‘Naked eye astronomer’ explains Iraqi skies to children Posted On: Monday, Nov. 23 2009 04:50 AM By Don Bolding
Killeen Daily Herald

More than 100 children and parents Sunday afternoon watched Central Texas College's "naked eye astronomer" Warren L. Hart use the Mayborn Planetarium's ceiling to illustrate the meaning of the children's book "Night Catch" and then broke into small groups in the planetarium building's classrooms to discuss family traditions.

The event was one of the Military Child Education Coalition's semiannual series titled "Tell Me a Story: Making Connections and Finding Support Through Literature." The effort combines themes found in literature and children's own stories to enhance resilience, peer and parent connections, and a sense of pride and accomplishment while fostering a caring community.

The book, by teacher and children's author Brenda Ehrmantraut, tells in a few illustrated pages of how a soldier going to the other side of the world promises to "play catch" with his young son with Polaris, the North Star, every day. Explaining that the North Star becomes visible overseas just as evening is descending in America, the father invents a game whereby father and son "blow" the star back and forth to each other every day.

Hart, who was a bomber navigator in the Air Force before retiring as a lieutenant colonel, said he retained his interest in astronomy born of navigating by the stars and lends his skills to the planetarium.

In the classrooms, various facilitators led the children and parents in focusing on their family traditions with an eye to making them proud of them. Each followed the same plan. In a session led by Jason Johnson of the school liaison office at Fort Hood, various children talked about family vacations, family reunions, emphasis on eating dinner together, watching movies together, prayer, and reciting the Pledge of Allegiance.

Johnson passed out "tradition journals" to all the children to invite them to record family rituals and traditions as they are developed and repeated.

"The liaison office works with the MCEC as partners," Johnson said. "I'm here this afternoon as a volunteer."

After the classroom session, a snack and crafts time preceded a showing of "The Secret of the Cardboard Rocket" in the Mayborn Planetarium, a short film simulating a trip to the moon.

Waiting in line for snacks, Tracy Jack, with her daughter Eleanor, said, "This is not the first one of these we've been to, but it's always a good experience for us, so we keep coming back."

Sandy Landis, whose husband is a sergeant on Fort Hood, said, "The kids really enjoyed seeing the stars over Iraq."

Hart showed the relative position of the North Star and the constellations over Baghdad and Kabul, different because the cities are in different latitudes. Landis was attending with her children Matthew, Julia, Emily and Luke.

The younger children focused mostly on Daddy, but all the older children seemed to remember the names Polaris and North Star. All the families received copies of the book.

Contact Don Bolding at dbolding@kdhnews.com or (254) 501-7557.