McKenzie and the Moon
As we drove home tonight, McKenzie watched the moon follow her home, and before we pulled into the driveway, she asked if we could look at the moon with the telescope. From my office, into the backyard, I dragged out the telescope, aimed it at and focused upon the moon, with all of its craters and “oceans”.
I pulled her stool under the eyepiece and covered her unused eye, and McKenzie peered into the eyepiece with her other eye.
“Do you see it?” I asked her. “Do you see the moon, McKenzie?”
“A-huh,” she answered.
“The dark patches are what they call seas,” I explained.
Then she flitted away as 5-year-olds tend to do, and I scanned the sky for another prize. Using my iPhone and the SkySafari app, I noticed that Saturn was not far from the moon, and after fiddling with the telescope’s adjustment, I finally focused upon Saturn, and just as I had, McKenzie had flitted back in.
Again I set her on the stool and covered her unused eyes, and she peered back into the eyepiece.
“See that bright oval spot?” I asked and, not waiting for an answer, immediately replied. “That’s Saturn.”
“Saturn has rings, McKenzie. That’s why it looks like an egg.”
I pulled out my iPhone and then showed her an image of the ringed planet taken by the Cassini spacecraft.
“Wow,” she said as I could see her mind reconciling the image on the iPhone with what she had see through the telescope.
I can only hope that I can inspire and encourage just a fraction of such wonder and exploration of the universe around her.
