Hi Tony,

I work with Children at the scope all the time at the Mapleton observatory, I also have a 7 year daughter and my wife is a professional child care worker with 21 years experience under her belt. (She provides me with professional guidance when working with kids at the observatory)

My opinion is this, children love space but not the kind you see through a telescope, they are interested for about 10 seconds per year of there age until they are 11 or 12 (then they discover hormones). Expecting a 3 year old to even guage eye relief is unrealistic as much as you want him to see well he just wont get it or he will tell you he see's in an attempt to please dad. Give him time and dont bore him with it now, you will turn him off it by the time he is old enough to enjoy it. Your 7 year old will only enjoy the wow factor objects like moon and saturn but nebula etc will be boring, they just dont see what we see or think the same way we think about it, Children can not guage perceptual distance until they are about 8 years old, this is why they get hit by cars so often, they certainly wont understand light years etc., granted that there are the gifted and talented kids out there but mostly they are at the eyepiece to please you. I am willing to bet though that when they are in their 30's they will both take a renewed interest in it because dad did. 95% of all astronomers, amateur or professional are older than 40, it's just life and as much as I want my daughter interested she just isn't. having said that, I dont get much out of playing barbie dolls either. cheers, Dennis.