Can you guess how long it would take you to cycle to the Moon? If you cycled at 10 miles per hour which is probably about as fast as you can go on your bike, then it would take you 994 days or just under 3 years! But that would be without stopping for a drink, sandwiches or even for the loo! The Moon was one of the first things I ever saw through a telescope. I was about 10 years old when I first looked through a telescope at the Norwich Astronomical Society and saw the craters on the Moon and the rings of Saturn. Wow, they were brilliant to see! The good news is that you don't need a telescope to look at stuff in the sky. There is no better place to start than with the Moon. It's big and it's bright and easy to find, although sometimes you can't even see it at night because it's hiding behind the Earth! Try finding the Moon every evening for two or three weeks and draw what you see. After drawing it for a couple of weeks, can you see anything changing? Sun dial experiment So what other astronomy things can you do? You could make a sundial. 
Many years ago people used a a sun dial to tell the time |
Unlike today when we have watches and clocks, telling the time a few hundred years ago was pretty difficult. So a sundial was made which helped to tell the time from the shadow made by the Sun. An easy way you can make a sundial is to place a stick, cane or thin piece of wood into your garden (make sure its not in the shade)! Every day at the same time push a peg into the ground where the shadow of the stick ends. Does it stay in the same place or does it move? Discuss this with your science teacher when you get back to school and see if you can find out what it means. See our easy instructions on how to make a sundial.  A word of warning: NEVER look directly at the Sun, with or without telescopes. It is very dangerous.
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