Tag: African astronomy

The Travelling Telescope – Stargazing in Kenya

On By Dr. Y.In Great ScienceLeave a comment
Kenya_Travelling Telescope_1
A student at Ololomei Primary School in Maasai Mara, Kenya, looks through a Dobsonian telescope during a school workshop with the Travelling Telescope (Source: Travelling Telescope)

Have you ever stared at the sky wondering what each constellation is? or whether you can see the surface of the moon? or other galaxies? I am sure many African children, and children everywhere have spent countless hours staring at the night sky trying to pierce its secrets, but very few will ever get the chance to look through a telescope. One organization which I have recently been introduced to, the Travelling Telescope, wants to change that. Any person in love with astronomy appreciates the value of a telescope, and will definitely love the idea. Based in Kenya, the Travelling Telescope is an organization which focuses on empowering youths and is dedicated to social change via the use of astronomy. It offers astronomy entertaining and educational tools and is the only astronomy company in the Eastern African region. The vision came to founder, Susan Murabana, when she met her now husband during a solar eclipse; their love gave birth to the Travelling Telescope – a gathering place for people to look through a telescope and observe the wonders of the night sky.

The BBC did a podcast on the Travelling Telescope, as well as Lessons in awe and wonder from Kenya’s Travelling Telescope from the Christian Science Monitor. The article from the Monitor – The Travelling Telescope brings stars to students is pretty good as well. Excerpts below are from Lessons in awe and wonder from Kenya’s Travelling Telescope.

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Kenya_Travelling Telescope_Susan Murabana
Susan Murabana, co-founder of The Travelling Telescope company, points out objects on the night sky with a laser pen for students at the Kisaruni Girls School in Kenya (Source: Travelling Telescope)

After watching a solar eclipse together in 2013, Susan Murabana and her partner, Chu Owen, hatched a plan to share the night skies with Kenyan schoolchildren.

They bought a big, 12-inch optical telescope and started an astronomy business: The Travelling Telescope. They’ve reached more than 200,000 kids. They charge Kenya’s wealthier private schools and safari lodges for astronomy lessons so that they can freely share the telescope and a portable planetarium with public-school children.

As they peer at the objects in our solar system, they hope to awaken a deeper sense of what makes this planet so special.

“Yes, we want to get more astronomers. That would be good,” says Ms. Murabana. “But more than that, we want … the next generation of leaders and scientists – who will be in charge of our planet – to be more kind and make better decisions about our home.”

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Cosmic Africa: Africans and Astronomy

On By Dr. Y.In Great Civilizations, Great Science9 Comments
Cosmic Africa
Cosmic Africa

Dear all,

As a physicist, I could not pass on the opportunity to talk about the fellow South African astrophysicist Thebe Medupe ‘s work on Cosmic Africa. Cosmic Africa is a project/documentary about astronomy in African cultures, exploring astronomy among two of the oldest African tribes: the Namib (or Bushmen or San) of Namibia, and the Dogon people of Mali.  I heard this documentary one evening on PRI.  It felt so great hearing an elder from the Dogon tribe talking about their use of the moon, stars, etc, for their harvest.  People still study the sky and the stars to guide them during the hunting season; astronomy is an integral part of their daily lives, dances, and ceremonies.  This knowledge of the sky was passed on from generation to generations for the past 500 years.

Thebe Medupe
Thebe Medupe

The Dogon people knew certain celestial bodies that were just discovered/identified properly by Western science in the 50s and 60s.  They used the stars in spirituality and devised a divination system as discussed in the movie.  One of their great treasures is the knowledge of the star Sirius which Dogon elders confided about its existence to French anthropologists in the 1940s.  The Dogon elders said that Sirius had a companion star that was invisible to the human eye.

Dogon village
Dogon village

“They also stated that the star moved in a 50-year elliptical orbit around Sirius, that it was small and incredibly heavy, and that it rotated on its axis.  All these things happen to be true.  What makes this so remarkable is that the companion star of Sirius, called Sirius B, was first photographed in 1970.  While people began to suspect its existence around 1844, it was not seen through a telescope until 1862 — and even then its great density was not known or understood until the early decades of the twentieth century.  The Dogon beliefs, on the other hand, were supposedly thousands of years old.”  To read the full account, check out: The Sirius Mystery and the The Dogon Website.

San (Basarwa/Bushmen) hunters
San (Basarwa/Bushmen) hunters

The Bushmen of Namibia are the oldest people in Africa, as well as in the world.  They have lived in the Southern area of Africa for the past 20,000 years, and their celestial stories are just as old.  In the documentary, I love the way their celestial stories, and their story of creation was centered around the lion. Isn’t it interesting?  The lion, which is the king of the jungle,…purely African! I simply loved it.  The sky is interpreted in African terms: giraffes, lions, and zebras are seen among the stars where other people see bears and horses.  From the documentary, one sees that the Namib (Bushmen or San) healers welcome the bright evening star, the planet Venus, with a special dance….  The elders observe the shadows cast by the Sun and still count the days by the phases of the Moon, orient themselves, decide when to hunt, harvest, etc… with the sky.  They call the Milky Way the Spine of the Night and observe its three different positions during the night: it tells them about time and the changing seasons. Read more about the Khoisan people of Botswana and their fight for survival amidst government/Corporation’s menace.

To learn more check out the books: Sacred Symbols of the Dogon and The Sirius Mystery. Also check out the Foster brothers’ website (the producers): Sense Africa.