Little ones and astronomy

[pixueto]

I am not sure where to post this thread so my apologies if this is not the right place.

I always wanted to own a telescope and do some amateur astronomy but up until last September I didn’t have the chance to take up this hobby. The main thing that got me started is my 4-year-old son as I realised that he is growing up fast and I, as a child, I would’ve loved to discover the universe with the help of my love ones. He is still too little and I’m not sure of such things as whether he is focussing properly when looking through the eyepiece but he seems to be enjoying it and keeps interested. To give him a sense of ownership I normally ask him to help me with small things such us aligning RGB curves in DSS (he really likes this) or signing up some of the images.

Astronomy for 4 year olds comes up with its own set of challenges; when it gets dark early in the winter months, it’s also too cold for him to be in the garden. Now that it’s getting warm, it’s still daylight by bedtime.

I know that many of you have little ones around and I wonder what you do to get them involved and interested (in case you do). I’m looking for some inspiration here.

Regards

[Atlas]

I bought my 3 year old a 60mm Tasco since she kept wanting to use my telescope.

Now whenever I'm in the backyard imaging, she is either in the window or in the backyard with me looking through hers at the moon.

She follows the moon well, but I tend to relocate it for her every couple minutes.

At bedtime she loves hearing stories about "Space Rocks".

[earth titan]

At the age of 6, my 'assistant' is just about getting it. I'm sure she'll rebel in later years but perhaps come back to it when older.

[Asur84]

I have my neices helping me, they are now 12 and 6 but they actually started coming out with me 2-3 years ago. As my neices prefer to do things for themselves I get them online looking at different objects then see if they can try to find it in the sky and surprisingly they both learnt how to use a planisphere very quickly and can identify quite a lot.

[pixueto]

I have my neices helping me, they are now 12 and 6 but they actually started coming out with me 2-3 years ago. As my neices prefer to do things for themselves I get them online looking at different objects then see if they can try to find it in the sky and surprisingly they both learnt how to use a planisphere very quickly and can identify quite a lot.

I like the online search to motivate them but, at the moment, my son is too little to use the scope on his own.

[sologuitarist61]

Don't have any small ones (mine is a quite big 15 year old!) but, as an aside, our astro group (Brannel astronomy) held a star party for the school kids at the junior school where we hold our meeting and it was amazing the interest shown and the knowlege that some of them had. Truly enlightening.

[Asur84]

I like the online search to motivate them but, at the moment, my son is too little to use the scope on his own.

Maybe but showing him the images through the scope and gthe pics online as well as letting him learn about them on his own may be a big help. Thats how I got started, my old man used the same method (except I had to use the library and good ol' fashioned books) and when I got stuck I asked and he would talk me through it.

[dav1d]

My nine year old son can either stand on a chair and use my 130p or comfortable look through his mum's Powerseeker 50AZ. My five year old daughter doesn't really like telescopes - she prefers looking at the sky ( the moon particularly) through a set of 6x15 binos we picked up for £1.50 from a car boot sale.

[Siriusmeg]

My 10 year says that to get her interested I "tell her really complicated stuff and then I want to know more"!! The 7 year old says that watching stargazing live gave her ideas about what other people could see & that she could look out for. Both of them love looking through the scope, though there are plenty of annoying moments when one of them says "oh it's gone" and you know they've moved the scope

They love coming out for a sneaky late night in school holidays and when I'm setting up they enjoy using binoculars to find things by themselves. Just make sure you pack plenty of food (roughly 3x as much as you would think you need!!) Handwarmer gel things also keep them occupied for hours...

[Anweniel]

As you say, the winter months are very cold for a little one to be standing about outside for a long time and the summer albeit warmer, is darker later so its usually bedtime before observing can begin.

My daughter is also 4 and she is very interested by my hobby, clearly some expensive and sensitive equipment that I would rather she didnt touch but I let her get hands on with what she can and let her look through the ep when possible. She has discovered a lot of the literature I have about space and knows now that Venus has volcanoes, there are many other moons than the one we see everyday, she knows the difference between a planet a star and a nebula which for her age is great. As an only child we never 'dumb down' for her and if she doesnt understand something but wants to know she will ask and of course we are very proud of her.

Here is a pic of her looking through the refelector last year.

[Siriusmeg]

We did have one really fun session when the 7 year old woke at 4am, then woke me up. As we couldn't get back to sleep, we took the scope outside to look for Saturn (didn't find it - useless RDF!). A few minutes later the 10 yr old appeared too to find out what we were up to...closely followed by their dad wondering what on earth we were all up to! He went back to bed - we stayed up for an hour looking at the stars through the scope and binoculars. They still talk about their night outside stargazing at stupid-O'clock. They seem to be able to get over lost sleep more easily than adults, and the memories of these moments are great

Bella says that in our early morning stargazing we discovered Mars the first time through the scope.

[pixueto]

At the age of 6, my 'assistant' is just about getting it. I'm sure she'll rebel in later years but perhaps come back to it when older.

We can only guess what they will choose to do when they become grown-ups but you got me thinking about what the future holds in 30 years time in terms of computer power and amateur astronomy; particularly in the field of imaging and spectroscopy.

[Pug]

I've a 6yr old daughter who happily stands on my hop up and swings my 12" dob about. I was surprised at how long it holds her attention for. Not so much my little assistant now as I'm hers!

[jonathan]

If my childhood is anything to go by, if my dad had been into astronomy then it would probably have been me who got to carry stuff, adjust the telescope (laboriously), and generally do the menial work. It would quite possibly have bored me to tears as well. That's how I'd remember it, anyway!

Personally I would not trust a child to even touch the focus on my big shiny telescope, let alone carry any of it, but might let them loose on the ST80.

I am not a parent, it probably shows.

[ronin]

Not sure whicj part of London you are in but there is the Baker Street Irregular Astronomers that meet up in Regents Park.

BSIA News

Their web site say their next possible meet up is 17/18/19 April. dates seem dependant on weather. They may have a selection of scope to talk about and possibly look through.

[pajr777]

My 5 year old comes out with her toy binoculars whilst I get aligned, then looks through my eye piece. She's seen Jupiter & moons, Venus, the Pleiades, the Orion Nebula and the Moon. Since the clocks changed to BST, only the Moon.

We have a few camping trips planned so she may have a few late nights looking through my bins then. No school = late nights allowed!

I would advise they have their own toy scope or bins to keep them occupied whilst you get aligned & on target otherwise the wait leads to frustration on their part - at least that's how it works with my little girl

[reddoss]

I was 6 during the Apollo 8 mission around the moon. A combination of the footage of the surface from the mission (with commentary for Sir Patrick) and my father showing me the moon through is old 8 x 30 wildlife binos had me hooked for life.

[Matthew]

Its a pleasure to observe with my children,their 11,7 and 4.I have to use the patio chair for my youngest but its an amazing feeling when i hear them talking about the solar system ( between themselves ) and wider space.I wish my dad had a 12" Dob when i was little

[Bluenosebatty]

Its amazing how young children "want" to listen and concentrate when it comes to bed time! As you may know kids are on half term at the mo so my 5 year old has been allowed to stay up a little later than usual, I told her last night it was time to go bed as it was late which she wasnt happy about (to be fair it was still only early) so i gave her the option that she can stay up and watch Wonders of the solar system or go to bed to sleep! She opted to stop up and watch coxy with me which to be honest i was happy about and to be fair she sat and watched a full episode without any hastle even having her own little imput ha, my little girl has a interest in space and astronomy anyway, shes had a hour out with me in the past that she seemed to enjoy and keeps asking when she can go out again.

To keep her interested i leave astronomy and space books lyin about and tell her shes not allowed to touch them and leave the room ha, kids being kids first thing she does is pick it up and start flicking through the pics.

Also if your little girl/boy has the "leap frog tag" theses a solar system pack you can buy for it, very good for learning together. Cheap too!

NEW! Tag Solar System Adventure Pack

Good fun! 8-)

All in all i try to keep my little 5yo girl interested and i think she is taking it in well, she knows all the planets from closest to furthest away from the sun in order which she is proud of! Ha,

[Viv]

now don't ask me how - i'll work it out one day.

But a couple of the guys here, have live feeds from their obsy.

Could be nice, for your lad to see 'live' what's happening / scope pointing at .........

[K Nixon]

Rather an expensive alternative but if you get yourself a coronado PST you can do astronomy during the day! Only one object you can view of course and you would have to drill home the safety side but I've spent ages sat outside with a pile of paperwork and the PST set up next to me on the picnic table and every time the sun comes out from behind a cloud I start counting sunspots!

they're good fun but you've really got to want to study the sun.

Kieron

[scarp15]

Plan on taking them to a star party, my daughter has been coming with us to Kielder since she was seven, she is about eleven now, best to feed thier imagination by pointing things out such as bright planets, learning the names and shapes of constellations, names of bright stars etc. They may soon tire of looking at objects through a telescope (although binoculars may be easier) expect at 'pretty' objects such as colourfull binary stars and the brighter clusters, planets / moon of course.

Iain

[pixueto]

Rather an expensive alternative but if you get yourself a coronado PST you can do astronomy during the day! Only one object you can view of course and you would have to drill home the safety side but I've spent ages sat outside with a pile of paperwork and the PST set up next to me on the picnic table and every time the sun comes out from behind a cloud I start counting sunspots!

they're good fun but you've really got to want to study the sun.

Kieron

Solar astronomy scares the living dayligths out of me! Let alone with little ones around!!!! I'm too forgetful:icon_scratch:

[pajr777]

Scares me too. After drilling in "what must you never look at through bins/scope" I can't bring myself round to solar observing just yet..

[laser_jock99]

I have deliberately held off involving my two sons (now 10 & 12) in my 'astronomy hobby' in fact only recently have they been shown a few 'wow' objects through the telescope like the moon & saturn at high power. They seem quite interested but keeping them 'focused' on what is after all a quite complex subject is tricky. I prefer to give them small doses of interesting stuff rather than risk making them loose interest altogether with a lengthy, dare I say it, boring, observing session. So short doses of highlights is what they get - if that is enough to spark a lifelong interest in astronomy then that's good. If not I hope they learned something along the way but that's fine too.