So I bought my youngest son a Telescope just a cheap one so he can look at the stars. I have this Friday off and hope for clear weather as I told him I would take him out to a nice clear spot to see the stars! (One good part of working nights find a lot of good clear spots!) Now I'd like to upgrade his Telescope before then the one he has now is a cheap Barska 300X Compact Travel Telescope / Spotting Scope. I bought last time we went camping but the sky was covered in clouds!

So I know little about the night sky and was looking for advice or books to help my kids enjoy the night sky! Like to get them before this Friday. If I cant get a new Telescope maybe I can look good and show my kids where things are in the sky!? So books or e-books would be great also! Shame to see such a pretty and clear sky and not know what your looking at! Thanks for the help and advice!

Get the Star Chart app for the iPhone.  Just point it at the sky and it uses
GPS to know your location/time then shows the stars/constellations  as they are above you with
all the names.  I think it's free.

How much do you want to spend?

Best info for a beginner can be found at  www.cloudynights.com.  Also install http://www.stellarium.org/ on your laptop.  You can set the view to your exact location, to aid in finding all that might possibility be seen.

And avoid the telescopes that sell theirself with how many "X's". They can reach.  With telescopes it is about light gathering (diameter).   Any telescope can be taken to any power with different eyepieces and barlows, but you won't see much more than 25X per inch of aperture.  It wil just get bigger and more blury.   Orion Telescopes (telescope.com) have good beginner equipment at reasonable prices.  

A planisphere is a good place to start.  If you really want to impress the kids, a green laser is great at that, but it really helps to know what you are pointing at :-)

Doc

I'm still curious to know how much you plan on spending.

With what info I'm given now it seems that $10 is about all I have to give to allow my son to see what is in the night sky even if we can not see it!! The Stare chat app Radiopat told me about is a lot more if you spend the $10 to buy it all! It takes where your at by GPS then shows you the sky on your smartphone or tablet! It's a great way to start and less disappointing times with my son because the sky is cloudy and we can not see anything! Also makes the time we can see the sky a lot easier to find what we want to see as all we have to do is place the phone on the telescope and let the GPS find the way!

Maybe at some point when we all know more I will buy a better telescope right now I think we are good with what we have and this app!

That sounds like a good start.

I have never understood people who call themselves amateur astronomers, who can't find their way around the shy on a clear night.

Also, do some reading ... it's the old-fashioned way to learn.

He has been doing a lot of that but for his birthday I'm wanting to get a new scope for him we moved and his old one broke and he has the most perfect few of the moon as it is rising from his room nothing like seeing a 8 year olds face when a full moon is in front of him and he find out his scope had broken in the move to the new house.

Sky View app for the iPhone has a free version and I have used it to find the ISS and Saturn.

My spotting scope was sufficient to see each. The ISS lookalike an International Harvester emblem and Saturn truly has rings. The Moons of Jupiter are plainly visible too. They are in a straight line with Jupiter it just jumps out at you.

"GoSkyWatch" is another good iPhone app

Most professional astronomers don't know their way around the sky.  I only partially know the names of stars and some of the constellations, I still consider myself an amatuer astronomer.  I will second the reading part, lots of information out there to take in.