The Astronomer's Apprentice: Getting your child to LOVE science and astronomy

There are perhaps very few gifts that a parent can bestow upon his child that is as precious and as valuable as a life-long love for science. And there is no better and easier way for you to introduce a child to the wonders of science than through astronomy.

You don't really need to get your child his or her own telescope to have your child interested in astronomy. But he or she having one of his or her own would make it all that more fun and exciting. Rishon's own telescope is a small 60mm refractor, with a tiny 0.96-inch eyepiece with a 10mm focal length. This particular scope only cost less than £7 from Oxfam, so you don't have to spend too much on these toys. And they are essentially just toys - they are completely useless for serious astronomy. I had to tell Rishon not to expect to see breathtaking vistas such as the rings of Saturn or the cloud belts of Jupiter - if he wants to see those, he can see them through Daddy's telescope. But he could use his own scope to pick out those planets from the night sky and they do provide some quite nice views of the moon and its 'seas' and craters. More importantly, it also allows him to explore the instrument on his own, learn about its parts and how to use them and prepare for when he is old enough to get his own 'proper' scope.


You'll see on his window sill that he also has a smaller spotting scope. Again, it's just a plastic toy - but it can be used for wider field views of the stars and handy for terrestial viewing as well.

Perhaps the first place to start if you want to inculcate a love for astronomy and science is the child's room. A boy's room is his castle and decorating it with a few carefully-selected astronomy objects will go along way to making your child comfortable with and enjoy what could easily be perceived to be a boring old school subject. Take this solar system model that hangs over his ceiling light, for example. Not only does it give him a reasonably accurate illustration of what solar system objects looks like, but it also glows in the dark when he goes to bed. Now, how cool is that?!


And the solar system model below is even more cool. It's like your own solar system navigation computer. You press a button on the keyboard and the relevant planet will magically light up, with a computerised voice telling you all about the planet in question. Press another button and you can sit for a little test, where the computer will ask you a multiple choice question and you have to press the correct button before proceeding to the next space exploration challenge.

Every parent knows how kids sometimes like to wallpaper their rooms with posters. Now, I have categorically state that these posters of starships are not just a refection of his keen interest in Star Trek acquired by constant exposure from his dad - they do have some valuable educatonal value too! Propulsion systems, navigational arrays, science laboratories and communications beacons are not just found on the starship Enterprise of the 24th Century - you'll also see them on the Internatonal Space Station or the space shuttles of today.

Well, okay, Rishon may be a little too young to appreciate the complexities of anti-matter physics and the search for the elusive Higgs boson 'God Particle'. But the poster does have a great picture of Mr Spock! And his Star Trek-themed pillow and duvet set below is both warm and comfortable ... inspirational, yet quite functonal ;)

Be honest now - how many kids would not like the idea of having a real-life space map on the wall of their room? This is Rishon's planisphere - basically a star chart in the form of two adjustable disks that rotate on a common pivot and can be rotated to display the visible stars in the night sky for any time and date. Aside from getting a kick out of spinning the two disks round and round (which Rishon loves to do), he also inadvertently learns how to recognize stars and constellations in the night sky.

And the little cardboard cut-out diorama here was something Rishon got from the local Mad Science club he attended and shows how the different stars in the saucepan-shaped Big Dipper are actually laid out in 3D space.

Like real-life astronomy, Rishon's little dome gadget below requires absolute darkness. Switch the room light off, make sure not a sliver of light enters the room from outside, switch the gadget on and you will actually see the stars and constellations of the Northern Hemisphere projected on your room celing and walls! The transparent plastic dome has a map of the northern sky embossed on it and a light bulb projects a negative image of the map all around the dark room, rotating it slowly around the polar axis. Daddy uses it too - when the night skies are blanketed in cloud and he can't get out to play with his telescope, this is the next best thing!


And below is an ordinary plasma lamp - just the thing to turn any ordinary five-year old boy's room into the laboratory of a mad scientist! Also a good prop to use when trying to explain to your boy the basic principles of electricity, electromagnetic fields, particle theory, ions, states of matter - oh, and of course what the plasma phase inducers do in the warp engine assembly of a Galaxy-class starship!

Kids love computers and you can use this love of computers to get them to love astronomy too - even if it's just computer games. There's nothing Rishon loves to do more than join Dad when he's zapping Klingons and Borg cubes on Star Trek Online or Freelancer. But we also do take a breather from inter-galactic warfare now and then to have a close look at asteroid belts, black holes and supernovae.


There are also a lot of websites that have online games that teach astronomical and space exploration principles to very young children. The NASA Kids Club website  , for example, has games that lets kids manage fuel payloads for the space shuttle, build space station modules, explore microgravity environments and build the International Space Station from scratch!

Computers aside, there's of course the old-fashioned but just as effective way of making your child learn more about astronomy - books! There are a huge number of books for young children that introduces them to the joys of astronomy. Rishon particularly enjoys those produced by Ladybird (because they're easy to read for a five-year old) and Wiley's Visual book series (because they have loads of colourful pictures!).

The Ladybird book 'The Night Sky' in particular has special meaning for me - this was the very same book that I read when I  was six. Published in 1965, it was a good, simple read and absolutely beautifully illustrated in the old classic Ladybird style. The first thing you see when you open the book is a simple star map with the most exotic names like Andromeda and Pegasus, and a menagerie of dragons, bears, serpents and scorpions lurking in the skies above. Turn the page and you behold Saturn - and you've only just reached the title page. The light of a billion suns, galaxies and nebulae awaited in the rest of the book, all the wonder of astronomy, the beauty of art, the awe of the natural word, in a slim 52 pages. A life-changing book for me and I hope it's the same for Rishon.

And talking about life-changing books, here's another one for me - Antoine de Saint-Exupéry's 'The Little Prince'. A little prince leaves his home planet to see how the rest of the universe is like, exploring six planets before he ends up on Earth. Though ostensibly a children's book, the Little Prince makes several profound and idealistic observations about life and human nature. With phrases like "One sees clearly only with the heart - what is essential is invisible to the eye" and "what makes the desert beautiful is that somewhere it hides a well" - this is no ordinary children's book about exploring stars and planets!


Other than reading, children of course also like drawing and writing (and especially drawing). So get them to write about what they read and what you teach them. I have my own astronomical observer's log book and taking pride of place within it are the inciteful astronomical notes from Rishon below 

I also try to get Rishon involved in my own astronomical activities. As Rishon goes to bed at 7.30 PM, it doesn't really leave a lot of time for him to be out in the back garden observing the night sky with me and even when there is time during the early nights of winter, it can also be too cold for him to be out. Nevertheless, he still enjoys helping me set up my equipment before the night's observing starts. And he gets a real kick the next day looking at any pictures I may have taken - especially since he helped Daddy set it all up.


And you don't even need a telescope to enjoy the night sky with your son. Just sit down with him one dark night and quietly explore the amazing array of lights, colours and lines that are painted on the vast velvet canvas above you. I really can't think of a better father-son bonding exercise than showing your son the naked eye wonders of the night sky.

And if extreme room make-overs, toys, gadgets, games or books don't seem to work, just show him one of these in your telescope eyepiece one night. He'll be hooked for life!.

Oh yes, my final tip for you - start 'em young!