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by Jane Houston
I've learned a nifty trick. If you leave a telescope set up right where folks have to pass by, most likely they'll stop for a look. Tonight I left my 6 inch Pierre Schwaar 6 inch F5 Companion scope, named Red Dwarf because of its color and and size right out on my front deck. A family birthday was the occasion for a gathering of folks tonight. They would all have to pass right by my telescope on their way in and out the front door.
My mom and dad already have a scope just like mine, and they quickly glanced eastward, looked at the time, glanced at the telescope, and walked right in. They knew when the moon would be rising tonight. We had time for birthday dinner and dessert first.
4 year old Aaron, my nephew looked at the moon through the telescope for the first time tonight, standing on the ground and looking right in the eyepiece. He didn't have to be held and he didn't have to stand on a ladder. When I asked if he could see the moon (and I knew he could because I saw the image on his eye, he quietly said "yes!". Then he stepped away, and looked up at the moon with his sweet brown eyes and smiled. He called his mom and dad over for a look. "I saw the moon", he said gleefully!
He took another look, while his dad aimed the telrad bullseye (for the first time). Aaron, a more experienced lunar observer this time shielded his left eye with his left hand, and concentrated on the view. We then let his mom have a look. I stepped in front of the eyepiece to make sure that the moon was still visible in the eyepiece and Aaron reminded me it was his mom's turn for a look. "I want my mom to look now", he told me, tugging her hand and guiding her to the telescope. Aaron showed his mom and dad the moon. Then we moved the scope a few yards and took a look at Venus and Mars in the western sky. We found Venus nearly setting. Aaron saw it with his eyes and then saw it in the telescope. We next found Mars visually and through the telescope. Aaron saw both of them, and he showed his mom and dad. He was pretty darn excited for a four year old.
Just before he left for the long drive home, Aaron changed into his pajamas - the kind with feet in them - the kind 4 year olds wear. We talked about what he had seen tonight. I gave him some NASA pictures of the Moon, Earth, Venus and Mars to take home. On the front is an image of the moon or planet. On the back is all sorts of information. You can get these from the NASA Teacher Centers. I told Aaron that we looked at three planets and one moon tonight, and everytime we look at something new, we'll talk about it and he can have a picture of the object we look at and talk about.
Then Aaron asked me a question. "Jane, can we borrow one of your telescopes"?
Tonight when Aaron falls asleep in his room, with a solar system mobile spinning in the air and hanging from the ceiling, with his walls covered with the pictures he draws of the planets (with correctly aligned lunar orbits and rings, I might add) he'll be dreaming of the first looks at the moon and Mars and Venus he received at his dad's birthday party tonight.