The Night Sky

Looking at the night sky with your children is quite a treat. Stepping out into the dark evening sky is a thrill for children. Stopping to sit outdoors and look up at the stars on a clear evening is a joy that you and your children can share together. So grab the lawn chairs and a pair of binoculars and watch the excitement on your child's face as you have a family stargazing party. You can introduce the night sky to your children with books and flashlights in hand.

Astronomy is not something that requires expensive optical equipment to understand and enjoy. All you and your children need is a place to sit or lie down outside (preferably away from bright lights). If you have a pair of binoculars that is great, but don't worry if you don't have any yet-there's so much that can be seen with the naked eye.

When the stars begin to appear in the sky explain to your children that our sun is a star; it is so close to us that its light makes our bright day, and that the stars are also suns, but so far away that they look tiny and give us little light.

The night sky at first may look like a jumble of stars, but there is an easy way to make order out of what you are viewing in the sky. Together you and your child can begin to learn the constellations. The constellations are the way that peoples of ancient times found and identified patterns in the stars. They remembered the star groups by associating them with stories and legends. This technique has worked for thousands of years, and now you and your children can continue to use and enjoy the star constellations like the ancient Greeks and Romans.

A good place to begin your astronomy journey is with the Big Dipper, sometimes known as the Great Bear. After you learn this first constellation, you'll have a reference point that you can use to find other items of interest. For example, a line drawn through the two stars that form the outer edge of the Big Dipper's bowl can be extended to reach toward the North Star. If you follow that line onward from the North Star the same distance as it travels from the Big Dipper to the North Star, your eye will arrive at a stretched-out looking "W" that marks the constellation Cassiopeia. You and your child will find that little tricks like these will soon have you able to dart from feature to feature in the night sky. Check out a few children's astronomy books from the library and learn the constellations and their stories together with your children.

It is wonderful to teach your children how to find the North Star in this way. This method will be special to them and now they'll always have a compass available on any clear, star-lit night.

When your children have learned to navigate these pathways and have learned some fascinating stories from ancient mythology, they will look for some different star groups in the sky on their own. Lying back on the ground and staring up into the night sky will offer quite a show with "shooting stars" plummeting across your field of vision here and there. These are meteors, small bodies of rock that plunge from space into the Earth's atmosphere at tremendous speed. As they travel through the atmosphere their speed generates heat and light, creating the brilliant but short-lived trail across the sky; these are rock vapors. Early August is a special time to see the Perseid meteor showers, and then on October 19th you and your children can view the Orionids. On November 15th look for the Leonids. If you are lucky enough to see the height of the Perseid shower, meteors can appear at the rate of 70 per hour! What a sight!

Enjoying astronomy with just the naked eye can keep you and your children occupied for years. If you own an ordinary pair of binoculars, they will further enhance the wonders in the night sky. They will help you all to re-examine some of the constellations you have already learned.

The moon is such an exciting sight to examine through the binoculars. It's the only other "world" in the universe that we can easily see, and binoculars will let your children explore some of the features on its amazing surface. Dark areas known as seas can be distinguished, as can the impressive rayed crater named Tycho. This crater is 54 miles in diameter, but the streaks of material radiating out from it-remnants of the enormous meteorite impact that made the crater-extend over 25% of the visible hemisphere of the moon.

Stargazing is a lifelong adventure waiting for you and your child to explore it together. You can be the teacher who sparks an interest in your children's love of the night sky. Don't hesitate to get started on this wonderful, star-filled journey with your family tonight.