The universe is a big and complicated place. It's hard enough for adults to understand the mysteries of the cosmos, so how can kids even begin to figure it out?

The first step is to learn how to look at it all, and the kids enrolled in the Rose City Astronomers' Youth Astronomy Academy, which gathers at the Kennedy School in northeast Portland, learn just that.

The group of nine kids sat in front of star charts and handouts, listening patiently as engineer and amateur astronomer Matt Heath discussed topics well over the heads of many adults.

"Do you know where in the sky the Large Magellanic Cloud is?" Heath asked the class. The kids thought silently before a smattering of hands shot up in the air. The first couple of guesses were wrong, but with some gentle needling one boy got it right it's only in the sky south of the equator, he said, meaning we can't see it here in Oregon.

There was no congratulations, no sticker for a right answer. Heath simply nodded and moved on.

With the breadth of material and scientific complexity, this could easily be a beginning course for adults, but the kids in the class are as young as nine. Still, this isn't a class to teach them astrophysics they're just learning how to look at the stars.

"The objective as we collaborated this is that they come out of this with knowledge to become observers and members of our club in later years," said David Nemo, president of the Rose City Astronomers. "They learn enough that they can actually come out to one of our star parties and become lifetime observers."

Taking a look into the class curriculum shows that they do indeed learn plenty. The regular classes have titles like "How to find things in the night sky" and "How to prepare for an observing session." They cover more than just planets and orbits, they get into galaxies, dark matter and constellations. In Saturday's class, Heath even touched on the Greek myth that inspired the name of a star.

They might be learning complex material, but it was nice to see that the kids were still kids. When Heath showed the constellation Canis Major, the "great dog," the group giggled at how little it looked like a dog. "It looks more like a cat than a dog," said 10-year-old Erin Morrison. "It looks like a two-legged alien jumping!" laughed 9-year-old Ram Goel.

The academy is meant as a fun weekend hobby, but the intent is very much academic. "We put our heads together and came up with this notion of a formal sort of curriculum," Nemo said. "You know, teach them something, not just have them come in and put puzzles together."

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How kids see the universe: Youth astronomy class creates budding stargazers