October 7th, 2011

I was comfortable watching a movie with Steven when the doorbell rang. After a few seconds, I could hear a series of knocks. I made my way to the door and three of my science students were standing there.

"Did you see the moon and the stars tonight Isabelle? We want to see it! Is your telescope out?" :rolleyes:

The fact that it wasn't and that I preferred returning to the comforts of the couch to see the rest of the movie is proof that my husband had finally found something on video that was worth my while. We were watching "Thor" in 3D and I was completely mesmerized by the science fiction special effects. I told my students to come a little later and right on time, when the movie had finished,.. they were there!

The students that make their way to my house on starry nights are usually boys. Unfortunately, in my class and in society in general, astronomy enthusiasts seem pretty much dominated by the Y chromosome. I say this because most people who enjoy discussing the wonders of the night sky with me and most of my contacts on my stargazing forum are all male. Seeing the inquisitiveness on these young girls' faces was a breath of fresh air to me.

They asked if they could see Vesta (Yeah, I had told them that I had found it earlier this week and my whole class had clapped) but the moon had whitewashed that whole section of the sky. Besides, even if it hadn't, by the time my movie was finished, it would have been too low in the horizon to see much in any case.

Like all the students that come to my house for the first time to look through the telescope, I quickly went over how it worked and then pointed out some constellations. I then showed them something small even if they kept insisting to see the moon. I explained that it was always wise to start with faint objects and make one's way to the brighter ones since, this way, a person retains their night vision longer.

M31 didn't impress them much. Their eyes became wider when I told them what it was and showed them a picture but I knew that this was clearly not what they wanted to see.

"What about Jupiter?" I said.

This they became quite excited about. I told these wide eyed girls that I would show it to them only IF they could find it in the night sky. They responded to this with an air of gloom.

"Come on,.. I know you can find it. Look up and point to me the brightest object in the sky besides the moon!"

This they did and were quite happy with themselves in having found it "all by themselves". One after the other they crowded around the telescope trying to see Jupiter and its four moons. One of my students had her iPod with her and wanted to take a picture of it. I helped her, knowing full well the excitement of 'bringing a piece of space home".

I proceeded to augment the magnification further with my Barlow lens and again the iPod came out for them to take pictures. I'm afraid that none of those will come out since I have had little success myself with my camera at this setting. They then asked what else they could see. Unfortunately with the light of the moon, there was little else I could show them. They offered to come by later since I had mentioned during class that Mars, Jupiter and Saturn could be seen in the early mornings. It was perfectly clear that I had succeeded in lighting a fire of curiosity but I couldn't do it. Staying up all night or waking up extremely early on a Saturday morning after a full week of teaching simply didn't "sit well by me".