Astronomy for kids by David W. Simpson

ASTRONOMY for KIDS

By David W. Simpson

Learn Photography with vspho.com

Astronomy (pronounced: as·tron·o·my) is the study of the stars in the sky.

Stars, like our own Sun, are in fact burning balls of hot gases.

But some of the bright lights in night sky are not stars, they are different celestial objects that are

simply reflecting light.

Celestial simply means objects we can see in the night sky.

The largest celestial object we can see in the sky is the moon.

Therefore, we can see the moon best at night, but during certain days of the month we can seeparts of the moon during the day.

Because the moon is the closest celestial object to the Earth (only 238, 900 miles or 384,400km), its movement in the sky from hour-to-hour and day-to-day is the most obvious.

As these celestial objects are so far away, even the moon can only be seen by the human eye as a small ball in the sky.

So back in 1608, a German born Dutch lens maker named Hans Lippershey invented the first Refracting Telescope. A refracting telescope simply means two pieces of glass cut and polished so that one side of the glass is slightly curved. This curve in the glass allows the light to be slightly bent. Bending the light magnifies the object that you are looking at.

Hans Lippershey designed and developed his refractive telescope to be used for military purposes. The most common use was for ships at sea to spot enemy ships at long distances.

These refracting telescopes are now commonly referred to as Pirate Telescopes.

But only one year later, in 1609, an Italian physicist, mathematician, astronomer, and

philosopher named Galileo Galilei improved the quality and size of the refracting telescope to view the heavens.

This study of the night skies is now called astronomy.

As telescopes developed in power and size, they became much to large and heavy to move. So buildings had to be built around the large telescopes to protect them from the weather.

In 1704, The University of Cambridge in England built the world’s first observatory.

By the end of the 1800s, observatories and refracting telescopes had been refined to the same quality as we still use today.

In 1894, The University of Denver in America completed their observatory named Chamberlin Observatory after the man who dedicated the building to Denver University in 1890.

This is Chamberlin Observatory today in 2013. It is still used for observing many celestial events in our solar system.

 

 

After 119 years, in 2013 the observatory is still used by both students of astronomy, and highly educated astrophysicists.

This is the original telescope as seen today that was dedicated and operational in 1894.

Other common celestial objects that are viewed by observatory refracting telescopes are the planets in our own solar-system.

We already talked about the moon, but there are also seven other planets in our solar-system besides Earth.

They are in order of distance from the Sun outward:

Mercury

Venus

Earth is the third planet from the Sun.

Mars, the Red Planet

Jupiter, the largest planet

Saturn, it has beautiful rings

Uranus

Neptune

A dwarf planet named Pluto also orbits the sun in our solar-system.

The most stunning thing I’ve ever seen through the telescope pictured above is the Rings of Saturn.

Modern telescopes now use much more sophisticated technology to view the heavens, but even a small backyard telescope can still be the doorway to viewing the wonders of the Universe.

Peace,

David W. Simpson