Once a child reaches the double digits gift buying for them becomes way harder. Are they too old for this? Are they too young for this? At this young age, they are still growing and need sources to keep their mind active in a fun and educational way. I have compiled a list of games, toys and experiments for all of the nieces/nephews, children and/or grandchildren you are buying for this holiday season that are age appropriate but still fun and exciting!

Teenagers are sometimes the hardest to buy for around the holidays. Either they don’t tell you what they want at all or they give you a list that sometimes you can’t even comprehend. Of course, they are in the know about all the new trends and you may have no idea why they are asking for certain items. Well, let this list be your safe haven of gift ideas to get 5 different types of teens in your life.

The older you get the less exciting gifts sometimes become, we are given household items or even gift cards (nothing wrong with those) but to be gifted something that wows our inner child is a special gift indeed. I’ve compiled a list of five categories of unique gifts for any adult in your life. Do you know a model builder, tech geek or budding chemist? They’ll be sure to love to receive any of the following items this holiday season.

October hosts two displays of “shooting stars” each year—one hardly worth mentioning and the other definitely worth watching. The first to appear this month is largely unknown to skywatchers. The second one is eagerly looked forward to, especially given the typically clear skies and pleasant fall temperatures for being outdoors at night.

Each of the four seasons of the year brings with it a characteristic geometric pattern in the sky. These “asterisms” as they are called often are composed of stars in two or more of the constellations (including our featured one this month). One exception—and perhaps the best-known of all asterisms— is the Big Dipper, which can actually be seen year-round. It’s part of Ursa Major, the great bear of the sky.

Skywatching is a delightful and relaxing pastime. But it can also be frustrating and disappointing. Eclipses, meteor showers, comets, conjunctions of planets, auroras, passes of the International Space Station, all suffer from two main sources.

Most people believe that all the stars at night look white. But this is not so. The sky is alive with color if you know where and how to look for it. And the month of July is an ideal time for viewing celestial hues with six of the brightest stars in the sky present.

Due to the Moon’s elliptical orbit, in its monthly journey around the Earth it is sometimes closer to us and at others farther than its average distance of 239,000 miles. At those times when it’s closest and it happens to coincides with the Full Moon, it’s referred to as a Supermoon. The first of three of these that will occur in 2022 happens this month.

An eclipse of the Moon is either total, in which case our satellite is completely immersed in the Earth’s dark inner shadow or umbra—or it is partial, meaning that only part of the Moon is covered as it passes through the shadow. This month’s event is both total while the phases leading up to and following totality are partial. And the timing is ideal, occurring late on a Sunday evening into early Monday morning.

Last month we discussed the joys of beginning your stargazing adventures simply using binoculars. Here we move on to that of owning a telescope to expand your explorations. And it doesn’t have to be large or expensive—even the smallest glass can provide a lifetime of viewing pleasure! In fact, they have some definite advantages over large ones.