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Dad and Son's First Observing Session

Coco

By Coco
in Observing - Deep Sky

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Coco

Coco

Posted
Posted

First Real Observing Session.

10PM Preston Lancs

The sky was very odd, there was a distinct blanket of cloud running west to east right over head.

I was joined by my 8 year old son at 10:00PM typically using his Dad as a cover to try and stay out later as his Mum had told him to come in for a bath.

I punched in M13 on the hand set as it was the closet Messier to the cloud edge, thinking it would be the first casualty of the evening.. Hearing Wife shouting for my Lad I quickly found him a scope box to stand on, Asking what he could see..

(Son)Stars he said...

(Me)anything else... I asked him

Hoping he would use his 8 year old eye’s to see what I’d just focused on.. after all he misses little else :)

(Son)Well........ (He’s not one for embarrassing himself) ‘

(Me) Well go on (I asked, feeling the wrath of his mothers tongue for keeping her waiting... )

(Son)There is something...

Pause..

(Me) Go on

(Son)It’s sort of ... well like a spider nest

(Me)Great!! Well done lad!

I explained what it was looking at.. Whilst his eyes were tuned in I quickly slewed to M82 and checked the eyepiece...

(Me) there ya go .. now what can you see .

His little eye peeped through the eyepiece and he once again paused..

(Son) There’s more stars dad...

(Me)Good... and like before only are there any faint things?

PAUSE.........

(Son) well there are 2 things...

(Me) Oh really?.. two slightly different shapes I bet?..

(Son) ‘’Yeh’’

PAUSE ...

(Me) harder isn’t it .. (Giving his confidence a tweak)

(Son) Yep.. There’s a long thin one and a round one..

Success! Son has 3 Messier under his belt and his mother still not outside with the rolling pin..

Right lets get cracking... M31!.. He was already practically pushing me away from the eyepiece as I checked the target ..

(Son)Right Dad.. I can see another of those spider webs

Explaining to him it was another Galaxy like M81/82 previously..

(Son) Wow its massive and very bright.. Why are they not colourful?

Not wishing to push him of the scope box :DI was about to explain when his mum came outside, I explained the situation and amazingly she shuffled off back indoors ( Big Shop Tomorrow I thought?)

Next up was NGC 869/884 Double clusters..

By this time the lad was getting cold but he did explain quite graphically what he was seeing in the doubles... then he also explained how if he shut his eye for a second more stars seemed to appear better and then fade..

We then got a laser Pen and I pointed to the Plough ( Ursa Major ) asking him if any stars had companions he quickly spotted Mizar ...

Next I explained how to find the North star using the pointers, at this point his mum came out and wasn’t so forgiving.. In a flash he gave mum a proud lesson on how to find the North Star! ...

(Wife) Oh that’s really Good.. BATH!!

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MjrTom

MjrTom

Posted
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Excellent :)

I really look forward to being able to share these experiences with my kids when they are older. (my only child is 6 months old so a bit young yet!)

Spiders nests.. a really cool way to describe them, gotta love kids :D

Thank for sharing it with us :(

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carastro

carastro

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Excellent. My grandsons are 7 and 5 and my daughter took them to the planetarium a few weeks ago which I think grabbed their attention. They did have a look at the Moon through my scope last week, so I guess I might be showing the oldest one a few more interesting things soon on the basis of your observing session.

Carole

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michael.h.f.wilkinson

michael.h.f.wilkinson

Posted
Posted
Didn't they just outlaw various forms of water torture?

Bath's only count as torture if either:

- The water is hotter than 43 C

- The water is colder than 10 C

- You are a dog

- You are a little kid

In the latter case, it is no longer torture once you are IN the bath. It is then torture when you have to get out.:)

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WayBig

WayBig

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Sounds like a great session, I bet your son enjoyed it all the more because he knew his mum didn't want him out there.

I remember showing my son Saturn at 6am one morning, 'WOW' he exclaimed, "mummy should see this". I told him he would be braver than me if he wanted to wake his mum up at 6am on a cold winter morning!

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JamesF

JamesF

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I set up the ST102 and so my son could see Saturn just before he went to bed on his birthday in April, which was the cause of major excitement. Now I've made solar filters for both the ST102 and ST120 he loves being able to go out and use the 102 whilst I use the 120. My daughter does as well actually, but being only six it's quite often hard to be sure she's really seeing what I'm showing her.

He's a bit of an evil little sod if he doesn't get enough sleep, so I've not let him stay up late enough to look at the stars yet, but I look forward to being able to do so as the nights draw in a bit more. He's quite excited about the idea of having our own observatory, too.

James

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Sam

Sam

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Sounds like a great session, I don't think there's much better in astronomy than sharing it with someone else. My boy is 7 and he's very interested in all things to do with space and he's always very keen to look in the eyepiece.

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mag10

mag10

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What a great story!

I loved every word!

Last November I invited my co-worker and her two daughters (10 and 6) for an evening of stargazing.

Here is a drawing of Jupiter and Uranus made by Elizaveta (the 10 yr old)...3 months later!

Mind you, we could'nt see Jupiter and Uranus together, but this is their exact relative positions at the time!

Kids.

They can amaze you with how much they actually "get"!

post-27113-133877648259_thumb.jpg

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  • 2 weeks later...
JimStan

JimStan

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Posted

I can remember taking my Grandson out to see a waxing crescent moon when he was about 4 years old. First I pointed it out to him, up there in the sky, and then I drew his attention to the image in the eyepiece of my little Meade ETX-90 . His remark, "It's BACKWARDS ! ! ! " Pretty astute observation for a 4 year old, I would say !

Great story of an exceptionally fine experience!

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