Exploring the Night Sky

    By: Terence Dickenson

    Review:
    Exploring the Night Sky has won the New York Academy of Sciences Children’s Science Book Award. Dickenson presents a large amount of information in this book. The text drifts casually from the factual to the fantastical as it slips into sentences such as, If a spaceship from another planet were to approach Earth, the alien science officer might record in the ship’s log . . ." While these descriptions may be compelling to young readers or to listeners of this book, it may also provide confusing representations of what scientists know, what they are currently studying, and what they hypothesize. There are three sections: the first provides an overview of our solar system. The second looks at some of those features in depth. The third is a guide for viewing the night sky, with beautiful and clear paintings showing the constellations. 72 pages.

    Other Information:
    Exploring the Night Sky is available from Firefly Books Ltd., 4 Daybreak Lane, Westport, CT, 06880-2157. Call 800-387-5085, fax 800-565-6034, online at http://www.fireflybooks.com.

Connect articles that link to this resource:

  • Stargazing
    Why do I run stargazings? I just want to make sure any young child who wants to look at the night sky can use me as a resource; a resource I never had. I’d love to hear from someone who took up astronomy as a hobby or a career and have them say they remember looking through one of my telescopes. Sometimes I wonder if I might be doing things differently today if I had a similar resource available to me over thirty years ago.

  • Tasty Constellations
    "Tasty Constellations" is an activity that is intended for grades 4–6, but can be adapted by varying the amount of research required. This activity requires students to work collaboratively on researching a constellation and creating a model of it using marshmallows as stars.

  • Putting a Planetarium to Work
    In our modern world, the Starlab planetarium is a useful tool for demonstrating seasonal changes in the night sky, along with many other astronomical features and events.

Return to resource list