Construct this origami Yoda you must.

Very cool - origami Yoda.

And here is how to fold it.

May the fold be with you.

Via Inhabitat.

What a lovely surprise from a group of enthusiastic young stargazers

Recently I took the telescope to the Harrison School so my daughter's class could witness the Transit of Venus. As I wrote here, it ended up being a LOT more than just her class!

It was a lot of fun on the day. And I hope that it's one of those events that sticks in these children's minds for years to come - like how I vividly remember witnessing Armstrong step on the Moon at Canberra's Red Hill Primary School, even though I was only six years old.

But there was a real surprise in store for me a few days later. Every child in her class made up their own thank you cards.

Click on the picture to see the wonderful messages and pictures from the children. And some pretty good recall of the Dobsonian telescope design too!

Really made my day.

The Dish - in Lego. And it tracks too!

The iconic radio telescope at Parkes in rural New South Wales, a.k.a. The Dish, has been done proud by an obvious fan Ross Crawford, who has created this faithful replication in Lego.

According to CSIRO, the current version tracks correctly too, with azimuth and elevation controls.

To cap it off, he's working on incorporating go-to star tracking too!

Social network gaming for kids - with a space theme. And it's Aussie developed!

Do you have kids? Then check out Little Space Heroes.

Like Moshi Monsters, this is a kid-friendly social networking game environment. The kids get to design their own avatar then go and play. They can communicate with other players, including their friends.



Here's an interview with the developers, Aussie guys Bubblegum Interactive, featured on ABC3's Good Game.

There's a space theme, but as my son said, it isn't real space. But that's OK. There are games and worlds to explore, and educational puzzles to boot. And it's free. There is a premium membership, but I couldn't find out how much that was or really what extras it gets.

Some review comments:

On parenting and science education - when Mum is an astronaut! Julie Payette video interview

A good short interview with Canadian Space Shuttle astronaut Julie Payette about being the mother of two and science education in the home.



Julie was CapCom (Capsule Communicator - the main comms person between Mission Control and a space crew for several missions - I saw her quite often on NASA TV. NASA prefers to use an experienced astronaut to spearhead communications and ensure important information is not lost between two very busy worksites.

An awesome early Christmas morning sky viewing, totally worth getting up early for.

Getting out of bed at 3:30am is pretty hard at the best of times. Waking up the 11yo boy too and on Christmas morning is really stretching it.

But a crystal clear sky and the prospect of seeing Comet Lovejoy meant we just had to do it.

And it was so worthwhile. As soon as we got out of the car we could see the comet's tail - stretching two full handspans up from the ESE horizon.

We caught the end of a pass by the International Space Station. Mars was clear and glowing orange, our favourite - Saturn - had returned to the sky and was beautiful, with an orange band clearly showing.

We also found two open clusters and three nebula closely bunched in the Large Magellanic Cloud. Jaxom saw several shooting stars, we both saw an Iridium satellite - including a bright flare.

We were amazed to watch two bright satellites seemingly on a collision course, but they missed...

All the while the small mob of kangaroos surrounding us were grunting their displeasure at the company.

And to cap it off, the Star Walk app on the phone showed us Santa and his sleigh doing laps around the sky. Upside down every time - must be written by Americans...

Sorry I haven't got any super special photos of the comet to share, but we are seriously lacking in the decent camera stakes... Perhaps Santa will bring me a Canon 550??

So if Christmas is about family, then I really couldn't think of a better way to start it off than this wonderful sky session with my son.

Those trees, those trees, those truffula trees - The Lorax is being made into a movie!

Most self-proclaimed greenies, and a lot of "I'm not a greenie but..." people have read Dr Seuss' The Lorax to their kids.

We know that there really isn't much that will change the habits of the current generations other than waiting for us all to die out. So the trick is to kick off the next generations on the right path. And The Lorax has been a staple part of laying that foundation ethic.

So many people will be pleased to see a movie version is to be released in March.

Like to go to Mars?

NASA's plans to return to the moon have unfortunately been shelved while Obama props up corporate executive salaries in the USA instead. But they are sending a new rover to Mars - much bigger this time, so hopefully less likely to get stuck in potholes like the current little one has recently.

And NASA is compiling a microchip with names of interested people, which will travel on the new rover - called Curiosity - to Mars and presumably all over the surface.

So add your name or your kids' to the list.

What to do with disposable little toys

Our kids' bedroom drawers invariably seem to fill with stupid little giveaway toys that you'd like to throw out but they won't let you. (Better if we could have avoided getting them in the first place I guess...)

Here's a cool and easy idea of something to do with them that also uses a bit of recycling: turn them into snowglobes.