Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Speaker A: Hello, everyone. I'm Mike Simmons of Astronomy for Equity. Welcome to the podcast. Today we have a true superstar in astronomy, Jean Pierre Gothard, who I've known for quite a while. He's a volunteer with Department of Physics and Astronomy at Ghent University in Belgium and the public observatory there. He's also a member of the European Space Society that promotes space travel among young people. Jean Pierre has had an interest in astronomy and space travel since he was very young, but it wasn't until he was 50, when he attended a telescope building course at a public observatory in Ghent, that he really got into it. In 2015, he started Stars Shine for Everyone, a program for children with disabilities and disadvantaged young people worldwide.
And this program launched a project called Science for Girls in schools worldwide, especially countries where education for girls is lacking.
The company Bresser now provides the organization with at least 30 telescopes every year that are assembled by a group of volunteers and sent to places around the world. The project's also supported by ESA and NASA astronauts and has been working with the Universal Awareness Group at Leiden University for several years. The program, called SSVI in the acronym in Belgian language, started a collaboration with the IAU during celebration of its 100th anniversary and now has a presence in 67 countries.
They are doing the work that is so important for equity around the world, and it's a real pleasure to welcome my good friend Jean Pierre to the podcast. Jean Pierre, it's so good to see you again, and thank you for all the work that you're doing.
[00:02:08] Speaker B: Thank you, Mike, for the invitation, but it's not 67 countries, is it? 172? Oh, well, it's a lot of countries.
[00:02:20] Speaker A: We needed to update a little bit there. So that's. That's incredible. And behind you are some examples of telescopes that go out. We'll be looking at more of those.
What got you started in doing this kind of work in, in particular, using astronomy to provide educational opportunity, inspiration, and so on for children, students, girls, those who really needed a boost. How did you get into that aspect of astronomy?
[00:02:54] Speaker B: That's quite a story. That's really quite a story. Okay, do you have time?
Well, we.
[00:03:00] Speaker A: We have time.
That's what you're here for.
[00:03:04] Speaker B: Well, how do. I started with this svi, with this project. It's quite a story. When I was 12, 13 years old, I received from my father a book. Tim is Terabuk. So in Dutch is a book about astronomy. And in that book that was written how you build a telescope. But okay, I was 13 years old. Then you go to school afterwards, you married, have a house, you have children. So the interesting was always for astronomy. But building a telescope, I started when I was 50.
So a couple of years later, I was restoring some C. Spigler Cutter telescopes from Anton Cutter. And I got a message, a message on messenger, Facebook, give me your address, I send you something signed Bruno Ernst. And Bruno Ernst was the writer of that book.
So I told them, okay, hello, how are you? I am King Baldewain. And I'm also dead for many years because I got an image of him, of this Bruno Ernst. And my birth, my year of birth, 1956. And he was gray, pepper and salt from her. So when I got the message 45 year later said, okay, in Facebook, everyone can tell what you want. But he was the real one. And that guy was a priest who left the church. But he was also a teacher. I was a teacher in astronomy and physics and mathematics. So I visit them, I visit them. And we became friends. A couple of years we became friends.
And at a certain time I was with him in Utrecht, he lived in the Netherlands. And I tell them, okay, you have built a lot of telescopes with children, with adults in the Netherlands in the years 70s, 80s.
Yeah. Okay. So we are lucky. Yeah. Why? Well, I'm at university in Ghent, and we all both teach children who have the capacity to learn something.
But there are a lot, a lot of people in the world who have not this opportunity. Yeah, a lot of them. And he just say three words, do something about it. That was it.
So I came to Ghent and the morning after I told one of my professors, I want to send telescopes all over the world for children with disabilities, underserved communities, you name it. And he said, you're full.
Yes, I know. Nothing wrong with that. Nothing wrong with that. Okay, what must be the price of this for the receiver?
Zero.
He looked at me, can never do that. But I know someone in the Netherlands. His name is Harry Rutten, and he was a friend of Helmut Ebert, the CEO of Brester in Germany. And he brought me in contact with Helmut Ebert. And Helmut, tell me, well, if you want to do that, that's a very nice project. I give you 10 telescopes, you can start the project and then I will see what I can do. So I started the project and I must say I'm very strict. I don't give telescopes away like that. But it must be with the proposal, it must be useful. Yeah, you can give a million telescopes away.
That ain't no use. So I started with it, and after 10 telescopes. He said, you can't go on. And now we're 10. 10 years in the futures. And he's still sponsoring telescopes, as many as I needed. So sometime 30 yearly. That's the minimum. Last year it was over 120.
So that's a lot of them he killed all for free. So without breast, there is no ssvi because I have no budget to do something.
[00:07:49] Speaker A: Right.
[00:07:49] Speaker B: I have. Yeah. I haven't there at university. Okay. I have all the facilities, but not the money.
[00:07:56] Speaker A: Well, the. The money is always the problem with. There's such a passion to get things like this done. It's amazing. You know, we follow the same path in a lot of ways. I was fascinated with astronomy when I was young, but got out of it and got back in when I was older. In my case, I was in my early 20s when I got involved again. Again. So. And went on from there. But also the same thing with sending telescopes to other places, to other people. We. We both realized early on that other people didn't have the opportunities that we do in our countries simply because we were lucky to be born there. And there are plenty in the US And I'm sure in Belgium too, who need help as well. And so let's take a look at some of the people who you have helped around the world. And the. The interesting thing too is that we have helped in some of the same places because there are certain stars of astronomy who are doing things in their own country where there's such great need. And of course, we are helping the same people many times. This is Yumna Majid, who is in Pakistan, who is someone I know and will be on this podcast as well, but with an SSVI telescope. And this was, I think her. Her first telescope when she started this. Right.
[00:09:26] Speaker B: This was his. Her first really her first telescopes. And he's dedicated by Scott Kelly. So the NASA astronaut by her name, she won it in a contest of universe awareness in 2017. So I sent her the telescope in 2016.
And it was so difficult for her to receive this telescope. It was a struggle because she's a young lady in Pakistan, a young lady in astronomy and telescopes. So we found a man, a man who get the telescope from the post office and he give it to Yumna, but it stay struggling. And now I guess he has two or three ey telescope and she's doing a lot of things. It's a. An amazing young lady.
With a bit of luck, I will meet her in June. She's coming to Paris. So that's not so far from our place. And that's the opportunity to finally meet each other. Really. I have an enormous respect for her.
[00:10:32] Speaker A: Yeah, this, that's a great thing when you finally get to meet some of the people around the world that you've been working with. I have that opportunity every once in a while, including some other people that we've, we've both helped. So let's take a look at Yumna and what she is doing here. This is the image that shows one of the schools that she has been working with.
[00:10:56] Speaker B: Yeah. And that was the school that she used the telescopes to watch at the sun. To look at the sun. Because there was in the telescopes at Bresson, no solar filter. That was an option. But I told, I told Helmut, I told Bresser. Okay. But you must know the school is during the day. That's one very important issue. This during the day. And you have the sun. The sun is now near a star.
So there must be a solar filter. And on her telescope, I made the solar filter myself.
[00:11:31] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:11:32] Speaker B: And 3D print. But now it's standard with every telescope because that is highly needed. This is highly needed. This is dangerous.
Walk over the street is also dangerous. So you must, there must always be an adult. You must have the responsibility to use a solar field position. It's safe. Yes, of course.
[00:11:57] Speaker A: One of the other things that you do. I always do as well. I've gotten so many requests from people around the world who said, I want to do outreach. I just need a telescope. And. But they've never used a telescope before. So. No, it doesn't do any good to send telescopes because they don't get used. So we have to make sure of that as well. So let's take a look at.
And you know, I've got a little bit different slides here. We want to go on to this one also, Stan.
[00:12:28] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah, yeah. Okay. Well, that's also. That's my, my second story. That's my second story. I'm also involved with this SVI and the project Beamline for Schools at CERN in Switzerland. Yeah.
So Beam Night for schools is a physical competition. Last year we have 379 applications, group applications. And two of them were going to CERN in Switzerland and one group is going to die in Germany. And I joined them in Switzerland and serve. So this was a Pakistanian team. This was a Pakistani team. And I also say, okay, we distribute 10 telescopes through a proposal. What would you do if you receive a telescope, use it in an underserved community in your community.
Because in every city, all over the world, there are children who has not the same opportunities as they have.
So Pakistanian team, we came together and I told the teacher, I have a connection with Pakistan. Yeah, but there was a lot of people. But I said, okay, when we have time, we will talk. And after two, three days, we were at the breakfast very early at seven in the morning, and he told me, now it's your turn. Tell me about your connection. And I tell him the story of Yumna. And he looked at me. Yumna. He took his mouthful. This Yumna. Yes, I know her. I know her from start. Safe for everyone building small telescopes. Listen, 450 million habitants in Pakistan. You're in Switzerland with a teacher. And he know the one who received one of my first telescopes. That's incredible. This is incredible. But it was such an amazing experience.
And the guy, he doesn't know how to use a telescope. But I haven't seen three or four telescopes available.
So we were there for two weeks and I learned them how to work. I learned them how to watch the sun, the moon, Saturn, Jupiter was there last year and you started.
So you must always have someone who can learn it or who can learn another.
[00:15:02] Speaker A: Telescope has to be used. That's what.
[00:15:04] Speaker B: Yeah, of course.
If I may say so, I. Okay, this is astronomy. Astronomy is an excellent tool to promote science because you have mathematics, you engineering, you have everything. So I combine and certainly combine physics, I combine astronomy, combine everything.
And when you talk to each other, people are involved in it. You can. That's an amazing world, Mike.
[00:15:35] Speaker A: Absolutely. Well, that's, you know, I've been saying the same thing for so many years. And that's really the goal in astronomy, for equity. Exactly. Focusing on these things that we have both seen around the world, where astronomy is used for good. And that's why we're doing this podcast, Jean Pierre, because you and some others are doing amazing things that we want everybody to know about so they can see how astronomy is used.
Then we have also here another one.
[00:16:05] Speaker B: Yeah. Madagascar High Quintana Astronomy in Madagascar. So they got the first telescopes in Madagascar a couple of years ago. Two, three years ago. And last year they started with founding over 20 astronomy clubs in Madagascar in a group. So they going to schools. They started a group with an amateur astronomer or a professional astronomer who teach others.
And I help them to receive a lot of telescopes. But. And that's always. The problems are high. How do you send telescopes around the world? This is expensive. Not only descending the Telescopes, but also the custom.
It must. At the. At the borders and there. You know that this is not easy. But I'm lucky. I'm lucky because in France we have Silvan Moulay, we have Radio France International.
And this telescopes are going to Madagascar with foreign affairs. So diplomatic case. And when you can send it that way. But I tell everyone, okay, you receive the telescopes for free. But there is always someone who pays.
Don't forget that Bresson donates telescopes. Okay, but it costs money. Someone pays. Sending in a diplomatic case. Okay, but also that cost a lot of money. There's always someone to pay.
[00:17:46] Speaker A: There's always someone. There's always something where there's a cost. I mean, we've. I've done the same thing. Diplomatic, rarely, but also with people going to the country directly. I think maybe we have. Is this one an example of one of those.
[00:18:06] Speaker B: This is Senegal. This is a Senegal. That's the same project as Madagascar. Senegal, yeah. So Senegal and Madagascar. Two countries who work together, two founding astronomy clubs.
[00:18:22] Speaker A: I've sent telescopes also with people who happen to be going to the country, which is always a good way to do it. But it's very difficult to make the arrangements. Helps to get through customs better. People don't realize it's not the same as here. You send telescopes through the mail, irregular freight. It might disappear if it's going through the post office. When it gets into customs, it might be held up. I've had, I think 50,000 eclipse glasses for an eclipse that were held up in customs in Tanzania. And they finally released them after the eclipse.
Telescopes that disappear get broken.
So it. It. It's always a big problem. And then I've also had the case where people in customs demand a certain amount of customs fee, a tariff. And you know, it's not going to the government. They're just putting it in their pocket. But they want more than the telescope is worth. There's no way to get it through. So it's so many times.
[00:19:26] Speaker B: Absolutely, absolutely. And that. That's why a lot of telescopes are distributed by iau, so the International Astronomical Astronomical Union. But even so travels at the borders most of the time. We can solve them. 99% we can solve them. But it's a lot of trouble and a lot of work. And that's why I started now the same way as you. Okay, Try to find someone who travel to your country, give them, when you give it as luggage.
My experience is that it's a lot easier to get through the customs than you get it as Cargo. When you send it as cargo.
[00:20:10] Speaker A: Even if it, even if it's a gift. I once showed up in Iran with some small telescopes. I think four of them, and they were for schools. And I was supposed to have gotten a letter saying that the, that these were supposed to be duty free. And I never got the letter. And they said, you know, how much are these worth? And I said, I don't know. They were donated. Well, like have made a guess. They eventually gave up. They didn't want it because I was there. So they couldn't just stick him in the back.
That's what would usually happen.
So it can be very difficult. And you know, people have asked me too, because I've crowdfunded for these. I say, how, you know, we need to get these to them. You say, well, why don't they just order online? Well, no, they don't have credit cards. There's nobody that delivers from Amazon, say, or something like that. And the other problems that we have here, they'll never show up. So, so let's, let's see. What have we got next? We want to show. I've. I want to show this one next.
Ah, here we are with another common friend.
[00:21:22] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Yes, Astronomy. The borders in Nigeria.
That's in a refugee camp. Internal displaced people. Yeah, yeah, that's it. So I guess I remember it's a couple of years ago, it was in a camp, over 2,000 children.
Enormous, an enormous camp. And she teaches their astronomy with her group. It's once again an amazing, an amazing lady. She's doing an extremely work, but also dangerous work. Also dangerous because she told me how she get to this camps. Having a strapper to this camp. It's a struggling. It's a struggling. But we all need people like her. We all need people like Yumna. We all need people like Oleinka, really, because we can give telescopes as many as we want. If you don't care the people who can educate others, you've done nothing, Absolutely just on nothing.
[00:22:36] Speaker A: I had another picture, I'll find it before we get done here, another picture that I have in my group because this organization was started years ago and I was working with them, sent them some telescopes as well, but then have received also from the intern displaced people's camp where they were doing work, a picture of your telescopes there. So, you know, we, we cross paths here because again, Oliinka is one of those amazing people who gets things done in her country. She has a big team and so we end up helping her, want to make sure. That people understand the reason for helping Oli Incas because. Because she's helping everybody else. She has this big group, they're working all over the place. So she is the connection that makes everything happen. She's, she's the star, she's the linchpin there.
Here's another connection I actually, this is one I introduced to you in Kurdistan in northern Iraq, where I. I've been previously.
So they, they received a telescope from you. This is a case where a very enthusiastic young man, he was a student, he's a physics student. He really didn't know about telescopes. I was, you know, I told him if you don't know how to use this, you can't have it. But he contacted others. They learned how to do it and they're making great use of it. I've heard of from him since then as well.
Here's a country I've never had contact with.
[00:24:12] Speaker B: Europe. So there's in Georgia, In Georgia and Europe. And there's a really, a very, very poor community.
And I know someone of the Netherlands who worked there and who brought me in contact with that school. And she teaches, that lady teaches how to use telescopes. What you can see above your head. And it's really. I. It's an amazing image.
So young people look at the stars. I always tell, I always tell them when I go to the school to little children who ever has flying in a spaceship.
So. No one. No one. I do you also. You're on spaceship Earth.
And then use your imagination.
What are you doing? How are you flying with your globe through the universe?
Look at the sky.
Look at the sky. What color has the sky? You see blue and daylight.
You see black in the night. Why. So let them use their imagination. Let her think about it, about the little things. But it's so huge. Important.
[00:25:38] Speaker A: You know, they're. They're on a spaceship. We all are. Most people have just never looked out the window before.
[00:25:43] Speaker B: Nope.
[00:25:44] Speaker A: And watch the stars go by. That's. That's what's happening. That's what we do. And that's how we know that we're in the same. We're on. In the same spaceship. Because of course.
[00:25:54] Speaker B: But I, I say, okay, you stay before the window. Yeah, do that. Look at the moon. The moon is at a certain place there. Then, okay, you sit there, the same place. Thirty minutes later you look again.
The moon is at another place. So you're really on a spaceship.
It's all moving. It's all moving. And that's wonderful.
[00:26:21] Speaker A: And when other people Are looking at it. And I've connected people in different places. They see it, the moon, but in a different part of the sky. So we see. Well, it's around spaceship and.
[00:26:34] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah, yeah, Absolutely, yeah.
[00:26:36] Speaker A: Fabulous.
So let's see. So, okay, here's a great project.
[00:26:44] Speaker B: This is. This is something new. Indeed. This is something new because, okay, we distributed telescopes around the world for 10 years. 172 countries, it's a lot of them. But here in Belgium, the schools were asking me, okay, you're doing a lot of things, because I doing more than that. Distribute telescope. But I always organize school visits to the European Astronaut center where they train European astronauts everywhere.
Also in the Netherlands to esa.
I organize about telescopes, even about telescopes. But. But they say, okay, can we also receive a telescope?
And then I say, you're not an underserved community schools in Belgium, they have the money to buy their own telescope. Yeah, but what I can do, you can make your own telescope, a small one, but a telescope that you can assemble and assemble 1000 times. Because. Because there's a story of it. I started when I was 15 here in Ghent to building telescopes. And okay, after a couple of months, my telescope was ready and I helped here in the group to build telescopes for people. But who's building a telescope, Mike?
People who are retired because they have time, but most of the time they come. That was here on Wednesday. Okay, they drink a coffee, a beer, they work 30 minutes, they go home again and I say, no, I won't do that, I won't do that. I want to reach schools that students can build a telescopes. They have 10 months and they can come a couple of times a month and they can build a telescope. And that was really wonderful. We build it. And that's really true. 984 telescopes in 16 year time. That's a lot of them. Yeah, but what happened? What happened?
I don't say this is useless. No, some schools use these telescopes, but a lot of them, the students make this telescope and when there is an open day in school, they use that one. And then it's going, it's lost. Yeah. And I say, the teachers, we're gonna do something else. Building small telescopes that you cut, assemble and disassemble thousand times. And you can use it this year, you can use it in other. You can do the.
You can do this during. During this. And students will understand how a telescope work. And that is. I have an example with me. Maybe I can show you this. That's open. So you have secondary. Yeah, maybe It's. You can see it.
[00:29:54] Speaker A: There we go.
[00:29:55] Speaker B: Yep. Secondary mirror.
Primary mirror.
This. You can collimate this? Yes. So it's really a very simple project.
But this is useful. You build it. I give workshops here in one hour. One hour, 30 minutes. You build a telescope and you can use it. You can learn them how to collimate. And of course, there is also a solar filter. Because school here is also during the days, so when the sun. When the sun come out, I can show them with the telescopes. The sun. And this is always fun, really. You can show them also the mood you do during the day. It's work that I can do.
[00:30:42] Speaker A: And the.
This also has some cost to it, though, because you do buy the optics.
[00:30:50] Speaker B: Well, I buy the optics. The optics of this one is 70 millimeters. And I get it from the company in.
In the Netherlands. And the cost of the optics is, I guess, when I sell it in US$80, US$20.
That's it. That's it for the optics, the viewfinder and the eyepieces. I get them for free from Reser.
So the price is indeed very, very, very cheap. I have the optics for Newtonian. I have the optics for a small refractor in the same case, I have in the same project. This here, maybe.
No, you can see it. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. You can see the colors.
[00:31:45] Speaker A: Yes, yeah.
[00:31:47] Speaker B: Small spectroscope, but also. And a lot of books. And we send it to the school of. €150, or $160. But there are 10 books, there are a spectroscope, you have a refractor, you have a reflector, you have everything to start with it.
And then you can do a project.
[00:32:10] Speaker A: Fantastic. And this also. Then here we have. This is in Belgium or.
[00:32:18] Speaker B: No, this is. This is in the Netherlands. There's a colleague of mine who said, I want to do a project with the small telescopes. And he did it in the Netherlands. He gave the workshop and the children, the parents, bought the telescopes. So the telescopes, like you see, like that. It was €50. That's it. So that's not. That's really not much. They have. They have a telescope. It's working okay. It's tiny. It's tiny, but they can see the sun, they can see the moon, they can see. It's small. The ring of Saturn, they can see the moons of Jupiter. So this is amazing.
[00:32:53] Speaker A: It is really.
[00:32:54] Speaker B: This is amazing. They can start.
[00:32:56] Speaker A: There's a big difference between having no telescope and having a telescope, no matter how small it is. Galileo did with his. This Is way better than the telescope.
[00:33:09] Speaker B: Absolutely. I have a small story about that, about the tiny. The spectroscope I was in Germany with a couple of weeks ago with Reinhard Genzel. Reinhardt Genzel is a Nobel Prize winner, Physics 2020.
And I was with him and we talked about projects and he said to me, well, I going also to schools. And they don't understand what I. What. What I'm telling about. No, no. I make when I was a student a spectroscope. And he explained me and I said to him after five minutes, professor, I don't understand a dime, but I have also spectroscope. And I show them this. And he laughed. Really? He laughed. This. This tiny thing. Yes, this tiny thing. And I told them. How old are you are the children who. Who you are talking to? 10, 12 years. Okay, 10, 12 years. Are you talk about the telescope, about the spectacle that you constructed at university?
I started with this.
And they understand it.
[00:34:21] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:34:21] Speaker B: And when they can further with it. Okay. Then you can step, step by step. When you're a child, you can't walk. You must learn walking. You must learn running. Yeah. So start. Start very briefly. Very, very tiny. And then you go.
That's the whole point. That's the degrees.
[00:34:45] Speaker A: Yep.
And I. I want to go back now to a slide that I skipped here.
[00:34:51] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:34:51] Speaker A: This one is in Togo.
[00:34:53] Speaker B: This one is in Togo.
The story of this one. Well, we're talking about 20. 20, 20, 21. So in Covid times at that time, Presser told me, you must take a sabbatical year or two, because. Yeah, there are no containers, there are no telescopes beside, no one can may look to telescope and group. Yeah, we have a Covid time and I say, me a sabbatical year or two. No, I will take sabbatical years when I am dead, as many as you want. But as long as I live, I go on. Yeah, but how will you do this? Well, they can build their own telescopes.
We can give the optics or we. We have also sent a couple of telescopes like that per wooden of planks. Yeah. Sheets of wood, a solar filter. The optics, it's the same as this, as this tiny one, but it's an 11 centimeter. And you can learn how to build it. It's really very easy. There is nothing difficult about a Newtonian telescope. John Dobson did it. John Dobson did it. Without John Dobson, maybe. We never built a lot of telescopes like that. So they started in Togo to building telescopes. Now they small. They also started with this ones. And they saw. They say to me, well, we also have a refractor, and the refractor is better. But I expected that answer. I expected that. Okay, yeah, that's true. But you must line up, collimate the optics. Then I learned how they could do this, and I say, okay, you send me an image of the sunspots as you see now. And they did, and it was awful.
And I learned how they musculimated and say, okay, you have still the same sun. Take me an image with the same smartphone. The sense what were sharp. What's my point? They learned how to line up telescopes, and now they knew why you must line up a telescope so simply like that.
[00:37:26] Speaker A: It's always, you know, the telescope. Astronomy is the spark. And you've been doing this long enough that I'm sure you know about this as well, that there are people who are inspired by what they were doing in astronomy and they go on into other fields in science. But it's astronomy that got them started in the first place. Because collimating the telescope, you don't know, some. Some kids are going to be more interested in the engineering of it than they are in looking through it. It doesn't make any difference.
[00:37:58] Speaker B: Difference.
[00:37:58] Speaker A: Because astronomy touches on everything.
[00:38:01] Speaker B: Yeah. That's why I started with construction and telescope engineering. Engineer. And I forgot to tell you, but every telescope I made, like this one, I don't do it perfect.
Never, Never. Not ever. Why? Because I'm doing workshops and there's always a smart guy of a smart girl who said, well, yeah, that's not bad, but maybe you can change this. Okay, do it, do it. This is stem. This is STEM education. This is engineering. This is thinking. This is mathematics. This is all. This is all what's about. This is astronomy.
[00:38:46] Speaker A: Absolutely. And there's that image I mentioned earlier. This is one I wanted to share.
This, I think, is. Is a perfect picture. The smiles here, the kids looking through telescopes, man in the back. Both of these came from you. This is the internally displaced persons refugees in northern Nigeria. I got this through Oleinka because I have other pictures because using the telescopes that I've shared with them and helping with the work that they're doing. But this, it turns out, is the telescopes that you provided. And this could be anywhere. This could have been in Belgium or in the United States or something else. The clothes would be different, but otherwise there's no difference. But that shipping container behind them with the window that's been cut into it, that is the STEM center based on astronomy, where they teach the kids. So astronomy really is universal. And for everybody.
And. And this is. This is the result. This is why we do this.
[00:40:04] Speaker B: We all live under the same stars.
We have this. We have the same sky. Yes, that's it.
[00:40:12] Speaker A: And it's available to everyone. And I am going to. Is in Uganda.
[00:40:18] Speaker B: Uganda. Yeah. In Kampala. In Kampala. That's a school of street children. And that's also supported by a Belgian. Belgian guy. So it's one of the managers of so With. With company. With the company. And he's going to Uganda and he supported a school for street children and he built it there. A school, a music school. And I learned to know that guy. And I say, okay, there you have also teacher. Yeah, we have someone who knew about astronomy. Okay, go for it. And then we send that telescope to the school in Uganda. And really it is an amazing project. It's a wonderful movie. It's a wonderful clip. But the project behind and what the teachers they're doing is really fantastic. It's great.
[00:41:22] Speaker A: I just noticed something on here too. On the left side there, down at the bottom of the tube, there's my name. Underneath it is my signature. This was a very proud moment when you asked me to provide my signature for one of these to go with the astronauts, Nobel Prize winners and. And so on. So it's just fabulous. So let's. Let's see what this music.
[00:41:46] Speaker B: That's it. Maybe I can tell you, a lot of telescopes are signed by scientists, by astronauts, by Nobel Prize winners. And I when Reinhard Ganzer again in Germany, I was there and he's a coastal guy and he told me it's for senators. No, not interested.
No.
A signature as a signature. The only thing that I wanted is that someone who signed telescope also supported the project behind it. Supported the education. That's important. Yeah. And they all do it. And that I'm so grateful for it.
[00:42:32] Speaker A: Yes.
[00:42:32] Speaker B: Really.
[00:42:35] Speaker A: So here is the. The music school getting the telescope in Uganda. Street children, that is homeless children who are going to school on get them same go to mind.
[00:43:24] Speaker B: No business.
[00:43:24] Speaker A: We end up feeling it's 53% attention.
It's just the joy of this. It's just wonderful.
[00:43:37] Speaker B: Yes, it is. Absolutely.
[00:43:40] Speaker A: This is why we do it, huh?
[00:43:42] Speaker B: Yeah, this is why we do it.
[00:43:44] Speaker A: Because there are amateur streamers around the world who are passionate. They are out there doing this, sharing the universe with everybody all the time. You and I have been doing this kind of work for a very long time, for many years.
And maybe, maybe I can tell you.
[00:44:01] Speaker B: Also that school in Uganda, one of the teachers the older teachers was a child soldier. That's what I say. And Konish.
So it was a very cruel time.
And now he's a teacher in the school because he say, I want to do something good for the community. I want something to. For the children in Uganda because they. It was a terrible time. When we talk about the name, the years 1890 of the past century. So, yeah, it's really special.
[00:44:44] Speaker A: And this is something that people need to understand. Is that what you do? What I've done, what so many other people do. We're not doing the work. We're empowering and enabling the people who are there who are doing the work. So we help us amateur astronomy clubs do outreach. We help the schools to teach. There are passionate people everywhere using astronomy to improve people's lives, to improve their community and society. And these are the people who are the ones who are actually getting it done.
We're in better circumstances where we have the ability to bring resources to them and they're the ones that are doing it. But I want to say, Jean Pierre, as we wrap up, that it wouldn't happen without you. You know, these. You. You have to. Somebody starts it somewhere along the line and it's. It's. If you hadn't done it, maybe someone else would. But yeah, not too many people. And of course, you inspire others to continue the work. If we went away, there are others that would do the same thing.
[00:46:00] Speaker B: Well, I am. I am always lucky that I had to go the help of a lot of people I have here, the people of my university, they give me carte blanche. Do what you want.
And that's when you have the support of people. I learned to know people at CERN in Switzerland and all also there. Okay, go for it.
So when you. When you have the support. I'm a lucky guy.
That's it. That's true. It's. It's a nice project. Yeah. Do I do a good work? I guess so. But I don't do it alone. I don't. I learned to know you. You supported me. That's important. I'm not alone. I'm not alone. Because the question that I usually get is, okay, when you're not here, and then when you stop the project, what happens then? Well, I hope I have reached a lot of other people. I have learned them about telescope. How you can build a telescope, what you can do. They must not copy paste. Yeah, but there is always someone who goes going further with it. Maybe on another way. That's fine. There are other times, but continue with the case people, particularly in places where it's highly needed.
That's important because you have smart guys, smart girls in every community, wherever in the world. You can be whatever you want to be. No, it depends where you are born, who your parents are, your environment, the opportunities you get. And what we must do is to reach out the opportunities.
That's important.
[00:47:49] Speaker A: So I'll say, Jean Pierre, I've supported a lot of people over the 50 years. I've been doing this, 25 years internationally. But I don't support everybody.
So you're not going to get out of this. I won't let you even answer this, but I supported you because you're doing good work. And that's why it still starts with one person who has the idea and the ability to make it happen. And it wouldn't happen without you. And there are certain stars that shine brighter than others. And you are a supernova in. In this community. So I will end there without letting you express anything else, because I just want to leave it with that. And I hope that people will understand and support SSVI in, in your country and around the world. And we'll add some information about how they can do that, as well as Astronomy for Equity and all of the other great organizations that we are letting people know about around the world. And this has been a really good tour of not just what SSBI does, but of the people around the world, in Togo and Uganda and Nigeria, in me, Madagascar and Georgia, who are doing the work, people on the ground that you and and others help to do that. So I want to thank you so much for being on here with us and all the best for the continuing good work you are doing. And we are talking about a new project together that I hope we'll be able to announce some news about before too long.
Helping out people in places where astronomy can do great things for the people there. So thank you again, Jean Pierre.
[00:49:44] Speaker B: Thank you for asking me. Thank you, Mike. Bye.
