Backyard with Saturn, 2009.04.05

Rob Jaworski

On Satuday we spent a lot of time talking about Saturn and the moon, and I had to remind her that when we say 'ring', we are not referring to a gem on a band worn on the finger. Took her a bit to make that distinction.

Last night (5 April 2009), soon after sunset, we went out back checking to see if we could see Saturn nekked eye. Once it was there, I set up my XT8 and let her look. Seemed she wasn't entirely thrilled since she kept asking to make it bigger. But mama was there and seemed to get into it, even spying more faint moons (three in a triangle arrangement that took some serious focusing and concentration to notice) next to the disk with the line through it. Daughter stayed enthusiastic, partly because it was delaying her bedtime, and partly because it was different and fun to be outside after dark.

This morning, I wanted to work on her retention of what we did last night, so I asked her to draw a picture of our observing session. Here's what she came up with (pdf, 71kb):
http://www.jaworskihouse.com/image_files/observing/observing_sketch.pdf

Notice the dob pointing at the moon and Saturn. Hard to notice the small moons to the left of Luna, but they are there. She's at the eyepiece (is that a barlow?!?) standing on a footstool while mommy and daddy stand across from her. This scene is actually pretty darn accurate: Her very first observing sketch!

It's a bummer she has such an early bedtime (7:30 - 8PM).

Gettin' 'em early,
-Rob