SkyView Saturday: Girls meet Saturn

With warm weather and clear skies calling, we decided to launch the first instalment of SkyView Saturday. 

Dennis and I have recently been on the hunt for a new telescope to facilitate some backyard astronomy.  Having taken a knock or two over the years, as well as being left for long stretches to collect dust, our old scope is not the best tool for planetary viewing.  But sometimes, just like it is said about cameras, the best telescope is the one you have with you! So we dusted off the old Meade ds-60 and brought it outside.

We were treated to some fabulously detailed views of the moon and its craters, which amazed the girls. We also saw Jupiter and four (Maya saw five) of its moons.  Maya and Dahlia were not only eager to see the images, but try to operate the scope as well.  Maya honed her skills at manipulating the computerized remote, while Dahlia searched out celestial objects with the SkyView app on the iPad.

The definite highlight of the evening was seeing Saturn.  Although it wasn't the clearest focus ever achieved, it was good enough to make out the classic shape of the planet and its rings.  By the time it was actually dark enough to see Saturn, the girls had actually gone to bed. Knowing they needed to experience this as well, we quickly brought them back outside, 'jammies and all. 

Maya had known the scope was pointed toward Saturn, but Dahlia wasn't aware. Without revealing to her what she was looking at, we let her observe and comment on what she saw, until the wow-moment happened when she realized..."Saturn!". You could practically see the gears in her head turning with wonder, making the connection between the images she's always seen on screen and the actual planet there in front of her eyes.  In fact she even commented with surprise that Saturn through the telescope looks just like picture of Saturn which hangs from her bedroom ceiling alongside the rest of the solar system.

I'm reminded of one morning, about 5 years ago.  Just before 6:00am, having put a then baby Dahlia back to sleep after a morning feeding, I looked out the window to be greeted by Venus. It was a powerful light shining brightly in the southern sky, contrasting an otherwise deep blue background. Its intensity had to be admired!  Wanting to share the beauty of what I was seeing, I ran and woke up Maya, who was just over 3 years old. 

"Wake up. I have something to show you." I whispered into her tiny ear. "Come with me."  

She grabbed her Blankie and Doggy, and we hurried downstairs to see the view.  We sat at the window sill, she took pictures, and we talked about the "morning star" and other planetary objects. We even made a wish or two.  All of these years later, she still remembers that morning with great fondness.  

I am hoping that our next telescope is powerful enough to be able to see Jupiter's Great Red Spot. Dennis says he wants our next scope to be powerful enough to see the Big Bang. I suspect we'll land somewhere in the middle on that one ;)