You don't need an expensive telescope to enjoy the beauty of the night sky.

You don't need to know the equations of astrophysics to appreciate the amazing sight of the stars. All you really need are your eyes and your curiosity: My 2-year-old daughter is fully qualified.

Now that sunset is coming earlier, my daughter and I have made it part of our bedtime ritual that every evening before reading stories, we go outside and look up if the sky is clear.

The first step in knowing the sky is to simply learn some names. We started with the moon, and then added Jupiter, which is still shining fantastically bright, low in the sky to the south. Next came some of the bright stars: "What's that?" I ask, pointing at the very bright star that is now almost straight overhead at sunset: "Vega!" she shouts with delight. "What's that?" I point at the star shining high in the west: "Arc-TUR-us!" After our little five-minute astronomy session, she often runs inside to announce the results to Mommy: "We saw Deneb!"

My daughter doesn't know what the stars are made of, or how far away they are, or all of our theories about how they work. There will be time for that in the future. For now, she enjoys the simple pleasure of learning the names of the stars, and proudly announcing them as we point up at the sky.

Of course, just because you know the name of something doesn't really mean that you know anything about it at all. But as I have helped my daughter learn the names of the stars, and watched her take delight in this process, I think the real source of her joy is that she is claiming ownership of them. She knows where they are, she knows their patterns, and she knows their names. They are hers. They belong to her in the same way that her toys, or her books or the swing in our backyard all belong to her.

Learning the stars is just one part of encouraging my daughter to go through life with her eyes open and to ask questions. My daughter's favorite word is "Why?" and I try to respect that question, and if possible I try to show her how to figure out the answer for herself. Children are born scientists: "Why is the sky blue?" "Where do bumblebees live?" "Why do pumpkins turn orange?" Observing the world around us and skeptically asking questions is the heart of the scientific process.

By supporting children when they ask questions, and then helping them to find the answers to their own questions, we can nurture that scientific spirit, that method of thinking that has carried astronauts to the moon, and carried our probes to the planets and beyond.

Even the youngest child can learn the names of the bright stars and the patterns of the constellations, the pictures that they make in the night sky. It's not often that you can give your daughter a toy that will never break and never wear out. She can see these stars with her own eyes, and they will always be there. No matter hold old she gets or where she goes in life, she will always be able to look up at a clear night sky and Cygnus the swan or Pegasus the flying horse. She will always have the stars.

Kelly Cline, Ph.D., is assistant professor of astronomy and mathematics at Carroll College.