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Celebrating 400 years of the telescope!

Astronomy is the study of outer space, made possible by the telescope!

The Sombrero Galaxy - taken by the Hubble telescope. It has 800 billion suns.

Humans have always studied the stars and the science of astronomy was born 400 years ago with the invention of the telescope by Galileo Galilei (1564-1642.) Galileo’s simple telescope with two lenses was hard to use and gave a dim, narrow field-of-view. Modern optical telescopes use a series of mirrors and lenses to deliver a lighter, clearer image.

Do you like to look at the night sky? Have you ever seen the Milky Way? Do you wonder about the moon? You're already an astronomer!
Learn about the phases of the moon

Cool astronomy web sites:
Images from Hubble Telescope
Denver Museum of Nature and Science
The Exploratorium Ancient Observatories
Astronomy Magazine for Kids
KidsAstronomy.com
Best Hubble Photographs
NASA
NASA for Kids
10 Years of the International Space Station
Apollo 40th Anniversary of the Voyage to the Moon
Video of Moon using a Galileoscope

Books about stars and space:

	Close Encounters : Exploring the Universe with the Hubble Space Telescope by Elaine Scott Describes what scientists have been able to deduce about the nature of our solar system and the universe based on data collected by the Hubble telescope.
	Destination : Space by Seymour Simon Explains new discoveries about the universe made possible by the Hubble Telescope. See all kids' books about Hubble Space Telescope
	The Mysterious Universe : Supernovae, Dark Energy, and Black Holes by Ellen Jackson Alex Filippenko has a really hard job. He spends his time looking for tiny pin pricks of light. Why? Because he is an astronomer and those pin pricks are really exploding stars. Alex is looking for supernovae.
	Team Moon : How 400,000 People Landed Apollo 11 on the Moon by Catherine Thimmesh This broad look at the first Apollo 11 mission tells the stories of some of the behind-the-scenes workers that together enabled the first moon landing.
	11 Planets : A New View of the Solar System by David A. Aguilar Using spectacular computer artwork, this colorful book profiles all 11 planets in our newly categorized solar system: terrestrial Mercury, Venus, Earth, and Mars; gas giants Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune; and dwarf planets Pluto, Ceres, and Eris.
	See more books and movies about astronomy!