The McDonald Observatory

Things to Do With Kids in Southwest Texas

About 12 minutes away from Davis Mountains State Park sits the McDonald Observatory. It is a beautiful, winding drive up into the mountains. You can see the famous domes from afar.

Picture from the McDonald Observatory website. http://mcdonaldobservatory.org

We did the DayTime Tour with Solar Viewing except the day was cloudy so no Solar Viewing. That aside, it was awesome. It starts with a terrific presentation in the auditorium. It was a little long for the kids but the docent was funny and did a pretty good job of keeping them engaged. Little Diva was especially full of questions as we saw the sun through the many ranges of light. I loved it. There are so many things about the sun I did not know.

After a short break, we took a ride up the mountain to the original telescope — the 107″ dome on Mt. Locke. Our docent shared what was involved in the building and maintaining of this marvel and even allowed the kids to turn the telescope. That was a win, especially for the tween boy who drifts off pretty easily when he thinks he’s learning. I was impressed by the size and scope of the telescope. It is used by astronomers from all over. I can only imagine what the heavens must look like through the lens.

We then took another ride to the second dome — the Hobby-Eberly Telescope. It is a newer and far less expensive telescope. This telescope uses a honeycomb of mirrors instead of one giant  mirror like in the original. At this point, we were losing the kids some but I was soaking it up like a sponge.

They do have Star Parties which include night time viewing. We were not able to do that this trip but I would love to go back. The daytime tours are almost three hours so I recommend making sure kiddos are fed (#LessonsLearnedtheHardWay). It is a lot of info but I do feel that the kids got something out of it. I know I did!