until a kid looks up and sees a sky full of stars will they get an instinctive appreciation for nature on its grandest scale.
