Twokids
09-01-2006, 11:58 PM
Hi all,
I have been busy converting my relatives to the wonderful hobby of amateur astronomy :stargaze: .
I organised a get together for my parents-in-law, brothers and sisters-in-law and their kids so they could have a look through my telescopes. All but one had never looked through a telescope before.
I set up my daughters 60mm refractor, 3inch reflector, 4.5inch reflector and 10inch dob for them to look through.
Boy was I proud of my 5 year old daughter :2thumbs: . She took her older cousins aside and showed them how to use the little telescope to look at the moon, pointed out Mars and Orion to them and could name a few of the brighter stars. I had no idea that she had retained that much information.
I left the 3 and 4.5inch scopes with some EP's so the adults could move them around and play with the EP's and get a feel for how it all works. Everyone had a lot of trouble with the equatorial mount though. They really aren't designed for newbies. If I set it up on something though, most of them could work out how to use the slow motion controls to keep it in the eyepiece for long enough to have a good look.
I spent the night showing everyone things that could be seen in the big dob.They were impressed with the view of the moon at the start, but then I moved on to things like the orion neb and 47tuc and they were awestruck. Later on in the night Saturn was high enough for viewing. That had people fighting over the eyepiece:eyepop: . They just couldn't get over the fact that they were looking at another planet.
The night ended at 1.30am when someone realised how long we had been out there, and they had to be up for work in 6 hours. Welcome to astronomy!!!
I have a feeling that there might be a few new telescopes in the family over the coming months ;) . A few of the adults were asking about what telescopes they should consider looking at.
I might even have better luck convincing them to get me a shiny new EP instead of plants for the garden for my upcoming 30th birthday.
Anyway, just thought I would share. There's nothing better than seeing someones reaction to looking through a telescope for the first time:astron: .
I have been busy converting my relatives to the wonderful hobby of amateur astronomy :stargaze: .
I organised a get together for my parents-in-law, brothers and sisters-in-law and their kids so they could have a look through my telescopes. All but one had never looked through a telescope before.
I set up my daughters 60mm refractor, 3inch reflector, 4.5inch reflector and 10inch dob for them to look through.
Boy was I proud of my 5 year old daughter :2thumbs: . She took her older cousins aside and showed them how to use the little telescope to look at the moon, pointed out Mars and Orion to them and could name a few of the brighter stars. I had no idea that she had retained that much information.
I left the 3 and 4.5inch scopes with some EP's so the adults could move them around and play with the EP's and get a feel for how it all works. Everyone had a lot of trouble with the equatorial mount though. They really aren't designed for newbies. If I set it up on something though, most of them could work out how to use the slow motion controls to keep it in the eyepiece for long enough to have a good look.
I spent the night showing everyone things that could be seen in the big dob.They were impressed with the view of the moon at the start, but then I moved on to things like the orion neb and 47tuc and they were awestruck. Later on in the night Saturn was high enough for viewing. That had people fighting over the eyepiece:eyepop: . They just couldn't get over the fact that they were looking at another planet.
The night ended at 1.30am when someone realised how long we had been out there, and they had to be up for work in 6 hours. Welcome to astronomy!!!
I have a feeling that there might be a few new telescopes in the family over the coming months ;) . A few of the adults were asking about what telescopes they should consider looking at.
I might even have better luck convincing them to get me a shiny new EP instead of plants for the garden for my upcoming 30th birthday.
Anyway, just thought I would share. There's nothing better than seeing someones reaction to looking through a telescope for the first time:astron: .