kids

[ving (David)]

We currently have a niece staying over for a few days and entertainer is left up to my daughter...

last night it was clear so i took my scope out. she hovered over me all the way out the door!
"whats that?"
"its a telescope..."
" "
"wht are you doing?"
"going outside to look at stuff come and have a look"
"nah, i'll stay in thanks..."

later that night when saturn was at at least 15degrees I moved the scope around the front of the house and she saw me move past the front door...

"what are you doing now?"
"looking at saturn"

she comes out side, her intrest rising...

"oh really? where?"
"just above that tree there" pointing
"no way, thats a star not saturn!!!"
"come look then!"

she looks in the EP then i cant drag her away from it...
she looks at the small glimmering object, then back in the EP again...

"you painted that on the telescope didnt you!!!!"
"no, thats really saturn"

I spend the next 20 mins showing her m42 and explaining what it is, pleiades (sp?), various constellations, eta carinae and some open clusters.
here is our future

she said she has a telescope at home but doesnt know how to use it... think i'll have to pop down and show her one day


doesnt it give you the warm 'n fuzzies showing kids this stuff?

the seeing wasnt even that good, saturn wobbled terribly but it was good enough for her

[iceman (Mike)]

ahh nice, the first view of Saturn, will never be forgotten.

How old is she?

I showed my neighbours and their kids (13 and 10) through my telescope on Saturday night, showed them the moon, M42 and Comet Maccholz.

They wer suitably impressed, but I can't wait to be able to show them the planets when they're high enough at night.

[ving (David)]

she's 12. I decided to show her bright stuff. didnt think faint fuzzies would get her excited

[Saturn%5 (Graeme)]

Great Stuff Ving.
Had a similar thing happen when we had a telecope night at school, We were meant to have about 15 people that includes kids , ended up with about 80 or so the kids loved Saturn and now there are telscopes getting pulled out of storage that have never even seen the moon.

[jackenau]

Good story Ving, can relate well to it.

A couple of weeks ago had the grandson over, he is 11. I was outside just scanning the skys, waiting till later in the evening (early morning) to try and find saturn.

He is a bit of a night owl and until then could not get him interested. Anyhow he came outside to say he was going to sleep around the same time as I found and focused on Saturn. He had a quick look, and that was it, he was hooked, we spent at least another hour or so just scanning the sky, focussing on all the usual easy observations, before getting clouded out.

Last night he was over and the parents were with him, from the moment he got there, he was in charge. He gave his parents an inspection of the moon followed by Orion and M42, Drifting back to Plaides and then encouraging his parents to stay until 11pm as he was sure Saturn would be up around then. (I had shown him how to see what is where, using sky and telescope observing site and it seems to be pretty spot on).

Anyhow we have limited viewing low in the sky, particularly easterly due to the trees, but sure enough just after 11 he spotted this bright star just above tree line and sure enough it was saturn.

Everyone was amazed and impressed, at his recently aquired skill.

We have 6 other (younger) grandchildren, and all love to look through the telescope, problem is they always just want to see the moon and get disappointed when it just isn't there.

Kenm

[iceman (Mike)]

It's amazing how Saturn has that effect on kids.. I think it's the only stellar object that has that effect the way it does.

And that's just not limited to the kids.. even adults, their first look at Saturn just blows people away.

Even when people expect a hubble like view, and instead, they see a tiny little yellow circle with 2 little yellow "handles" on each side, it still reinforces the size of things, puts things into perspective.