Thinking of stars, takes me to my childhood days when I spent summer vacations with my cousins in our maternal grandmother’s house in a village. At night after dinner we used to lie on bullock carts and gaze at the stars, least bothered about the constellations or galaxies and never bothering to find out if they are starts or planets. We were all city kids, where only a slice of the sky would be visible to us mainly due high rises and pollution. Our inner curiosity to learn about the skies had always remained subdued.
Last Friday, Don Edward Wild life refuge had hosted a Night Sky Party! I saw my chance to get my kids involved in watching the skies. These are the events when volunteers set up their own telescopes and focus on some “objects” in the sky. They give you some information about it. This program was mainly geared towards kids.
We had an indoor 10 min session where the volunteer went over what we might expect to see that night, constellations visible in the northern hemisphere such as Ursa Major which means the Great Bear in Latin. Big Dipper is a part of this constellation and the 2 stars on one side of the bowl can be used to locate the Pole star (Polaris). Ursa Minor constellation has the Small Dipper. P
olaris is at one end of its handle. Leo and Bootes, the herdsman, constellations can also be seen in the spring skies in the US.
In the outdoor session, the volunteers set the telescopes on Moon ( We got a very good glimpse of the craters on the moon), the red planet Mars, the very bright Venus and the fabulous Saturn (through telescope it appeared white with the rings around it).
Other activities included the Solar System Stroll where the relative distances of the planets from the Sun were demonstrated in the open field. The kids also enjoyed the indoor activities of making telescopes and drinking hot chocolate.
Last Friday, Don Edward Wild life refuge had hosted a Night Sky Party! I saw my chance to get my kids involved in watching the skies. These are the events when volunteers set up their own telescopes and focus on some “objects” in the sky. They give you some information about it. This program was mainly geared towards kids.
We had an indoor 10 min session where the volunteer went over what we might expect to see that night, constellations visible in the northern hemisphere such as Ursa Major which means the Great Bear in Latin. Big Dipper is a part of this constellation and the 2 stars on one side of the bowl can be used to locate the Pole star (Polaris). Ursa Minor constellation has the Small Dipper. P
olaris is at one end of its handle. Leo and Bootes, the herdsman, constellations can also be seen in the spring skies in the US.In the outdoor session, the volunteers set the telescopes on Moon ( We got a very good glimpse of the craters on the moon), the red planet Mars, the very bright Venus and the fabulous Saturn (through telescope it appeared white with the rings around it).
Other activities included the Solar System Stroll where the relative distances of the planets from the Sun were demonstrated in the open field. The kids also enjoyed the indoor activities of making telescopes and drinking hot chocolate.
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In all we had 2 hours of educational fun on a Friday night!
comment from aditi
ReplyDeletegood job! =)!look to right =) +) =)