Showing the children the stars
While cycling home from work this evening it struck me how clear the sky was; signalling not only the coming of winter, but also of opportunities to get the telescope out once more (or at least, to get the telescope out at a sensible hour).
After dinner each of our children trooped out into the frosty air of our back garden, and took a look at the Moon, and Jupiter. Only the eldest really understood what she was looking at – I think we may now have an amateur astronomer on our hands.
While doing it, I pointed our tiny point-and-shoot camera down the telescope eyepiece. Hardly scientific, but the results were pretty spectacular;
The Moon
Jupiter and it’s moons
Apologies for the camera shake, and lack of focus – through the telescope they are pin sharp, blow-torch bright, and incredibly impressive. I really must buy a camera mount, and a manual focus lens.
(For the technically minded people out there, the telescope is an F8 4.5″ Newtonian reflector, and had a 15mm eye piece in)
Some of my fondest memories of childhood were watching science shows, particularly about space, with my father, who was a science teacher before he retired. :)
I came across this today and it made me hugely happy. :)
http://www.symphonyofscience.com/
this is great! my mother used to “force” us to go out to the country with her to set up the telescope. I knew more about astronomy than any other kid my age! It’s so fun though. And your pictures are excellent!
I never really “got” science until I had already left school. Had a good math tutor when I was about 17, and everything changed…
I wonder if (good) teachers really know how many lives they have changed ?
In typical nerdy fashion, I just installed Astronomy software on my netbook to figure out which moon was which near Jupiter – might have to upload the screenshot later :)