Several years ago my husband got in to the hobby of astronomy quite by accident. We accompanied our son on a astronomy outreach that he had to participate in for a class he was taking. Our son's interest only went as far as a good grade. My husband on the other hand found a new interest and began following the dark sky with abandon.
We even have our own observatory in our back yard:-)
The club he belongs to is very active in educating the community and for the past year my husband has been in charge of setting up these out reaches.
Last night we went to one of our local elementary schools where they were having a science night.
The children rotated through different activities that were set up through out the school. The astronomy club members set up their telescopes in the parking lot and as the kids came through they were able to look through different scopes that were focused on various objects in the night sky.
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| My sweetie:-) |
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| Waiting a turn at a scope |
Students get a look at a 1 pound Asteroid
There were 8 members of the club set up with their scopes. This group does 25 or more out reaches a year to the Boy and Girl Scouts, school groups, homeschoolers, church groups, etc.
I think the thing that amazes me is how they can set up scopes that cost more money than I care to think about and they let kids of all ages use them. Even though over 300 hundred students and parents participated I never heard one complaint from the club members or one harsh word. And we know how rowdy little ones can be!
I did hear it said over and over how it makes it worthwhile when a kid looks through a scope and sees Jupiter and says "WOW!".
It was a fun night and I'm happy I could spend a few hours helping these children search the night sky. And maybe there was a budding astronomer among them!
If you'd like to learn more about astronomy and searching the dark skies check out Go Astronomy website to find an astronomy club near you.
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