I enjoy stargazing. I think it's good to know for land navigation, and also helps amuse oneself if outside for prolonged periods at night. Moreover, the zodiac reminds us of significant mythic topics worth contemplation.

Here is a good website to help learn to read the sky:

http://www.space.com/

My kids love to hear about the stars and it would be a worthwhile lead-in to both astronomy science and mythology.

I enjoy stargazing. I think it's good to know for land navigation, and also helps amuse oneself if outside for prolonged periods at night. Moreover, the zodiac reminds us of significant mythic topics worth contemplation.

Here is a good website to help learn to read the sky:

http://www.space.com/

My kids love to hear about the stars and it would be a worthwhile lead-in to both astronomy science and mythology.

I agree! When my daughter was little we spent a lot of time stargazing and it was a great way to learn about Greek mythology. We learned from old children's books from the fifites and sixties, and old encyclopedias that had drawings of the constellations. 365 Starry Nights by Raymo is a good book to use throughout the year.

Not to mention the most practical use of astronomy: navigation.

yep, actually I did mention land navigation. Orienteering is a good sport to learn to do this with a compass. In the age of the GPS device, land navigation is becoming a lost art.

of course sailors may have kept up with it much better than most...

I love to stargaze.

Even if to only see the exact same our ancestors saw. That to me is mindblowing. Our landscape changes, but the sky hardly ever does :cool:

The Spanish Canary islands off the African coast, is brilliant to see meteors !