It’s a familiar scenario for parents. We live in a world of convenience. Streaming a movie and making some popcorn is a lot easier than putting on boots, bundling up and heading out to look up into the night sky. But, I tell her, it’s worthwhile. There’s wonder to be experienced up there. She shrugs and gets ready for school.
Stargazing can feel daunting, especially for parents unfamiliar with the night sky themselves. Parents can also make the mistake of turning stargazing into a homework assignment, checking off boxes of how to stargaze “properly.” There is no right answer. Binoculars and apps can help. Having a blanket to lie on will make you more comfortable. Dark skies will reveal more than the sky over a light-polluted city. Yes. Yes. Yes. It’s not bad advice.
But the practical advice can miss the bigger picture. We don’t need our kids to become proficient in identifying objects in space; we want them to have an experience that induces awe, which plays an important role in the lives of children (and adults!). Psychologist Dacher Keltner, the founding director of the Greater Good Science Center at the University of California at Berkeley, previously told The Washington Post that awe can have positive physical, mental and emotional effects. “It makes us curious rather than judgmental. It makes us collaborative. It makes us humble, sharing and altruistic. It quiets the ego so that you’re not thinking about yourself as much,” she says.
To get there, meet kids where they are. Let them tell you what excites them about the night sky.
Listen to kids and share your excitement
“Involve [kids] in every decision,” says Michelle Nichols, director of public observing at the Adler Planetarium in Chicago. “What are we all wearing? Do we need to bundle up? Do we need to bring bug spray? Are we bringing hot chocolate? We’re going on a road trip, which restaurant are we going to stop at for dinner? Turn over some of this to the kids and just go with it. Even if you know they just want to stop at McDonald’s, it’s okay.”
Thaddeus LaCoursiere, planetarium production coordinator at the Bell Museum in St. Paul, Minn., says letting kids lead and sharing your excitement go hand in hand. “Meet kids where they’re at, at that particular moment, and try not to make them be excited, but find ways to let them be excited, to share your excitement,” LaCoursiere says.
A Minnesota blizzard scuttles my family’s stargazing plans. The local star party we were supposed to attend is canceled. The stars are obscured by clouds. The roads are obscured by snow. My daughter isn’t disappointed. She suggests we just stargaze in the backyard the next night. I agree.
You don’t have to know everything — or anything at all
There is an endless trove of wonders to look for in the cosmos: the moon, stars, constellations and planets, and that doesn’t even begin to touch on wow events like comets, meteor showers or the northern lights. It’s thrilling — and intimidating.
But you don’t have to have all the answers. It’s okay to discover the sky alongside kids. “I use a phone app all the time,” Nichols says. “I have a degree in astronomy. I’ve worked at the Adler for almost 28 years. I still consult my phone, because I go, ‘Oh, wait. That star right there? You’re asking me what that is? Let me just double-check.’”
It might feel counterintuitive to look at your phone when you’re supposed to be experiencing nature (and some advise against looking at phones because it spoils your night vision), but there’s no wrong way to enjoy stargazing, and apps can lead the way to that enjoyment. Augmented reality apps such as SkyView Lite can show you the way to familiar constellations like the Big Dipper or harder-to-find ones. StarTracker offers similar augmented reality views of the night sky, while an app like Star Walk 2 offers news and a calendar of events to look for on any given evening.
Head out into the night with a couple of objects in mind. It doesn’t have to be the night of a big event like the Perseid meteor shower, and you don’t have to start by trying to track down a hard-to-find phenomenon like the Crab nebula. Find the easy-to-spot Orion with its distinctive belt in the winter sky or a bright planet like Jupiter or Venus.
If you aren’t sure where to start, ask your child: What do they want to see? LaCoursiere says kids often enjoy drawing connections with shows, movies and books they enjoy. If they’re an aspiring Jedi, look for Saturn’s moon Mimas, which looks like the Death Star. Jupiter’s icy moon Europa could pass for Hoth. He has had kids get excited about constellations because they recognize the names from the Percy Jackson series or find connections in Harry Potter when they discover Sirius (the Dog Star) or Bellatrix in the constellation Orion.
It’s not about producing future astrophysicists. The act of just being present in nature has its own benefits. Studies have shown that time spent in nature has huge benefits for kids, such as lowered stress levels and the promotion of cognitive development.
In our backyard, my wife points to a bright light near the moon. “Do you see that thing that looks like a star?” she asks the 4-year-old. “It’s actually a planet. It’s Venus.” He looks up for a bit before getting distracted again. He has a pole from a set of Tinker Toys that is currently doubling as a lightsaber. There is a battle in his imagination, and there’s no time for stars anymore.
You don’t need a telescope or an elaborate plan to enjoy the sky
It can be tempting to invest in a telescope as soon as your kid shows an interest in space. Telescopes turn fuzzy pinpricks of light into definite shapes, into planets with gaseous bands or dazzling rings. “It’s a unique experience,” LaCoursiere says of telescopes. “There’s nothing else like it.” But he advises heading to a planetarium or star party with your local astronomy club to use a telescope with an expert before purchasing your own, which can be complicated. Nichols adds that you may be able to borrow a telescope or binoculars from your local library.
For a more robust night sky experience without any gear, leave the city and head toward dark skies. There, you may be able to spot meteor showers, dimmer stars, harder-to-see planets, and maybe even the gorgeous Milky Way. Those objects are more difficult to see inside a city where light pollution greatly restricts what can be seen with the naked eye.
Though, again, there’s no right or wrong way to stargaze. LaCoursiere suggests first simply stepping into the backyard. Find the moon and the brightest objects in the night sky that can still be visible inside cities despite the obstructing light pollution.
“If you’re only looking at the stuff right around you on the ground, that is 180 degrees of what’s there,” Nichols says. “The sky is the other 180 degrees. What’s above your head? Literally, half of your experience is what’s above your head. We’re constantly looking down at our feet, at our phones, at the ground around us. Looking upward is the other half.”
After our short stargazing trek into the backyard, my daughter reads a graphic novel in bed. My 6-year-old is asleep in his bunk. The 4-year-old is drifting off in the bottom bunk. He turns to my wife and asks, “That was a real planet?”
Maybe it wasn’t a profound experience that will shape his life, and it wasn’t the grand night of gazing deep into the cosmos I hoped for. Yet that short sojourn into a light-polluted urban backyard has his brain buzzing. Some of those bright dots overhead are planets, and who knows what might be happening there.
