Funny Stuff

Tonight Cassidy asked if she could look through a telescope. Unfortunately I sold my telescope quite a while back. I never really thought I would need it much anymore, especially with arrival of the internet and the ability to see any picture from space taken with billion dollar telescopes. But I did feel a little sad that I didn't still have it for her. Ironically, it was about this same time of year that a major discovery was made with the telescope.

The year was 1609. While in Venice, Galileo had heard of an instrument that would magnify objects. He quickly used his crafstman skills to grind glass into lenses to create his own, more powerful telescope. He turned it towards the heavens to be the first to observe the moons of Jupiter!

As a child, my parents bought a telescope for me one Christmas. Like Galileo, I turned my great wonder towards the sky. I picked out the brightest object I could find that winter, which was of course the planet Jupiter. The moment I saw those tiny dots surrounding the celestial giant, I felt a tiny bit of the excitment that Galileo, or for that matter any amateur astronomer has ever felt.

So, without the aid of the telescope, I showed Cassidy some pictures on the internet of a few of the wonders. We looked at the moon and Mars. We were working our way out towards Jupiter when she asked, "how do we get to space." I quickly brought up a picture of the space shuttle, and then I had the idea to search for a video on youtube for a launch. Sure enough, there was a video clip of a space shuttle launch. She had never seen anything like that before. I told her, "Maybe one day you will go to space." At first she said, "I don't think I want to do that." Then, as the shuttle lifted off the ground, roaring with all its firey might, she paused and said, "I don't think I EVER want to do that!"

The picture above is of Callie with her first Christmas tree. Talk about excited. Wow! How will we keep her away from it?