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"Mars, Pluto, Saturn, Jupiter, Venus – Mercury, that's the one I really wanted to see," says Chu Owen while he was using an app on his cell phone to locate the planets at -above.
"It's the Planets
Owen, 39, and his wife Susan Murabana set up Friday their big-power telescope at Lake Magadi, 100 km southwest of Nairobi, the capital of Kenya. , to allow the local community to look at the moon.Eclipse
East Africa, with the Middle East and parts of Europe, should have some of the best views of The lunar eclipse – the longest of this century.
"We have already done it for the solar eclipse in 2016," said Murabana, 39.
For this eclipse, some 300 members of the local community who are mostly Maasai have proved to experiment by looking through the telescope.
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"It's good to give people who would not have had the opportunity to use a telescope like this an opportunity," Murabana added while Owen was setting up the mechanical telescope.
The couple, who co-founded the organization Traveling Telescope Africa, chose Lake Magadi as it is an isolated area away from the light pollution of cities and towns.
Murabana pointed out planets with a laser pen as a local boy wearing shorts and a dark jumper climbed a small stepladder to be the first to look through the telescope
" I've seen moons of Jupiter and stars, yes I loved, "Memusi smiled, seven years old.
Around him, young people – some wearing traditional Maasai outfits and armed with alemannic daggers – laughed and pointed as the moon turned red and obscured by the shadow of the Earth
"C & # 39; is the first time I see a red moon – it's very exciting, "Murabana told a crowd of local people on a loudspeaker." The moon goes into the shade, l & # 39; Shadow that the earth always throws, "added Owen as a shooting star crossed the sky.
Purity Sailepo, 16, said she had been inspired by the visiting telescope to become an astronomer.
"Until today, I thought that Mars, Jupiter and the other planets were in the imagination of scientists," she told AFP.
"But now I've seen it I can believe it and I want to be an astronomer to tell others."
Nearby, sky-goers of all ages queued excitedly to take the eyepiece and see
Across the largely unobstructed sky, distant stars and the Milky Way became clearly visible when the reflected light from the Earth's satellite was temporarily extinguished.
"You do not anticipate how much the change is pronounced," Mudit Sharma, 40, who traveled from Nairobi to witness the eclipse
"You know that it's not the same thing. makes sense, but you really have to see it, "he added as the moon became a slightly amber silhouette.
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