December 2003

• The 2nd Annual Shopping Guide!
  
  
• Planetary Update
  
  
• The Moon
  
  
• Website of the Month
  

The 2nd Annual Shopping Guide

Last year I received a bunch of e-mails from folks looking to purchase the 'perfect gift' for the budding astronomer in their lives. This year it has happened again! So, I am going to do another edition of:

This is no toy -- it is a real telescope built for kids who have the patience and interest that makes a good backyard astronomer. It is easy to carry, and has a sturdy mount which is low enough for the younger kids to use the telescope. It comes with an easy-to-use viewfinder, which really saves you hours of set-up time.

You can upgrade the telescope with new eyepieces and filters, so it is a tool that will really grow with your kids.

That is a family telescope, for sure; everyone will enjoy using the StarBlast. But, for the older "kids", I can suggest something a bit more sophistocated...

The StarMax telescope is a nice purchase for someone looking for a scope a bit more powerful. With a little practice, you'll be able to quickly view star clusters, nebulas, and other galaxies, as well as some great views of the planets and the moon. It's a small tube, which makes it quite portable. It comes with a case, which is a wonderful thing, and the eyepiece is made by Plössl, who make the best, in my opinion.

If you want to see some real deep-sky objects, you are going to want to get some other eyepieces for this telescope. But the piece that comes with it is a good one to get you started. Also, you might want to upgrade to a better finder scope (like the one that comes with the StarBlast, described above.)

Remember, a telescope can be frustrating to use. It takes patience and practice. It takes time to let your eyes adjust to the darkness. AND much of that time is spent out in the cold. Bundle up, put some hot chocolate in an insulated mug, and put on your Glomitts (another PERFECT gift for anyone who has to use his or her hands outside in the wintertime).

Before you get going, it is a good idea to read up on how to use the telescope. The telescope will come with a user's guide on how to operate the scope itself, but you'll probably need a little more. Millions of people have learned to use their telescopes from a book entitled "Turn Left At Orion".

This is a perfect starter for a backyard astronomer. It has pictures of what you will actually see through your telescope, and it shows you how to use the "starhopping" method of looking to the sky. Basically, it teaches you how to find great objects by first looking for objects most people recognize... example: if you can find the belt of Orion, the Great Orion Nebula is right below it! It's easy and fun to read, and you'll use it for a long time to come.

Well, what about the people who don't want to go out in the cold? There are some fun, space related toys and games... Discovery Kids and Lego have teamed up to create a series of space-related Lego kits.

There are models of the first manned mission to the Moon, the Mars Exploration Rover mission, the Space Shuttle, and the International Space Station. The models are fun to assemble (Of course! They're Legos!) and come with inspirational booklets with information and fun facts about space and space exploration.

I am a big fan of games, and one of my favorite manufaturers is Gamewright. They create fun, beautiful, easy to learn card and board games.

Blast Off is their award-winning game of space exploration and numbers. It has moments of thought and strategy, and, when the time comes to Blast Off, there are occassional 10 second flurries of activity. It is a great family game with a space theme that will keep everyone on their toes and laughing, because the game changes as you go along -- each Blast Off creates a new mission that will cause the players to have to do a variety of tasks as the game goes on.

It's fun and educational for kids as young as 6 or as old as 106.

As we peer deeper into space with powerful orbiting machines like the Hubble Space Telescope, we see that objects in space are truly beautiful. The birth and death of stars, galactic collisions, and eerie colored nebulas are a natural art form.

For the astronomer in your life who likes to be inspired by the majestic views of deep space, Astrographics is a wonderful place to get museum gallery quality prints of images of space. Equally at home in a kids bedroom, or in dad's corner office, these images will instill awe and broaden the imagination.

They also have calendars, mugs, t-shirts, and much more! Almost any gift item you can imagine for the astronomer in your life can be found here.

Have fun shopping!

[DISCLAIMER: The information provided above is the opinion of the author. The astronomer has no affiliation with any of the brands or distributors listed above. No guarantee is expressed or implied by the reviews above.]

Planetary Update

All FIVE naked-eye visible planets are in the night sky this month!

Let's start with those visible right at sunset...

The inner planets all make an appearance as soon as the sun disappears. If it is a clear night, go out and watch the sunset. The first thing that will appear, low in the west, right over the sunset, will be Venus. It is truly brilliant; it will be impossible to mistake it for anything but our brilliant next-door neighbor.

Not too far away, a little lower and to the left (or South) of Venus will be a crisp spot, barely half as bright. That is the planet Mercury. Mercury will hang out there for about the first half of December, and then it will be too low, and lost in the glow of the sun.

As it gets a bit darker, look high in the southern sky. That orange dot, still the brightest thing in that part of the sky, is Mars. Mars is a bit dimmer than it was during its spotlight time this summer, but it's still a wonder to see.

If you can wait a few hours after sunset, you'll be able to catch the planet which is furthest away and still visible with the naked eye: Saturn. It is a sort of beige color, and it hangs in the middle of the constellation Gemini, who is right over the head and extended arm of the most recognized constellation of Orion, the Hunter. If you can find Orion, look up over his head and right shoulder (the famous orange star, Betelgeuse). Saturn will be noticeable in that part of the sky.

You have to wait until a bunch later to see Jupiter... he peeks over the horizon after midnight. Jupiter is trailing below the constellation of Leo. The best way to see Jupiter is to go to bed early and get up before the sunrise. It is a bright, large, golden-orange spot in the sky. It's quite noticeable; to me it actually appears larger than anything else up there! (Except for the Moon, of course!)

So, you get to view the three rocky planets in the early evening, the ringed planet through the middle of the night, and the giant of the solar system brings you into the morning -- you'll have a full night of planet viewing this month! Enjoy.

The Moon

The phases for this month:

Website of the Month

This month I would like to feature a nifty web tool -- The Solar System Simulator.

This nifty utility allows you to see a simulated view of any part of the solar system from any point of view.

Want to know what Jupiter would look like from the point of view of standing on its moon Io? No problem!

Even wonder what Venus would look like from Earth using a telescope more powerful than any we've invented? Can do!

This is a wonderful web toy that lets you choose a view from dozens of objects in the solar system: the sun, the planets, major moons, and a bunch of survey spacecraft (Galileo, Voyager, and Cassini).

It's a powerful tool that's really easy and fun to use...

First, choose the object you'd like to see. Then, pick an object to be your point of view; the spot you are looking from. You can also pick any date and time! Then pick how large you would like to object to appear, and any incidental guides (such as a line tracing a planet's orbit). In seconds, you will have a photo-realistic simulated picture, like the ones shown above.

For folks who are interested in views of the solar system, this web site will be sure to eat up lots of your free time.

Also, for those of you with telescopes, with a little practice, you can use this to show you the positions of the moons of Jupiter and Saturn, so you can find out exactly which moons you were seeing.

Have fun travelling the solar system!

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