Window to the Night Sky

By Lynn K. McMullin

A wonderfully magical, boxy-drumlike-kind of instrument, a telescope!, on the sidewalk of Cherry Brook Primary School becomes exactly what it advertises – 'a window to the night sky.'  Through these 'windows', last night, I saw the half moon, dusty-gray and looking as big as a basketball, and Jupiter with her four bright moons all in a row!

I love the way Canton is teaching science!!

I know we’re not perfect -- our Grade 5, 8, and 10 science scores have room for improvement -- but I love that we help our kids do things with science, not just spout back to us what they know. I love Gizmos, Robotics Club, Search, experiments in Mills Pond, in the redesigned CBPS courtyard, the CIS weather station, BrainPop, and all the regularly scheduled science labs where kids can experiment and talk about the results.

In the 60’s, I was a perfect science student – I studied and got an A on every science test I took; and yet, (amazingly, you might think!), I never really understood a single thing!  If the teacher asked, “Why does an apple look red?” I could explain in a perfect cursive paragraph that 'white light, like sunlight, is composed of all the possible wavelengths of light. The different surfaces of things caused them to either reflect or absorb some of the light’s wavelengths.  The reflected wavelengths determined the color.  For example, if the apple is red, the apple reflects the red light to our eyes and it absorbs all the other colors in the light.  That's why it’s red!'  Uh-hunh?

In fourth or fifth grade, I built an A+ solar system out of painted papier-mache covered styrofoam balls, coat hangers, and string.  The planets colors, sizes, and distances from each other were more a function of what my mother could find cheap at Woolworth’s five and dime than any application of scientific principle.  I still remember it: “Mary’s Velvet Eyes Make Johnny Stay Up Nights Proposing.” (although, now I realize the ‘proposing’ has been demoted.)  I knew that the sun was a star, only closer, and stars were ‘masses of burning gasses’ held tightly together by gravity.  Uh-hunh?

My ‘night sky’ education, naming the constellations and studying two dimensional pictures of artist-drawn planets like I've recaptured here, didn’t prepare me for the ‘adventure’ over 40 years later of looking through the telescope for the first time and seeing Saturn's rings for myself.  I had that chance four years ago at Cherry's Brook's first 'night sky' event, and I've been a convert ever since! 


That’s why Cherry Brook’s “Window to the Night Sky,” originally the dream and now a labor of love for teacher, Ms. Linda Caraher, is so special.  The event, which is held each year for 2nd graders and their families (and for all the various interlopers who want to a chance at the telescopes) is unforgettable.  What you see through the telescope is real – not a picture in a book or on TV.

The event was postponed twice due to miserable weather forecasts in December, but not even temperatures in the teens and a blustery wind could squelch the spirit and enthusiasm of the second graders and their guests who took turns at four magnificent telescopes set up along the sidewalks. Two local astronomers, Mr. Scott Tracy and Mr. Victor Leger, along with seventh graders from Ms. Marsha Jorgensen’s science class manned the telescopes, providing assistance as needed. The telescopes were fixed on Jupiter and the moon; and this morning, I wonder how many Canton residents will be logging into amazon.com to check out the price of a telescope for their own homes.  It’s that wonderful of an experience!

Like any remarkable educational event, “Window to the Night Sky” takes a lot of people, planning, and preparation. The program began at 5:00 with students singing a song led by Ms. LuAnn Saunders and listening to a brief presentation about the relative sizes of things in space (If Jupiter was the size of a basketball, Earth was a marble.)  This was followed by varied activity stations for students and their families to visit.  At the Star Finder Station, additional seventh graders helped families use devices they had made themselves to find prominent constellations in the winter sky.  In the driveway, Mr. Bill Phelps and Mr. John Sherman showed students how to use a program on the i-pads to locate constellationsand night sky objects.  In the cafeteria, students could work on science experiments with Ms. Kathy Magarian and her fifth graders.  In the gym, after listening to a question, students could use the ‘planet parachute’ with Ms. Pam Keagan and Ms. Robin Nardini and try to finesse a ball into the hole next to the correct planet's name.



Students worked together to maneuver the 'planet parachute'
trying to get the ball into the hole labeled "Venus," the brightest planet.



Mr. Scott Tracy showed students pictures of his backyard conservatory,
with its sliding roof which opened the room to the sky.  Then, he let them take turns
 at one of the telescopes he has built himself.



Several of the telescopes were fixed on the half-moon;
the rest were fixed on Jupiter.  One student, who looked through
the telescope at the moon summed it up perfectly: "Whoa!" she said.