About once a month Jessica Hammock and her husband drive two hours from their home in East Atlanta to Deerlick Astronomy Village in Sharon.

They get there before dark and spend all night gazing at the heavens through the lenses of their telescopes.

Now Hammock, 26, hopes to share her love of astronomy with Atlanta children, with the help of a $10,000 grant from the Web site ideablob.com.

Hammock, who said she fell in love with the city while working at a local elementary school with Teach for America, is creating an after-school science program for students at the East Atlanta Kids Club.

Hammock was honored Friday night at a ceremony at the Fernbank Science Center.

She plans to begin conducting activities once a month with students this September.

She said she will use the grant to buy two solar telescopes for examining the sun in the daytime and for creating a series of hands-on activities for students. The new telescopes will complement the two she already owns for viewing the night sky.

Hammock hopes the program, called Project Epiphany, will broaden the horizons of children who otherwise might never see the stars lost in the glare of city lights.

"They'd be lucky to ever see the Milky Way," she said.

Hammock is pursuing a doctorate degree in educational studies at Emory's Graduate School of Arts and Sciences.

A few months ago, she suggested holding astronomy classes at the East Atlanta Kids Club to the organization's founder, Jill Sieder.

Hammock had loved teaching science while working with Teach for America, and she became an active amateur astronomer when her husband of a year and a half introduced her to the activity.

"It gives you an amazing perspective on life," she said.

Sieder, who created the club 10 years ago to keep underprivileged children engaged outside of school, said Hammock's idea "fits right in."

The free club serves about 100 children every year.

Hammock posted her idea in June on ideablob.com, a site created last year by Advanta, a small-business credit provider based in Spring House, Pa.

Ideablob is a sort of MySpace for ideas, where people post, provide feedback, and vote on ideas for businesses and nonprofits. Every month the idea with the most votes is rewarded with $10,000.

For Hammock, that grant was the fuel she needed to get Project Epiphany off the ground.

Eventually, she wants to lead a nighttime, star-gazing field trip, possibly to her favorite spot, Deerlick.

"There's very few things that can give you that perspective," she said.