Project URL: https://travellingtelescope.co.uk/

My trip to Kenya

This Summer, with the help of Europlanet and Emergent Ventures, I travelled to Kenya to do something amazing.

For as long as I can remember, dark skies have fascinated me and captured my attention. I understand this to be somewhat of a universal experience. Widely accepted as the oldest of the sciences, I believe astronomy holds yet more untapped utility for humanity.  I, and a few others, believe it to be uniquely positioned as a field of study, as a kind of gateway science. It has the powerful ability to unite, capture and inspire, regardless of age, culture, or scientific capital.

My name is Colin Clarke, and by the time I was old enough to form questions, they were about space. What were the stars, the sun, the moon, what was our place in such a vast universe? More importantly, where were all the people who talked about this stuff?! Not satisfied with some of the answers I was receiving to my questions, I went about learning everything I could about our universe, and along the way, fell in love with science. Getting my first telescope at age 9 only added to my infatuation.  Many years and a degree in astrophysics later, I found myself moving on-site to the Armagh Observatory and Planetarium(AOP) to continue the work of my bachelor’s thesis on measuring the distances to galaxies, under the head of research there,Marc Sarzi.  That was approximately one year ago, and in a week’s time, I’ll be presenting the results of that work at the Irish National Astronomy Meeting 2022 . As secretary of the Trinity Space Society of Trinity College Dublin for 2 years, I organised in person, hybrid, and online events with some of the most interesting(and infamous!) figures in space science today. I’ve come a long way, but in many ways I still feel like that 9-year old, grinning madly into an eyepiece as I slew my telescope to keep up with the rotation of the Earth.  Growing up on a farm in rural Ireland, I always felt connected to the Earth. Not in a spiritual sense, but a practical one. Things are born from the Earth, live and thrive by the resources it provides, and eventually return to it. Learning that the elements from which our bodies are composed were created in the violent deaths of stars matched my model well. We are of the universe, temporary ordered arrangements of atoms in a soup of chaos. In my search for the meaning of it all(at age 14, I had a lot of time to think!), I realised that, in a sense, we are the universe attempting to understand itself. We are its sensory organs. I came to believe - and still do -  that we are obligated to experience the spectrum of human experience in its entirety in our short times here. The good, the bad, the mediocre. We owe it to ourselves to experience euphoria and despondence, rage and peace. It's a short ride, why not live it up?

This mindset very much spilled over into my growth as a person; why not strive every day to become the best version of myself? I devoured every book I could get my hands on. I taught myself the piano, archery, lock-picking, card magic, the Rubik's cube, coding. This list is not exhaustive. Why not find the limit of what I was capable of? I loved my time in Armagh, and while a PhD there was tempting, spending most of my time in the wonderful planetarium helped me to realise that I had a passion for sharing my love of space and science. Spending the next half decade in front of a laptop screen running simulations was not for me: I wanted to feel the weight of my work in the world. I first heard about the Travelling Telescope from a visiting academic while in Armagh. They described a husband and wife duo who, in 2018, emboldened by the stark lack of astronomy outreach in Eastern Africa, built a planetarium solely out of bamboo that was growing in their garden, and had been projecting images and videos of stars, nebulae and galaxies onto it, for their neighbours to see. I reached out to them, and they agreed to hop on a call. Sharing a common love for humanity, space, and our place in it, we hit it off. But, being a small social enterprise who are just getting back on their feet in the aftermath of Covid-19, they could not afford to pay me as an employee, or make room for a volunteer structure in their business without outside funding. Invigorated by the idea that I could help, I went down a rabbit hole of understanding the position and perceptions of science in Africa. Despite recent improvements in scientific research coming out of Africa, the fastest growing continent, public understanding of science and astronomy in many regions remains low. Not surprisingly, people know more about the areas of science that influence them directly: in a choice between learning about outer space and one’s personal health, the answer is obvious.  Along these lines, a consensus view that I have come to hold is that we are stronger together. Many minds think better, and if we are to find solutions to the frankly existential problems that face humanity, we need all the help we can get. To this end, sparking innovation in a developing country is the optimal path and globalisation is no longer the way to lift all boats. Without sufficient technological innovation, growth of the kind seen in the West is not sustainable in Africa. Plainly put, the Third world needs to be smarter than the First.  It is this precise reason that exposure to science (of any kind, but the earlier the better) is a vital factor in the large-scale adoption of scientific principles in rural Africa, and the divestment from corruption, tribalism and superstition. Innovation will follow. If you ask me, the tenets of science are most salient(and accessible) in astronomy, and with the abundance of pristine, beautiful dark skies in Africa, its utility there as a vehicle for the communication of scientific principles is clear. It’s all well and good to wave my hands and say that I’ll do my best, but this is not my style. The following are three specific goals I will be striving to achieve while in Kenya:

• The Nairobi Planetarium content creation: The Nairobi planetarium is a 10m diameter planetarium dome made solely from bamboo grown locally. It features an old Panasonic projection system, but this means there is a wealth of freely available content online. While this has worked well, I will assist in localising the narration of these movies, making the content more personalised to the Travelling Telescope, resulting in a smoother and more immersive experience for the viewer. 
• Assisting with school visits: I’m excited to take part in the presentation of science and astronomy with the Travelling Telescope, and to engage directly with the kids. I will speak at a basic level about topics in the field of astronomy, such as the new JWST, and on the research on extragalactic planetary nebulae that I’m working on publishing in collaboration with AOP. Currently the Travelling Telescope hosts hour-long shows three days a week as part of their Star Safari experience. We will discuss the viability of increasing this, given an extra pair of hands. 
• Help with telescope: The telescope used by the team is a powerful amateur telescope. This scope is similar to that of the Trinity Space Society, and thus I have significant experience with the operation of telescopes like it. I will ensure that it is reaching its maximum capability under the pristine dark skies in regional areas of Nairobi.