BRINGING STARS WITHIN REACH
THE TRAVELLING TELESCOPE
When you don’t understand your world, much of it seems random. Sometimes, you misattribute logic or purpose in an attempt to explain the unexplainable. Often you are limited because you can’t live in true harmony with what is going on around you and you can’t leverage the knowledge that you don’t possess.
How much do you know about the beautiful stars that are twinkling above you, whether you see them or not? What do you know about how they impact your life?
The telescope has been around for over 400 years, but few people on our planet have ever looked through one. Imagine how our world might change if more people could see our place in the universe.
The Travelling Telescope is a wonderful program that is bringing a view of the stars to people in Kenya and Tanzania. Its mission is to help people, primarily children, develop a closer relationship with the cosmos, so they can better navigate their own world.
Astronomy has the ability to spark a sense of wonder and curiosity in people.
Susan Murabana, a Kenyan astronomer, and Daniel Chu, a astronomer and filmmaker, are co-founders of The Traveling Telescope. The organization owns the largest telescope in Kenya, which it transports, via van, to bring the stars and planets closer to children in rural and urban areas of Kenya and Tanzania, with hopes of getting them interested in science and technology.
It’s not so much about trying to turn them all into astronomers. It is about giving them opportunities “that will make or change the decisions of what they want to do” in their lives.
The idea for The Travelling Telescope sparked in 2013, when Chu and Murabana met during the solar eclipse in Turkana. Chu had come to Kenya to make a film about Murabana’s efforts to deliver the 5,000 solar-safe glasses to the local children.
Murabana, who studied both science and economics at university, began her work in cultural astronomy in Ghana with Cosmos Education, an organization that works to improve science education in developing countries.
Marrying Murabana’s experience in educational outreach with Chu's passion for the technical aspects of astronomy, the mission took shape and the organization was born. They also sparked a romance and married each other!
Today, The Travelling Telescope employs a team of astronomers and outreach professionals, many of whom are astronomy graduates from the University of Nairobi.
They conduct school visits and public events with their mobile planetarium all across the region, where people can stargaze, follow guided tours of the night sky and learn more about the cosmos we live in.
“We provide all the tools necessary - all anyone needs is to show up and be curious.”
Beyond the telescope itself, the organization exposes students to a variety of astronomy tools, resources and concepts. Giving students practical, hands-on experience with astronomy is important if we are to inspire young people to be the scientists of tomorrow.
To date, The Traveling Telescope has been able to reach more than 40,000 children, in more than 150 schools, in Kenya and Tanzania.
“The whole idea is to get people to look through the telescope and to appreciate our place in the universe,” Murabana says.
The Traveling Telescope is now crowdfunding to build a permanent planetarium and observatory in Kenya, where parents and children can always come back to whenever they want to help make the world seem a bit less random and to inspire them to reach for the stars. Learn more about how you can too, here.
Read more about Beautiful Randoms all this week on BeautifulNow. And check out more beautiful things happening now in BN Wellness, Impact, Nature/Science, Food, Arts/Design, and Travel, Daily Fix posts.
