At last my turn came to view the stars but I couldn’t reach the eye piece. So Mom rummaged in the dark garage for awhile and came out with a wooden box and placed it next to the telescope. I stepped on top of it, finally tall enough; I looked into the eye piece. My brother tried explaining how light works but I really didn’t care. He always talks about things I don’t understand. I’m only eight!
That night I saw something amazing. He focused the telescope on Jupiter and asked me if I could see the largest planet in the solar system. I actually saw Jupiter! It looks different from the little white dots that stars make. It doesn’t twinkle like a star and seems more round and pale. This is a planet, another world. Does anyone live there? Then he told me to look for two small moons next to Jupiter. I could see both of them. He taught me their names; Io and Europa, two of the many moons of Jupiter.
Amazed, I imagined standing on this grand new world, staring up into its night sky, gasping at the beauty of so many brilliant moons, and wondering if they were like ours. When my turn ended, I climbed down from my experience, forever changed, forever seeing with new eyes, forever wanting to touch the stars.
Moons of Jupiter from Bent Nails, a book by Steven J. Elliott