Your guide to activities and fun things to do with your preschoolers, toddlers and kids in pittsburgh, PA

Stargazing Around Pittsburgh

by Jennifer Signore

August 04, 2009

Recently, the nation celebrated the 40^th anniversary of the lunar landing.  And while we're still in the throes of warm summer evenings, it's a great time for some space explorations with the kids.  Unless you have a Wallace and Gromit type contraption in your basement, you'll need to keep the explorations a little closer to home.  Here are a few places around Pittsburgh from which you can reach for the stars.

Carnegie Science Center

At the Carnegie Science Center, you can visit the Buhl Digital Dome, which is a whole new level of space exploration from what we used to see at the old Buhl Planetarium.  The collection of shows will take you from the skyline over Pittsburgh to Mister Rogers' Neighborhood, and to Mars.  In fact, you can even take a magical adventure inside the body at the digital dome. On Fridays and Saturdays at the Henry Buhl Jr. Observatory, you can participate in Sky Watch where you will get up close and personal with the night sky.  How great is that?   

Allegheny Observatory

The Allegheny Observatory, developed in 1859, sits in Riverview Park on the city's Northside.  Even though it is owned and operated by the University of Pittsburgh, it is open to the public for tours April through October.  The tours are free, but reservations are required.  Call 412-321-2400 between 1:00 and 5:00p.m. Monday through Friday to make a reservation.  

Amateur Astronomers Association of Pittsburgh

AAAP has been around for nearly 75 years and is a great resource for western Pennsylvania residents who like to reach for the stars.  The calendar link on their Web site keeps you in tune with the heavenly bodies and you can plan to attend one of the Mingo Public Star Parties to meet other like-minded people. 

The Backyard

One of the best things about stargazing is that you can participate without any fancy equipment whatsoever.  I remember spending night after night of my youth finding constellations and major stars in the sky just using the naked eye.  Check out an online star map site (this is just one example of many) or find a paper version of a star map as your guide.  If you want to pull in some of the finer details, like seeing all seven sisters in the Pleiades or perhaps the Andromeda Galaxy, you'll need some magnification.  A pair of binoculars might do, or you could splurge on an amateur telescope.

Remember, when it comes to stargazing, the sky's the limit!