Well, I was once a child too. But kidding aside, I thought, children need more helps in getting them to be aware of the passing of a satellite and observing those satellites passing through the night sky in their backyards.
To these days, I still vividly remember when my grandma pointing to the propeller airplane passing so high in the sky while telling me that was ‘bnao kolo’ or ‘bird ship’ in local dialect when I was 4 or 5.
In his comments, Quin wrote this about the grandkids:
Thanks for making it easy to put the “wow” factor in old “pop pop’s” satellite tracking. With all three grandkids standing in the yard looking up; their eyes twinkle at all that metal we have put into orbit!
In Christmas 2005, all my kids were home so I mentioned that I was waiting for grandkids before buying a telescope. My eldest son jokingly said, by the time you get the telescope, your eyesight would be so blurred and you could not enjoy it anymore. Why don’t you just buy it now? No! I knew that I would be bored after a while and the telescope would be collecting dust in my garage. However, I think I still can do something for other kids.
For example, what about neighboring school children. Getting ISS passing schedule from Heavens-Above, talking to their science teacher, let everyone take home two pages print out of time and the path and ask them to teach their parent how to use the charts; give them an assignment and let every one come back the next day to share their experiences. I know, not all of them will do that. But for those who do it, that first sight of the bright object moving across the sky would probably stay for a long time the way I still remember the ‘bnao kolo’ my grandma showed me more than half a century ago. 
Beside the local school, I also remember the kids under the care of my cyber-friend Captain Budi Soehardi of Singaporean Airlines and his family.
The school conditions in the surrounding vilages were bad and crawded as you can see from the pictures Captain B posted on his blog.
Captain B brought a group of Singaporean students to visit his orphanage, and these blog entries as well as the links on the archives here provide some of the activities of these Singaporean students at and around Roslin Orphanage.
For these kids, may be a better place to stay, a better class-room, more books to read are more urgent than watching the ISS passing over the night sky. But I always dream to show to these kids one day, and let them watch the passing of ISS or other satellites. You will never know or predict, if there are future astronouts, scientists, engineers, doctors, enterpreneurs, etc., in the group of kids like these?
That was one of the reasons I don’t need to reinvent the wheel and write about satellite tracking for the grown ups here. The Internet is full of the info for them. All I need is to provide the info and links for these kids, then plant the dream in their innocent mind. Would you join me? What about starting with your neighbor elementary or middle school kids?
The idea is very simple.
1. Go to Heavens-above and select your location from database by selecting your coutry then input the name of your city or town.
2. Get the pass detail for your location by clicking the name of your location (in blue on the left side of the list)
3. Select the satelitte name such as ISS by clicking the name of the satellite (in blue).
4. Print the Pass Details.
5. Explain to the students how to use the Sky Chart using the info Chris Peat provided:
Whole Sky Chart
This chart show the path of the satellite across the sky. Please note that East and West are NOT the “wrong way round” if you hold the chart over your head to correspond to the view of the sky.
6. Print the Ground track and let the student take home the picture with them.
7. Remind them to set their alarm clock few minutes earlier or tell their parents about this school project and the time they need to go out and watch the satellite passing by. They need to ask their parents’ help to get a correct time for their alarm clock.
8. Tell them what to expect during a clear sky.
9. Give them an assignment to share their experience with the class the next day.
At least that is what I can suggest now. Would like to hear if you have experience sharing with the kids.
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