Considering the things we’re facing right now in regards to the novel coronavirus, we must come up with things to do at home. While not everyone is as ‘at risk’ as others the more time we spend at home the less prominent the spreading of this virus will be.
Whether you’re just bored and want something to do yourself or have children to keep occupied, the internet can be a wonderful tool to keep from sitting around doing nothing all day. I recently took the time to look up different astronomy or overall space-related things that could be done from home and honestly, was blown away. While I love this kind of thing, I never thought I could be as active in that area as is possible.
Below I am going to go over some ‘space’ activities that you and your family can do from your homes that will keep you entertained for hours on end. Some of them might not be as interesting as the rest to you but overall they are quite fun and unique in more ways than expected. I know I will be spending a lot of time myself partaking in these things.
1. Take to Pinterest and put together some spacey-crafts.
I know, not everyone is into crafts but Pinterest is full of tons of different spacey ideas that don’t require many things to accomplish. You can even use oreo cookies to help go over the different moon phases. Keeping your kids learning or just getting something fun knocked out for yourself isn’t hard at all with Pinterest by your side, as cliché as that might sound.
2. Help astronomers locate and identify supermassive black holes and more.
I know this might sound a bit out there but on the website zooniverse.org there are lots of things that you can do/engage with. This is a part of the LOFAR project that gives us an ‘unprecedented view’ of what our skies look like at ‘radio wavelengths.’ While it might be a bit confusing at first once you complete the tutorial things will make a lot of sense and you will be well on your way to getting more done than you might ever have imagined.
3. Become a citizen scientist.
Using the website citizenscience.gov you can dive into lots of different projects. While this might not be for everyone for those who truly love astronomy it’s a great place to check out. While you might not qualify for everything on there, it’s worth looking into.
4. Find a good space-related book to read.
Most of the time you can find the pdf version of just about any book you’d want to read online or even the audio version if you’re not interested in actually having to read. There are tons of different astronomy type books or books in relation to different things like the stories of the Apollo missions that are well worth the read. Whether you’re diving into something like Stephen Hawking’s ‘A Brief History of Time’ or ‘Apollo 13’ by Jim Lovell and Jeffrey Kluger you’re in store for quite the time.
5. Pull out that telescope.
I know, not everyone has a telescope but if you have one sitting in a closet covered in dust bring it out and put it to use. There are tons of things in the night sky to see and honestly, your kids (if you have kids) would love to be out past their bedtimes looking at the different celestial bodies that might be spotted. If you don’t have a telescope though you can always look up a constellation map and see how many you can spot from where you are. I’ve always been truly fascinated by the different constellations.
6. Get up close and personal with ‘re-living’ Apollo 13.
While this event happened about 50 years ago, it is still a huge piece of history that should be remembered. Recently a website has launched that makes sure this event will not be forgotten as it has put together video, audio, and so much more from the event itself allowing us to truly re-live it. It’s truly mind-blowing in more ways than you might ever have thought. Those who put this experience together did so in such an immersive manner.
If you do all of these or the ones you’re interested in and still want something else to do you could also find space-related podcasts to binge listen to or dive into this side of YouTube. There are tons of things that can be done when we’re at home that we normally would not think to do. Will you be giving any of these a go?