It was a late night for the four of us last night, but I think it was all for a good cause. We took the girls to a local observatory, which has a huge computerized telescope that is housed in one of those fancy shmancy rotating roof buildings. We've been trying to make this trip for six weeks now, but every time we have been able to go it has rained. Fortunately last night was clear and beautiful, and afforded some amazing views.
I was truly impressed with the telescope; we were able to check out some nebulae and star clusters that our own in-house telescope would never even come close to capturing. The girls particularly loved the dumbbell nebula, which is basically a big dumbbell shaped mass filled with dust and gas. For some reason that combination of features really captured their attention. This was the only picture I was able to snap inside the building, and I had to do it quickly while the "stellar tour guide" was working on something else (I didn't want to interrupt the stargazing).
MJ brought her "star binoculars" along so we could do a little exploration of our own. Since this observatory is down on the coast, there are very little lights to interfere with stargazing, and as I'm sure you know, that means the stars are clearer and brighter. We got great views of both the moon and jupiter just with the binoculars.
Originally we were only going to stay until 10 or so, but we had so much fun we ended up hanging around until almost midnight. We felt bad tucking the kids in so late, especially since we all had to get up at six this morning to take our church youth group canoeing. The girls were troopers and never complained, but I have a feeling they're going to sleep well tonight. Play now, sleep later, isn't that what summer is for?
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