5 Things to Do Outdoors With Your Children on a Clear Night

On dark, clear nights an amazing world awaits even the casual observer. Telescopes and binoculars are optional and the viewing is best on nights when the moon is not full. So here are five great ways to enjoy a clear night with the kids:

Look for satellites

Our skies are filled with all kinds of spacecraft from weather satellites to communications satellites to the space station. On clear nights, they are easy to spot. Just look for what appears to be a slow moving star. Unlike an airplane, these objects do not have blinking lights and are usually white in appearance as they reflect the Sun's light.

Generally speaking, the slower the satellite appears to be moving across the sky, the higher its orbit. And satellites will tend to disappear, reappear, brighten and dim depending on the object's rotation and how well sunlight is reflected.

Watch for shooting stars

Certain times of the year, the Earth enters into debris trails left behind by fleeing comets. One such period usually falls in mid-August and another occurs around the second week of November. These meteor showers are the best times to observe shooting stars, sometimes as many as 50 or 60 per hour.

Caused by dust and small particles burning up as they enter the Earth's dense atmosphere, shooting stars can be seen any time of the year in less frequent patterns.

Since the middle of the night provides the best viewing opportunities during meteor showers, it can be a special treat to wake the kids up and go outside during what would normally be their bed time. Local weather stations and the Internet are the best sources of information for when meteor showers will occur in your area.

Find some constellations

Constellations are star groupings that the ancients thought looked like people, animals and creatures they were familiar with. Today, people still navigate by how the constellations appear to be aligned.

Armed with a book about the night stars or some information gleaned from the Internet, many of the constellations are easy to spot. Orion and the Big Dipper are just a couple of the easier to recognize systems.

Look for the Big Dipper

The Big Dipper, also called Ursa Major or "Big Bear," is an important constellation for navigation purposes because connecting two of the stars in the system will always lead to Polaris, the North Star. Knowing that means one can always find north on a clear night.

The Big Dipper looks like a huge ladle with a curved handle and four stars that appear in a cup-like fashion. From our point of view on this planet, the constellation rotates around Polaris throughout the night.

To find Polaris, just connect the two stars furthest from the handle and draw an imaginary line from the bottom of the cup to the top. The next star you should see is Polaris, the North Star. Contrary to some perceptions, it does not shine brightly. But it is very consistent in its location.

Discover the Milky Way

Especially on summer nights, the Milky Way, our own galaxy, seems to stretch out across the night sky like a milky cloud. But this cloud is made up of millions of stars.

To view the Milky Way, it is almost better to look close to but not in the exact direction of the galaxy. Then, your eyes will be better able to pick up the contrast between the darkness of space and the soft glow of that sea of stars.

These are just five suggestions for nighttime stargazing fun with your children. It's always a time to share thoughts about the vastness of space, the wonder of creation and the beauty of the heavens. Simply realizing that most of the stars we see are hundreds, even thousands of light-years way and that some may have disappeared even though their light is still traveling to Earth is enough to make a young mind take notice.

So take a few minutes of time and spend it with your children tonight, gazing at the sky and being amazed at its wonder.