Telescope Time

Not long ago, Mom-E and I were rocking on the front porch after the crew was asleep, and we noticed a particularly bright "star".

A little reading revealed that the "star" was actually Jupiter, which is closer to Earth than it's been in 50-some years.

I couldn't help but think that the boys might get pretty excited about looking at the moon, Jupiter, and the stars with a telescope.

Apparently, I thought right.

We bought a small, "starter" telescope.

And now every night that's not cloudy or rainy, we go outside and play with the telescope before bed.

"Dad-E, can we have 'telescope time'?"

Not only has it been a great motivator for small men to promptly bathe, jammie, and brush teeth, but it's been nice bonding time.

And we have been successful in getting the Moon and Jupiter into focus. Albeit briefly.

Of course, every time Little Brother looks in the telescope, the first thing he does is grab the telescope and move it away from whatever I spent 10 minutes trying to focus on.

But when it's Big Brother's turn, Little Brother likes to go around and stand in front of the telescope, blocking any view.

But I don't care.

It's more about just spending time with the boys.

Of course, we have had some good questions.

"Dad-E, is Jupiter bigger than our house."

"Yes."

I opted for the explanation of "If the entire Earth is a marble, then Jupiter is the size of a basketball."

"So does that mean that Jupiter is bigger than my school?"

"Yeah, something like that."

I doubt we'll have any astrophysicists in the family, but I really enjoy this down-time at the end of the day with the boys.

See you on Fatherhood Friday,
Busy-Dad-E