Unfortunately, we couldn’t make it out to Binbrook on Sunday night, so my daughter Alex and I went out in the backyard about 7:00 pm to look at Saturn and whatever else we could find in the evening twilight. Alex was very helpful. The first thing she did was grab hold of the telescope and pull it around to point it up at the sky. Unfortunately, it had been in its “park” position! After I re-calibrated the GOTO system and patiently (!) explained to her that she should let the computer do the pointing on this telescope, we had a look at Saturn.

Alex is getting to be quite an experienced observer, but I realized last night that this was the first time she’s ever looked through our big scope. When she looked into the eyepiece, her eyes flew open in wonder and she exclaimed “Mom! That’s Saturn!”. Saturn was breathtaking at 350X – seeing was easily 8/10 – and even in the twilight, its moons were easy to spot. We spent quite some time together enjoying the view.

Next, we looked at Sirius and then Betelgeuse to compare their colours. Always a neat way to introduce stellar evolution to kids!

Whenever the telescope was slewing around, Alex would play a kind of hide and seek with it. Another stern lecture ensued. This time highlighting the differences between a telescope and playground equipment!

Alex was quite interested in M42 – the trapezium was blazing away in a subtle cloud of nebulosity. But she decided that the Beehive Cluster was very boring. It was time to pack it in and get ready for school/work the next day.

I didn’t think of it at the time, but it might be fun to help Alex work on her own Messier Certificate. I wonder if any other parents have experience doing observing projects with their kids?