Sidewalk Astronomers Club donates 3 telescopes to schools

A P.E.I. astronomy club donated three telescopes to schools in the province this week.

Keith Cooper introduced Ethan Nabuurs and Shaeya Thibodeau to their new eight-inch Dobsonian reflecting telescope at Queen Charlotte Junior High.

"It's going to help a lot to see better pictures of what's up in space. Instead of just hearing about it in class, we get to really see it,” Thibodeau said.

“It made me interested in all the different stars and planets in space,” said Nabuurs.

Cooper is a member of the Sidewalk Astronomers Club of Charlottetown.

He got the idea to supply telescopes to schools from an American group that runs a similar program.

Three lucky schools

This week Cooper delivered the first ones, to Queen Charlotte, Montague Intermediate and Gulf Shore Consolidated.

"I'm doing it as a way of giving something back, because I do sidewalk astronomy and I really enjoy the reaction when people look through the telescope,” he said.

“Having done a session with the school, I really enjoy the reaction of the students when they look through the telescope."

The students thanked Cyrilla Saunders. She and her husband paid for the three telescopes worth hundreds of dollars each.

"I'm a person who feels that if there's a time to impress people, it's when they're young,” Saunders said.

“If we can teach our young and our youth to be passionate about anything — and that includes astronomy — that would be our gift.”

Cooper says three more telescopes are on the way. It's yet to be determined which schools will receive them.