Build a Telescope with Your Kids

A great activity you can do with your kids is to build your own telescope together.  Telescopes can be very complicated with several pieces that have to be constructed and placed just right to work correctly, but there's an easy way for you to build one and introduce the interior of a telescope to your kids.  The answer is the Galileoscope.

The Galileoscope is named after the famous physicist/astronomer Galileo Galilei who built his own telescope to look at the night sky.  Galileo is NOT the inventor of the telescope, but he is the first to use it for astronomical purposes.  He built his telescope in 1609.  In 2009, 400 years after his first use of the telescope, the Galileoscope was released to celebrate his accomplishments.  The Galileoscope is a very simple refracting telescope that comes un-assembled.  Following a simple set of instructions, you put the pieces together and build your own telescope.  It's by no means a great telescope, but it works!  

The Galileoscope is a great teaching tool and your kids will love it.  As an added bonus, it's cheap (or not...see below)!  For more information visit:

http://galileoscope.org/

As I'm writing this, I see that the price of the Galileoscope has increased drastically since 2009...so maybe not so cheap after all.  Prices on Amazon.com are around $45-50.  Back in 2009 specials were run by several organizations and I bought mine for $12.  Still, it's a great teaching tool!