StarrGazing

Tonight we are going for a meet and greet meeting for astronomy at Bow Bench Retreat here in Carseland, it's the same place Momma goes knitting on Wednesday nights.

Stargazing is always something I've wanted to share with our little Starr and something I've missed doing in the past few years. There's so many online resources to make stargazing fun for kids and adults.

First, I remembered the RASC (Royal Astronomical Society of Canada) and their wonderful guides and certificate programs and quickly printed off the Explore the Universe paperwork. 
 "A challenging program for the new astronomer covering all major astronomical objects including constellations, bright stars, the Moon, Deep Sky Objects, and Double Stars. Suitable for both binoculars and telescopes".

Here is a summary of the Explore the Universe program requirements:

Observing Objective	Required	Available
Constellations and Bright Stars	12	24
The Moon	16	32
Solar System	5	10
Deep Sky Objects	12	24
Double Stars	10	20
Total	55	110

Astronomy can be overwhelming to start and this program gives a great into and a bit of a structure to start exploring and learning! Mark and I had started this a few years back, but I lost our copy with our records, no big whoop to start over I figure.

I went looking online for fun kid things to do and found Nasa's The Space Place. I printed off the instructions and template to make a Star Finder and found a constellation pattern template, which I printed out, traced the Ursa Major disc onto heavy cardstock (I used old cereal boxes), and punched holes in. Tonight we can shine a flash light and put the pattern in the light to project Ursa Major onto the wall. I was so happy when I realized the Explore the Universe Guide and the constellation pattern template seemed to match up well. For the adults I printed off information sheets from a constellation guide and from starryskies.com about the Ursa Major Constellation. I figured it was a good place to start. Now my creative juices are flowing and I'm thinking a short fun book containing the Ursa Major disc would be even more fun, nothing online, it may mean I make one myself! (add it to the "books I'd love to write" category beside pictorial cookbooks for kids).



Oh, my mind is working overtime and the clock is ticking. I'm going to go see if I can quickly write a short story based on the big ole bear's story.....

A new friend

Sorry to leave you all hanging, I've been helping get the local Preschool up and running and what started as simply signing papers to be on the board of directors because it was needed for paperwork has turned into more.. more meetings, more fundraisers..more work. But it's all for a good reason and it's nice to get involved and make a difference in our community and for Ali.

A wonderful lady from knitting nights surprised us with a package for Ali. She didn't get to see Ali open it so I videotaped it when I got home. 
 

Three rainy days...three really long cold rainy days

Ali and I don't know what to do with ourselves. We went to the store, played outside with "brellas and boots" for a bit and now we're back inside drying off.

Last week Ali showed that perhaps floral design isn't what she wants to do with her life. Someone picked and gave her a flower last week. We came home and put it in water....

 Then the next day, Ali picked a flower for me!

 But, then, she made a kinda cute wild flower, dirty washer arrangement. Maybe there's still hope.  LOL