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Heart and Soul: Travelling telescope

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Travelling telescope

17/12/2021 GMT

BBC World Service - Heart and Soul, Travelling telescope

Love, astronomy and the relationship between faith, spirituality and the cosmos

A story of love, astronomy and the relationship between faith, spirituality and the cosmos.

Most people will never look through a telescope. When Chu Owen met Kenya’s official astronomer Susan Murabana during a solar eclipse, they pledged to change that. Their falling in 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.

They observe how gathering around the telescope offers an opportunity to express feelings of grief, of hope, of finding solace for earthly problems in the vastness of the Universe. 

Kenyan singer Silayio – who has long-wanted to look through the telescope, describes how she discovered astronomy following a friend’s suicide which led her to question her Christian faith and go in search of a new system of belief. 

Susan describes her own journey as a Kenyan woman passionate about science and astronomy. What unites all those who we meet around the telescope is a feeling of awe and wonder. 

Producer: Sarah Cuddon

(Photo: Masai man looking through a telescope at the stars, with elephants in the distance. Credit: Daniel-Chu Owen)

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