| Introducing your child to Astrononomy |
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 The Planet Saturn I have always had a fascination with stars and it was cemented by a visiting student from Germany who stayed with our family a number of years ago. She taught me constellation names and locations in the skies and showed me where to spot the nearest universe to ours, the Andromeda Nebula, which literally blew my mind away that I could see another universe.
(To find the Andromeda Nebula, you locate Cassiopeia which is a W-shaped constellation; go down in a straight line from the bottom star on the right hand of the W, until you see the Andromeda constellation which has 4 stars in a row. Then go up from the 2nd star from the left, up two stars and just to the right you will see a cloud, that is the Andromeda Nebula! There are great constellation maps at astrosurf.com)
Whenever we have a clear sky in the evening, I take my own children outside to try to see some of the stars and even planets visible to the naked eye (usually Venus at twilight time).
A good starting point is the Moon, for example, you could over the period of a month try to observe the different phases (weather permitting) or try taking digital camera pictures of the different phases. For younger children have them point out the different shapes the Moon has and of course, you can always discuss whether or not the Moon really is made of cheese.
Next, you can learn about the Solar System, you will find a good introduction at nineplanets.org (of course poor Pluto is no longer classed as an official planet).
Try taking out a star map and seeing if you can spot some of these constellations, my personal favourites are:
www.astronomy.ie |