My digital camera, while it's a pretty good model, is not an SLR and therefore any hope of capturing the stars in the night sky with it is nearly zilch. But I still dragged it outside one night last month to catch some of the sky watching conversation with the kids.
As you'll hear, I'm no astronomy whiz but the kids' enthusiasm for identifying (right or wrong) stars and constellations is more important I think than being 100% accurate with our observations.
One of the "tricks" to help the kids orientate themselves with a compass and a map (or sky chart) we've used for years is Never Eat Salty Wheat.
The girls say this phrase while moving their arm in a clockwise direction to help them remember where North, East, South and West are. It seems kind of silly but it's quite handy and easy for the kids to remember. And even though I'm pretty good with directions, I can get confused when looking at the night sky. I feel a natural inclination to rotate my body, as well as my head, while looking at the sky and it's all too easy to become direction-challenged, especially when I'm with the kids who are pointing in different directions.
The constellations the girls mention in the video above looked like this:
Cassiopeia in Winter sky
Big Dipper in Winter sky
Cygnus ("cross" L. refers to in video) in December sky
The sky chart we tend to use because it's always on hand (in our Usborne Discovery Astronomy book by Rachel Firth) is a simplified kid-friendly version of the chart. The kids also really enjoy printing out and making their own star finder, which is also easy for them to understand.
So in case you thought you needed to be an expert astronomer to view the night sky with your kids, you don't. A few bits of information and a sky chart are all you really need to get the kids interested. Then they'll take over the adventure from there.
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