We all go back to the same fundamental moment in our journey as amateur astronomers, no matter how sophisticated we get. We went outside for the very first time when it was really dark and you could see the cosmos clearly and take in the night sky. This is as dramatic an experience as discovering aliens among us, for city dwellers. A clear night sky with no city lights can reveal a vast array of lights that most of us do not know about.
Using binoculars and different sizes and powers of telescopes enhances the experience of watching the sky. It is likely that you will always remember seeing the fully displayed clear night sky for the first time, with all the amazing constellations, meters, and comets moving about, as well as the exposure of lights too numerous to count.
One of the most powerful ways to capture the wonder of that moment is to go out in the country with a child who has never experienced it before, and be present when he looks up and speaks that one word that sums up all the feelings he experiences looking at that stunning view. A word that comes to mind is 'Wow'.
One of the most daunting realities for a child is the sheer enormity of what is above them and what it represents, a fact that is also the most challenging for him or her to comprehend. In the sky, almost every other dot or celestial body is a star or celestial body that is vastly bigger than Earth itself, not twice as big as Earth or ten times as big, but thousands or hundreds of times. That's pure awesome for kids to think about. There are enough difficulties for children imagining the size of the planet Earth alone, let alone a vast expanse like outer space.
Our experience with astronomy, however, is one of constant awe as we gaze up into the night sky in awe. The children may get goosebumps more when they learn some amazing facts about what they are looking at up in the sky. Examples include...
There are 100 billion stars like the sun in the Milky Way galaxy, which comprises our own. It's bound to make some jaws drop if you illustrate that one hundred billion equates to 100,000,000,000.
Each of the tens of billion galaxies in the Milky Way has billions of stars. The Milky Way galaxy is actually one of the smaller galaxies.
Approximately 100,000 years would be needed to drive across the Milky Way. The speed limit won't get you there. For the distance to be covered in that time, you would have to drive 5 trillion, 800 million miles every year.
* The Milky Way supposedly is 14 billion years old, according to scientists.
There may be some lively discussion about these fun facts about the origins of the universe and about whether or not there is life on other planets. Kids can try to calculate the probability of life existing on a planet that was habitable like earth if there were nine stars in the Milky Way and only one planet was habitable like earth. When they run those numbers, you are likely to see some real excitement.
The discussion can be interesting, exciting, chock , as well as answering a lot of questions. This is the birth of a new generation, so don't stop their imaginations. Forever they are experiencing a love of astronomy. You will be taken back to when you were a child and see that first night sky for the first time. Possibly, you will become enthused all over again about astronomy after reading this.
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