It was the culmination of literally decades of research and construction which began in 1977. Expectations were high as the orbiting telescope was put in place and actually began to function as it was designed to do. All was not always perfect with the telescope and the early pictures were disappointing. Astronomy and its interrelationship with astrology has also influenced culture, education and religion to a very large extent over the centuries. In the English language, the first two days or our week, Sunday and Monday are a reference to astronomy as their literal interpretations would be The Day of the Sun and The Day of the Moon. From the tiniest baby to the most advanced astrophysicist, there is something for anyone who wants to enjoy astronomy. In fact, it is a science that is so accessible that virtually anybody can do it virtually anywhere they are. All they have to know how to do is to look up. It really is amazing when you think about it that just by looking up on any given night, you could see virtually hundreds of thousands of stars, star systems, planets, moons, asteroids, comets and maybe a even an occasional space shuttle might wander by. Scientists have gained significant knowledge about the composition of asteroids and separated them into classes including class S which comes of the part of the belt that is closest to Mars, classes C, D and V which are classified by composition and a class called Centaurs whose flight patterns take them closer to Jupiter and Uranus. But you can t get there driving the speed limit. You have to drive five trillion, eight hundred million miles per year to get all the way across that fast. - Scientists calculate that the Milky Way is 14 billion years old. These little fun facts should get a pretty spirited discussion going about the origins of the universe and about the possibility of space travel or if there are life on other planets. And don t be fooled but the blotting out of part of the moon when it is not in full moon stage. The phenomenon known as earthshine gives you the ability to see the darkened part of the moon with some detail as well, even if the moon is only at quarter or half display. To kick it up a notch, a good pair of binoculars can do wonders for the detail you will see on the lunar surface.