Venus Transit Event at NASA Visitor's Center 2012

"Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not depart from it." Proverbs 22:6 (NKJV)

This is easier read (and said) than done. I am amazed by the world around me. Simply amazed.  I love the History Channel, the Discover Channel (all of them), and any channel that shows me how things work, what was, what is, and what could be.

I want to raise kids who are amazed by all that God has done, and the extraordinary people, places, and things that are on this earth.  On June 5th, I got a tweet from Kim of Confessions of a Homeschooling Mom about the Venus Transit event at NASA, and even though we would have to hustle from violin class in DC all the way through traffic to NASA in Greenbelt, MD, I was up for the challenge.

I had been to NASA's visitor's center with Kim before for Observe the Moon Night, which was phenomenal, so I couldn't miss this.

We were going to try to see the Venus Transit through the cloudy afternoon/evening sky.  This wasn't going to happen for another 100+ years, and I couldn't let the kids miss it.  To show you how rare this event was, here is some information on it from NASA's website:

It's the final opportunity of the century to witness the rare astronomical reunion of the sun, Venus and Earth. On Tuesday, June 5 or 6, 2012 depending on your location, Venus will make its presence in the solar system visible from Earth’s day side. Viewers will see Venus as a small dot slowly drifting across the golden disk of the sun.

Transits of Venus are very rare, separated by more than a hundred years. There have been 53 transits since 2000 B.C. but only six have been witnessed since the invention of the telescope in 1608. These rare events occur in pairs, with the first transit occurring June 8, 2004. The next opportunity won't be until Dec. 10-11, 2117.

We missed some of the activities, but baby girl got to make some crafts, they climbed on the rockets (which they love), we watched some amazing presentations on Venus, and saw the live feed of Venus passing in front of the sun.

I want to train up my kids to be in awe of the world and God's works.  I want them to be curious and to never stop seeking out knowledge and understanding of their world.

If you are in the area, I encourage you to check out the programs that NASA offers for children and adults.  Start here: http://www.nasa.gov/offices/education/about/elesec_overview.html, then make calls to see if there is a local visitor's center or programs in your area.

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Eva is the administrator and blogger for SocaMom.com. Follow her on Twitter at @socamomdc.