Kenyan astronomers obsessed with space

Somewhere in Kiambu County, a man is having “problems” with his wife due to what he does on many nights when there are no clouds in the sky.

Samson Wanjohi, a software developer, is keenly interested in matters space. He has spent a fortune buying telescopes and supporting equipment to help him scan far for objects in our Solar System and beyond — to the chagrin of his wife.

“I don’t let a clear night go to waste,” he told Lifestyle.

He is one of the few Kenyan stargazers whose hobby is looking deep and keenly into space. However, he said, his wife is hardly a fan of this.

“She doesn’t like the hobby at all,” he said of his expensive hobby. “You will spend a lot of nights outside fighting off mosquitoes.”

But that is a necessary sacrifice, he thinks.

“The best time to use a telescope is at night. That’s when the outer planets, which have textured surfaces, are best viewed and photographed,” said Mr Wanjohi.

Being outdoors at night, he says, also batters his body.

“The most recent chest infection was Monday (May 1). Cloudless nights are cold (as) our planet loses more heat,” he added.

Mr Wanjohi is a protégé of Loren Ball, an amateur American astronomer who has taken his passion for stargazing as far as building an observatory on the roof of his house. He has also discovered numerous asteroids. In fact, there is an asteroid named after Mr Ball. It is called the 16095 Lorenball and it was discovered in 1999.

In an online chat with Lifestyle from the United States, Mr Ball said connection with Mr Wanjohi and others was made possible by technology.

“I enjoy helping those who also take an interest. Things are so different today. Before the internet, help was pretty hard to find. Today, it is amazingly easy to have a relationship with anyone in the world. My friend Samson Wanjohi is a fine example,” he said.

Another Kenyan with an interest in stargazing, but who hasn’t invested in it as much as Mr Wanjohi, is Frank Mwangi, who owns a basic telescope.

“I’m quite an amateur at this. My telescope is also poor in visibility. However, I enjoy reading about space,” he told Lifestyle. Mr Mwangi is a friend of Mr Wanjohi.

So, how much has Mr Wanjohi spent on his hobby?

“I honestly lost track,” he replied. “It’s an expensive hobby.”

Something as simple-sounding as an eyepiece for a telescope, he said, costs a pretty penny.

“A good eyepiece will set you back a couple hundred dollars,” he said.

He went on: “When you are a beginner, you get many things wrong. You end up spending a lot trying to fix things and it just gets worse. My first mistake was getting what was marketed as a beginner telescope on Amazon. That was in 2016, I think. It was a Birds Jones (telescope) marketed as a Newtonian reflector. They normally have marketing photographs from Nasa (National Aeronautics and Space Administration)’s Hubble telescope on the packaging and very fine print saying, ‘Photograph not taken with this telescope and is only used for marketing purposes.’”

“I then got my second telescope from eBay, a Maksutov-Cassegrain. It was missing a few things but I had learnt a few lessons. I prefer using the Maksutov,,” he added.

Should he get money to spare, he said, he will buy a dual mount telescope — a tool he described as “a beast”.

Stargazers are drawn to the hobby for the love of discovering new things and also seeing with their own eyes some of the extra-terrestrial bodies they have heard or read about.

Thanks to technology, Mr Wanjohi said, anyone can download an app that can inform you what you are looking at as you point your telescope to the sky and look into the image coming through.

Our moon and the planets in the Solar System, he added, are the easiest to spot.

“See the path our star (the sun) follows? All planets will approximately be somewhere on that path. Pluto will be off a little at times but you are unlikely to see it with a consumer telescope. Even the billion-dollar Hubble [space telescope deployed by Nasa in 1990] has problems seeing it. It wasn’t until new horizons that humanity finally got a clear image of Pluto,” noted Mr Wanjohi.

“Trying to see Pluto is like trying to see a matchstick flame in Busia while in Mombasa. Pluto is small and tiny [as viewed from Earth] and too far from the sun. Remember, we don’t see light; we see its effect on whatever reflects it,” he added.

Mr Wanjohi was also fascinated to hear that some Muslim faithful in Kenya used telescopes while trying to locate the new moon to mark the end of Ramadhan two weeks ago.

“It was cool watching them use a reflector [telescope]. Nice choice! Reflectors collect more light. A new moon will be very faint,” he noted.

A self-help article on catchcarri.com explains that stargazing, which is also known as amateur astronomy, is a hobby for “pretty much anyone who has an interest in this subject”.

“This hobby will not only widen your horizon when it comes to the universe, it is also suggested it is so relaxing that it can support individuals with psychological conditions such as depression,” it notes, also adding that most stargazers usually connect with people with similar interests.

So, when did Mr Wanjohi’s love affair with “heavenly” bodies begin?

“I can’t exactly recall,” he replied. “However, I recall being very interested in the Solar System during my primary school years. I found Mars to be very interesting. Maybe it was the name ‘Red Planet’ that got me; I’m not sure,” he replied.

What he is sure of, however, is that he will keep investing in this hobby and that not even mosquito bites will deter him.

“Many people think I went to astronomy school, but it’s just a hobby which frequently likes leaving my wallet and seeing stars,” he joked.

Still in a jovial mood, Mr Wanjohi noted: “I am a software developer mostly into business applications. That’s what I was trained in and do for a living. The hobby is my fallback when ChatGPT replaces us.”

He currently has two telescopes. In terms of the technology they use, the two are reflectors.

“There are generally two types of telescopes: refractors and reflectors. I have two reflectors. Reflectors are good for viewing and photographing deep sky – such as galaxies and nebulas – on a budget,” he said. “Refractor telescopes are good for planetary viewing while reflector ones are good for deep sky and faint objects.”

However, planets, the moon and other objects seen in the amateur astronomers’ telescopes hardly look like the high-resolution images that people are accustomed to.

“Let first-timers know that those objects will look very different when viewed through a consumer telescope. I always tell students of schools that I visit that most of the images they see online are taken with billion-dollar telescopes,” said Mr Wanjohi.

He was referring to his initiative that involves visiting various schools where learners try locating heavenly bodies using his telescopes. He has been doing so since 2016.

Through those visits, he said, one former student of Alliance Girls has begun to gain recognition abroad in the world of astronomy.

“If I get a better telescope, I can get more children interested in space with better views of our Solar System and the deep sky,” he noted.

Speaking of inspiring children, Mr Wanjohi also commended the Kenya Space Agency (KSA) for their bid to encourage learners to study science, technology and mathematics (Stem) subjects.

“Stem helps a country to remain competitive in a global economy and solve complex societal problems such as climate change and healthcare. KSA will lead Kenya in the right direction towards understanding and mitigating climate change-related challenges,” he said.

KSA was recently in the news after the launch of Kenya’s first functional observatory satellite, Taifa-1, that headed into space on April 15. It is currently configuring itself before its components are activated for it to start sending data to Earth.

“I’m excited about KSA. I was following them when they were NSS (National Space Secretariat) under the Ministry of Defence. KSA’s investment into technology that matters like the earth observation satellite, Taifa-1, is a huge leap into the right direction; a good step towards managing our drought-stricken areas,” noted Mr Wanjohi.

As humans train their eyes skywards, the question of whether we are all alone always crops up. As such, there are various initiatives to collect hints of life beyond our planet.

Mr Wanjohi is involved in at least one such project, and he has a certificate to show for it.

“This certifies that Samson Wajohi has participated in the SETI@home project since April 2, 2015 and has contributed 6,523 Cobblestones of computation (5.64 quadrillion floating-point operations) to SETI@home’s search for extraterrestrial life,” reads the certificate.

The SETI@home initiative is an experiment by the University of California (Berkeley).

“[It] uses Internet-connected computers in the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI). You can participate by running a free programme that downloads and analyses radio telescope data,” reads a post on a dedicated website.

Said Mr Wanjohi: “We have tried. The universe is a huge place. There are several theories that try to explain why we may or may not be alone. There are people working full-time on that problem. Let’s wish them all the best.”

For anyone who would wish to buy stargazing equipment, Mr Wanjohi had a few guidelines to share.

“Don’t buy the optical tube assembly (or the main telescope part),” he said.

The starting point, he noted, is to buy the stand where the telescope will be perched.

“Save up, get a proper mount first then buy a compatible optical tube assembly,” he noted.

When it comes to accessories, said Mr Wanjohi, if an accessory costs more than your telescope, “forget about it”.

He added that some eyepieces are pretty good and cost upwards of Sh70,000 a piece. Beginner telescopes, he noted, cost around Sh50,000.

“If you have a reflector, it will need collimation [adjustment to ensure accurate alignment] once in a while. This means you need something like a laser collimator. It costs about $20 while shipping takes probably $40. Duties and taxes take another $20 or thereabouts,” he said.

On social media, Mr Wanjohi often posts about astronomy. Through the same platform, he follows Nasa and other such organisations.

“I follow many pages on Facebook. The first one I suggest is the Kenya Space Agency’s Facebook page,” he said. “The page will give you an idea of how our space agency has grown. It’s a good place to get started.”

Mr Wanjohi also follows the pages of JPL (Nasa’ Jet Propulsion Laboratory) and that of the James Webb Space Telescope.

Related to Mr Wanjohi and other home-based stargazers’ activities is the Travelling Telescope, an initiative that enables people to have a closer look at objects beyond the earth using telescopes. It is based in Nairobi’s Corner Baridi near Ngong Road.

Expensive as the hobby might be, Mr Wanjohi and novices like Mr Mwangi will keep probing into the sky when opportunity allows. Who knows, they might chance on something out of this world someday.

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