9 Ways to Enjoy the Night Sky
Here's how and when to watch the Perseid meteor shower tonight and 8 other ways to enjoy the night sky.
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6. Make a telescope.
You don’t need a NASA-quality telescope to get a close look at stars. Build one from National Geographic Kids Get Outside Guide using paper towel tubes. See if you can name some of the constellations that you may spot! Here are step-by-step instructions.
7. Eat like an astronaut.
Freeze-drying food is a process that removes its water—reducing the food’s weight up to 90 percent, making it smaller and easier to preserve. Today, Astronaut Foods, founded in the 1970s to supply the astronauts of NASA’s Apollo Missions, produces a variety of novelty treats including Neapolitan AstroRox Ice Cream Drops. As you gaze at the stars while enjoying this treat, imagine you’re in a Space Shuttle. No
freezers needed! ($3.50; astronautfoods.com)
8. Find Polaris.
Finding the Big Dipper, an asterism—a small grouping of stars—in the constellation 
Ursa Major (Great Bear) is one of the easiest ways to find Polaris (the North Star). Once you find the seven-star asterism, draw an imaginary line connecting the two stars on the edge of the bowl (without the handle) from bottom to top and continue it until you reach a really bright star—Polaris!
9. Romp around under the full moon.
Wolves only turn into wolves when the moon is full. Play on this story and let your children and their friends run wild during the upcoming full moons (Sept. 2, Oct. 1, Oct. 31) by playing a game of “Where-wolf”—a spin on Sardines, where one person hides and everyone else (the werewolves) looks for the hider. The twist from regular hide-and-seek: Once someone finds the hider, they hide too. The last person to find the group of hiders has to then hide first.
