Shopping for a junior stargazer? We've picked out the best telescopes for kids, perfect for wowing them with February's planetary parade or next month's breathtaking lunar eclipse. If there's a ...

But of course, the uninitiated (usually that "space-minded child") will want to "test drive" the telescope at the highest possible magnification. The result will be an enlarged and hopelessly ...

[How Telescopes Gather Light (Video)] But of course, the uninitiated (usually that “space-minded child”) will want to "test drive" the telescope at the highest possible magnification.

"I'm like a child let loose in a toy store." The fun should continue until the telescope runs out of the liquid helium that helps cool it, in about 2008. Early in the next decade, NASA plans to ...

On Oct. 1, 1847, at age 29, Maria Mitchell, a studious and sturdy Quaker who, as a child, began sweeping the sky above ...