Family astronomy time!
October 14, 2010 7:32 AM Subscribe
Family astronomy activities?
My wife and young kids (8 and 10) are interested in learning about astronomy together. We are also technophiles so I'd like to hear about learning activities on our mac, iphones, or pcs that we could use to enhance and learn more about astronomy. I wanna make it engrossing! thanks
My wife and young kids (8 and 10) are interested in learning about astronomy together. We are also technophiles so I'd like to hear about learning activities on our mac, iphones, or pcs that we could use to enhance and learn more about astronomy. I wanna make it engrossing! thanks
Distant Suns is a great tool for the iphone. The Heaven's Above website helps you track satellites, including my favorites, iridium flares.
posted by TDIpod at 7:47 AM on October 14, 2010
posted by TDIpod at 7:47 AM on October 14, 2010
I would highly recommend buying a cheap pair of binoculars. I bought these and they make the sky simply gorgeous. Finding the Andromeda galaxy with the binoculars (even though it's just a blurry blotch) was incredibly exciting.
posted by spaghettification at 8:07 AM on October 14, 2010
posted by spaghettification at 8:07 AM on October 14, 2010
I'm fond of Star Walk for the iPhone. I'm a total amateur, and it helped me find a bunch of neat objects viewable with just binoculars (and a clear night) - Andromeda, the Pleiades, the moons of Jupiter, and more.
Don't forget to tell your kids about the history of astronomy - navigation, the Greeks, Galileo, Kepler, up to modern exploration and travel. That can help bring things into context.
posted by Wulfhere at 8:08 AM on October 14, 2010
Don't forget to tell your kids about the history of astronomy - navigation, the Greeks, Galileo, Kepler, up to modern exploration and travel. That can help bring things into context.
posted by Wulfhere at 8:08 AM on October 14, 2010
The Leonid meteor showers are coming up next month. This is a great excuse to go outside [or find someplace dark, depending where you live] and crash out on lawnchairs with sleeping bags, warm clothes and thermoses of hot drinks and talk about why we have regular meteor showers. I have the Planets app (beware of imitators) for my iphone and I find it really useful when I'm having that "what's that thing in the sky?" questions. NASA has a ton of different ways to interact with them technologically including following tweeting astronauts, watching live ustream feeds, etc. They also have a Kid's Club online which you might find useful. I went to a panel of space enthusiats including some folks from NASA at SXSW called Moon 2.0 (summary here) and this is really a direction they are heading in, trying to be more interactive.
However, the easiest thing you can do is just go outside and look at the night sky and talk about it. Why is that star different from that other one? What does it mean that the really bright star comes up in the evening and is still visible in the early morning? How can you tell if you're seeing a satellite or a plane? Why do some stars twinkle? How far away are the things we're looking at. If you can get somewhere so dark that you can see the Milky Way it can really be a transformative experience.
posted by jessamyn at 8:25 AM on October 14, 2010
However, the easiest thing you can do is just go outside and look at the night sky and talk about it. Why is that star different from that other one? What does it mean that the really bright star comes up in the evening and is still visible in the early morning? How can you tell if you're seeing a satellite or a plane? Why do some stars twinkle? How far away are the things we're looking at. If you can get somewhere so dark that you can see the Milky Way it can really be a transformative experience.
posted by jessamyn at 8:25 AM on October 14, 2010
I'm not sure where you live, but if you're like most of us, you probably don't live under truly dark skies. Probably the best thing you can do for your kids is to go somewhere where they can see the Milky Way and more stars than they've ever seen in their life. Sometimes an hour outside the city is all you need. Bring a blanket and a pair of binoculars. Lie back and watch for satellites and shooting stars.
Even better if you have a nice view to the South, towards Sagittarius (it looks like a teapot with a handle, lid, and spout), because there's a lot of cool stuff in that direction and it's a very thick part of the Milky Way.
Even with the cheapest telescopes you should be able to see some nice detail on the Moon, the rings of Saturn, and at least four moons of Jupiter. Seeing Saturn for the first time blew my mind.
One of the best astronomy books for kids is Find The Constellations, by H.A. Rey. You know him, he's, the Curious George guy. My son has had it since he was four and he still enjoys it. It has very clear explanations about magnitude and other basic concepts. It's a bit dated ("someday, men will go to the Moon") but the important stuff still applies.
Keep an eye out for when the ISS passes over head. There's something magical about knowing the exact time and direction to look for it and *bang* there it is. It really shows just how exact orbital mechanics and other space stuff can be.
Just knowing the wonder of it all is enough. Try to give them a sense of scale. If there's a Model Solar System anywhere near you, go explore it. Show them a Powers of Ten film film on Youtube or an exhibit at a museum.
Have fun!
posted by bondcliff at 8:36 AM on October 14, 2010
Even better if you have a nice view to the South, towards Sagittarius (it looks like a teapot with a handle, lid, and spout), because there's a lot of cool stuff in that direction and it's a very thick part of the Milky Way.
Even with the cheapest telescopes you should be able to see some nice detail on the Moon, the rings of Saturn, and at least four moons of Jupiter. Seeing Saturn for the first time blew my mind.
One of the best astronomy books for kids is Find The Constellations, by H.A. Rey. You know him, he's, the Curious George guy. My son has had it since he was four and he still enjoys it. It has very clear explanations about magnitude and other basic concepts. It's a bit dated ("someday, men will go to the Moon") but the important stuff still applies.
Keep an eye out for when the ISS passes over head. There's something magical about knowing the exact time and direction to look for it and *bang* there it is. It really shows just how exact orbital mechanics and other space stuff can be.
Just knowing the wonder of it all is enough. Try to give them a sense of scale. If there's a Model Solar System anywhere near you, go explore it. Show them a Powers of Ten film film on Youtube or an exhibit at a museum.
Have fun!
posted by bondcliff at 8:36 AM on October 14, 2010
Stellarium is an excellent free planisphere/planetarium application that runs on Macs, showing what the sky looks like from your location. Click on any celestial object and it'll provide the name (whether it's a star, planet, or other celestial object) and other information. Celestia is another free planetarium app that lets you fly through space and view planetary orbits.
What I enjoyed most growing up though was keeping track of meteor showers and learning about telescopes. You could also look up a local observatory or astronomy club and find out about public observing nights and planetarium shows. Virtually any major university will have an astronomy club that does this sort of thing.
posted by mnemonic at 8:55 AM on October 14, 2010
What I enjoyed most growing up though was keeping track of meteor showers and learning about telescopes. You could also look up a local observatory or astronomy club and find out about public observing nights and planetarium shows. Virtually any major university will have an astronomy club that does this sort of thing.
posted by mnemonic at 8:55 AM on October 14, 2010
When I was a kid, my dad took my sister and me to a workshop put on by our university's astronomy department. We built our own telescopes and learned about how light bends. Then we learned a bit about astronomy and the position of the stars in the sky. We also went outside to use our homemade telescopes to check out the surface of the moon and some dimmer stars. Was quite memorable, I had that telescope for a long time and even made it into a science fair project. You could get your kids to build their own telescopes at home :)
posted by lizbunny at 10:49 AM on October 14, 2010
posted by lizbunny at 10:49 AM on October 14, 2010
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posted by MustardTent at 7:37 AM on October 14, 2010