Astronomyis as large as the universe that it seeks to discover.  Star astronomy is just one part of the overall science and hobby.  There are ample phenomenon and objects in just our own solar system to keep someone bust for an entire life time.  That’s why many people decide to focus their attention on the stars.  This is a perfect opportunity to look at  telescopes for beginners and make this a first step in helping your kids appreciate astronomy.

Which Is The Biggest Star?

Star astronomy begins about 94 million miles from Earth, with our own sun.  Its heat is staggering when the amount of heat the earth receives from it over that great distance is realized.  98% of the stuff in our solar system is in the sun.  That includes all the other planets even with huge Jupiter and Saturn on our side.  The sun could hold over 1.3 million Earths.  The nuclear reaction at the Sun’s core comes from pressure 340 billion times that at sea level on earth and temperatures of over 27,000,000°F.  That would burn a pizza in a second.

Since it’s so close to Earth, relatively compared to other suns, the Sun is the most thoroughly studied star.  It’s about 250,000 times closer to Earth than the next known star.  But when you travel far from Earth star astronomy really starts to hum.

A human can see about 5000 stars, all in our own Milky Way galaxy, from Earth.  More of the 1×10^22 stars in the universe can be seen even through a child telescope.  For those who care that’s a 1 followed by 22 zeros.  Even  kids telescopes bring hundreds of thousands of stars to a person’s view.  Imagine that!  Professionals using larger telescopes can see other galaxies that contain over 200 billion stars. It’s a project of generations just to count each one.

The Benefits of Star Astronomy

Scientists now know, through star astronomy, that many stars and planets orbiting them.  Stars wobble when planets orbit them, and that wobbling can be measured.  And in late 2008 astronomers finally took the first pictures of planets orbiting other stars, and even of entire solar systems.  That means yet another step taken towards verifying the existence of other intelligent life out there somewhere in the universe.

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