Buying A Star for Kids

One interesting gift you can get for someone is naming a star after them. Buying a star is easy if you go to the right store for it. It often only costs not much more than a few dollars to personalize the entire process.

This is definitely the kind of present that the person you give the gift to is unlikely to be expecting. Overall, it depends on the type of person, but if you’re giving a gift to someone who likes to be surprised, then chances are good they will love this type of surprise.

It’s also important to check to make sure that they like astronomy. One thing that stands out in how to buy a star for someone is that it’s something that’s one of a kind. In some cases, the dedication and lists will actually go up on real rockets into the sky as well. For example, there are launching pads in New Mexico that can do this. One such event is shown below from a recent launch.

Complete Package

You can get special stuff through this package beyond only getting the name recorded in a copyrighted document. This is usually something that comes standard, after all. Some companies also offer astronomy software with 3D capabilities so you can get a real sense of where the star you named is in the universe. There are so many stars in the sky, and it’s unlikely that you’ll run out of stars anytime soon, after all.

Some name a star sites also offer special opportunities for viewing your star and there’s even the possibility for participating in actual space flights, depending on the exact package that you go with on any particular site.

Unique Gift

If you can find the star in the night’s sky, then you can show the recipient their own named star, something that no one else on Earth will be able to say about that particular astral body. This is something that they will always have and that they will always be able to point to no matter what happens.

It’s especially a useful gift for people who like uniqueness. Those who have their own individual approaches to the world.

Space Launch

The Amazing things about astronomy

There are many subjects in the discipline of science but none presents such a foreboding than astronomy. Not to look down on other sciences, but we can say without fear that astronomy is the one area which comes with reeling answers every so few years. It is a science that presents to us more questions than answers. However, for every answer we get, it has such a revealing meaning that we are able to conclusively tell or deduce a lot of things.

It wasn’t long ago that we were all in agreement that Pluto is a planet. Yet with a series of serious observatory times and dedicated astronomers, it was finally decided that Pluto is just but one of the thousands of plutoids just next to the Oort cloud. Farther than Pluto lies amazing stuff that will take your time and imagination to understand or comprehend.

In the outer system of the solar system lie stars. Some of the stars are so dense that it would take hundreds of our suns to equal their density. Some stars on the other hand are so bright such as the one at the tail of the Canis Major that it shines more than 50,000 times brighter than our sun. Going further into space, you will come across nebulae where young suns are hatched. It is incredible to imagine that new suns get created every other day and this by extension means that there are also many planets that form alongside such stars.

There are supernovas that erupt and spread their glorious last day energy across eons of time. These dying stars are seen from time to time. However, given that the human race has spent less than a minute in relation to the larger scale of universal time, such phenomenons are but rare. Still, if you are lucky to witness one, you will appreciate just what a mote of dust we are.

There is a million and one things that one can say about astronomy. There are those galaxies millions of years away while there is science closer home that is still as fascinating. Take for example the moon which has one ‘day’ in a whole month. A day lasts 15 earth days and a night will take 15 earth days. This means that the moons 3:00 PM or ‘1500’ hours are like the 10th day with the sun constantly shining on it. You can imagine how hot it must be. Little wonder it took months to plan and plot the best time to land on the moon.

Astronomy is rich in amazing facts which will make your brain reel in amazement and awe. This is a science that has no end and no distance. Everything is a matter of time. It is because of this that distance in astronomy gets measured in time.

The History of Astronomy

Astronomy is one of the oldest sciences. It is very exciting because all one has to do is observe. Other than deductions in terms of calculations of time and space (which in astronomy mean one and the same thing), you will enjoy this terrific science. There is every reason to believe that the observation of space and the careful calculations of the address we hold in the expanse of time and space started a long time ago. With the gathered information to date, we can conclusively say we are not the first ones to know or establish that there are billions of stars and planets out there.

There is little-recorded history as to when astronomy was assumed to have started, at least in a serious way. In early days, the observation of the sky and the deductions made thereafter was mainly done using the naked eye. Early cultures which are known to have an appreciation of astronomy included United Kingdom, Egypt, Cambodia among others. Such cultures had stones or large artifacts that had some astronomical purpose. Such symbols also stood to signify seasons of the year or when to plant crops among other important calendar functions.

As civilization evolved and more knowledge on astronomy was gathered, different cultures came to recognize the importance of assembling some observatory stations. Such places included Egypt, Central America, China and Greece. It is during this time that a lot was learnt about planet earth. This generation of astronomers led way for the Ptolemy era. This is when it was discovered that earth was round after all. Other planets and moons revolving such planets were discovered. It was indeed a very exciting time in history.

It was towards the late BC years that Babylonians laid a foundation on which modern astronomy is founded. They are the ones who discovered the Sarus which is the system through which lunar eclipses appear. It is around the 3rd BC that scientists calculated accurately the distance between the sun and our planet. In the middle ages, a lot about the solar system was discovered. Moreover, this was the time when supernovas were explored and explained. Several galaxies were discovered and classified as such.

Modern history is all but exciting. Obviously we could not be where we are today were it not for the hard work and untamed imagination of our forefathers. With leading scientists such as Carl Sagan, we have been able to send Voyager 1 into space where we get to learn amazing things about our universe every other day. We have reached such an advanced level that we are able to see planets billions of years away and currently not humanly reachable. We are able to extrapolate as to the direction our universe together with others is going. Such is the amazing history of astronomy.