Star Gaze for a Dalton Private School

I thought some of you might find this interesting - it created a whole new aspect of astronomy for me. I had a great experience this weekend with my wife's 4th grade class. She teaches at a private school and wanted to give the kids an opportunity to look through a telescope at the moon and make some sketches,identify craters, etc - more than just a classroom approach. Well...I have never been keen with children around my scopes, but how could I turn down my wife ;-)? The staff offered to help with parking and take care of wrangling the children - so I said yes.

I set up my 2 scopes. The kids arrived (from 2 4th grade classes no less!). I was ready to be rigid and swat hands and scold. Well...After about 15 minutes of some of the most honest and innocent questions about "the man in the moon", "green cheese", "how do you potty on the moon" and the like, I began to truly enjoy the experience. They were all so well behaved, and had a genuine interest in what I had to say. (I may have lost some of my curmudgeon tendencies.) They asked questions I couldn't answer either, tough questions!


I enjoyed this sort of "reaching-out".

I just had to share.

Hank B.