By Way Of Introduction

Welcome to the Stay-At-Home Momstronomer! I'm your humble host, the aforementioned Momstronomer. You see, I spent 13 years working at a natural history museum teaching astronomy to people. Around year 12, I spawned a baby dudestronomer. A year later, my husband's schooling shuttled us away from my home-away-from-home, the Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History, and dropped us off in the foreign land of South Florida. One of the perks of this deal was that I went from full-time mom and full-time astronomy programs manager to extra-full-time mom.
It took me about 30 seconds to realize that even if no one was paying me for it, I couldn't say away from astronomy. Little Dudestronomer (as he shall henceforth be known on this blog) is a few days away from 18 months now, and he has no idea how ferociously I'm going to cram his noggin full of astrostuff. It's a tricky thing teaching these upper level concepts to little people (and to grown people as well), so I thought I'd share some of my tactics and experiences with you.
This is the right blog for you if you like astronomy, but don't know as much you'd like to about it. Also, if you know something about astronomy, but you're too lazy to follow all the headlines yourself, welcome aboard. Finally, if you find yourself in a similar situation to mine (you are charged with the education of young and fertile minds), please stay tuned.
One final word about IYA: 2009 is the official International Year of Astronomy. All over the world, people will be celebrating the 400th anniversary of Galileo's first use of the astronomical telescope with events and activities throughout the year. This blog is my contribution (as well as a lof of build-up work at my former place of employ, now taken over by my successor) to the cause. I will not be posting every day, but I will post regularly - a 2-3 times a week. My posts will not be novels; computer time is at a permium with the Little Dudestronomer in my care. So check back early and often for news, current sky events, activities and all the fun I can stuff into this blog.

Happy IYA!