A Star Safari at Corner Baridi

Corner Baridi lived up to its name. The day was warmed by the sun, but the night winds that swept round from the Ngong Hills brought the cold. And we were attending a night event – the Star Safari organised by Suzi and Chu of the Travelling Telescope. Fortunately, the sky remained clear. It was a beautiful night for star gazing.

We had first met Susan Murabana and Daniel Chu Owen back in 2013 up in Turkana, when we were in the same group that had travelled there to watch the solar eclipse. There were people from many countries, including Ukrainians and Russians.

And the eclipse ended in a drama I will never forget. As the moon edged its way across the sun and the light began to fade, and as flocks of birds rose to the sky as if startled, so a storm that had been brewing erupted and blocked our seeing the very last phase of the eclipse. 

It was also an event that brought Suzi and Chu together. No wonder they said in their notes on last weekend’s Star Safari: ‘We have no control over cloud cover’. 

In 2014, Suzi and Chu set up The Travelling Telescope as a social enterprise. As the company’s website says, the initiative has brought together Suzi’s experience in educational outreach and Chu’s passion for the technical aspects of astronomy. Clearly, they love what they are doing; clearly, they want others to share their own enjoyment of astronomy – the oldest, and perhaps the most mystifying, of the sciences.

They have established The Nairobi Planetarium at 105 Riverside Lane, off Riverside Drive. When you are in there, they promise that you can feel like you are travelling through space, landing on the moon, or navigating around stars and planets. They also have The Mobile Planetarium, which they take out to schools and colleges – or even to birthday parties. 

Intrepid star gazers

Then there are the Star Safaris. Last weekend’s event was the third of its kind this year. It was at the Bunduz Campsite, which is two kilometres along the track to Champagne Ridge. You take a left off the Magadi Road at Corner Baridi. There we found the founder of Bunduz, Mukhtar Sidi, who we had also met for the first time at the camp he had set up at Lake Turkana for the eclipse. 

We will certainly go back to Mukhtar’s place. But for now, let me just quote what the Bunduz website says about it: ‘We offer camping in all-weather canvas tents, teambuilding services, hiking, biking, nature walks, archery and sports bar entertainment’. I would add, as well as magnificent views, it has the smartest and cleanest washrooms and toilets of any campsite that I have ever seen. 

There were more than 60 of us, including many children, at this Star Safari. First, the powerful, computer-linked telescope was trained on the sliver of the waxing moon. The clarity of the image was amazing, and the moon’s craters were in sharp relief.

Chu guided us across the stars of the evening sky, particularly Uranus, the Orion Nebula and the Pleiades – the Seven Sisters. In Japan, Chu told us, the Pleiades constellation is called Subaru. Now I know why Subaru cars have a cluster of stars as their insignia. He boggled our minds with numbers, distances and time scales. Do you know that the Pleiades are 444 light years away from us but are among the nearest of the star clusters? 

The intrepid star gazers were up at 5am to see how the rotation of the Earth had done a scene shift. Now, the planets of Venus, the bright one, Mars, the red one, and Saturn, the ringed one, were all visible. 

If you would like to know more about The Travelling Telescope or The Planetarium, look up www.travellingtelescope.co.uk. 

John Fox is Chairman of iDC Email: [email protected]