If he is serious about a possible career as an astrophysicist, then I'd introduce him to spectroscopy.
You can get a star analyser grating and mount it on front of your DSLR lens and obtain useable spectra. Spectroscopy 101.
Astrophysicists very seldom even look through telescopes! they look at the data collected by others.
Seriously, by all means have fun learning about the sky, the constellations, the brighter stars and the beautiful nebulae visible in our southern sky, but think about how you can/could support the youngster in his scientific journey.
http://www.astronomicalspectroscopy.com/analysis.html