MOLO, Kenya — Thousands of schoolchildren in Kenya are getting a rare opportunity to look at the stars.
The Traveling Telescope visits some of this East African country’s most remote areas, showing students the night sky and describing the science of astronomy with telescopes and virtual reality goggles.
One by one, the children in this Rift Valley town lined up to peer through the telescope.
Evie Clarke, 14, gazed into the sky and noted, ‘‘Over there is Venus and just above it is Mars and there are loads of suns.’’
‘‘You have such a nice picture of the moon and you can see all the craters,’’ she said. “Oh man, it was amazing, yes!’’
Students also enter an inflatable planetarium to learn more about astronomy, and they look at constellations using virtual reality goggles.
Although Kenya lies on the equator and has dramatic nighttime skies in rural areas, children find it hard to name planets and other bodies as astronomy is rarely taught in schools.
The telescope ‘‘has been around for more than 400 years and yet very few people have looked through one,’’ said Kenyan astronomer Susan Murabana, who founded the Traveling Telescope project in 2013 with astronomer Daniel Chu Owen.
The group charges about $2 per child at international or private schools. It does not charge at public schools.
The Traveling Telescope group would like to expand the project across Africa.
Associated Press
