Star Party

On Saturday, Father Jim, a Jesuit priest and good friend to Kate, had invited Kate to bring some of the girls to a ‘star party’ at his telescope. What he does, I would describe as construction engineering and currently lives at a Jesuit retreat center about 45 minutes away from Hekima Place. He planned and built the place about 7 or 8 years ago. I visited the place last Sunday, and it is lovely, especially the two chapels. He spends much of his time in Uganda seeing to construction of schools there. In any case, Father Jim is an amateur astronomer and has even built his own telescope as well as a building on the Jesuit property to house it. The little observatory is cunning – it just looks like a storage shed, but houses a telescope, a computer, projector and screen. The roof is designed to roll away so that the telescope has a full view of the night sky.  The steel beams that support the roof extend double the length of the roof so that it can be rolled out to the front of the building using a pulley system. I should have taken a photo of the building but didn’t – maybe next time.  The telescope we used last night is not the one he made – it is a computerized one as a gift to celebrate 25 years of priesthood by his family. Speaking of family, his sister, Julie joined us last night. She must be Jim’s biggest supporter – you can see what is almost worship in her eyes when she talks about him and what he has achieved.

So Kate invited me and the 7^th and 8^th graders to go for the ‘star party’. On the way, we picked up chicken and chips (a favorite of all the girls) to take for a picnic supper. Father Jim had planned to show us all sunspots, but we got there just a little too late – the sun was already down below the wall of the observatory. So we settled down to eat chicken and wait for dark. At dusk, we went back into the observatory and Father Jim gave us a little introduction to astronomy, the formation of stars, and the solar system. By then, it was dark enough for us to see the new moon in the western sky and, more importantly, through the telescope. The girls were very enthusiastic about getting to see celestial bodies so magnified. In turn, Father Jim turned the scope on Venus (like a tiny quarter moon), Jupiter (we could see the giant red spot!) and then Mars off to southeast. He pointed out some of the more prominent stars and constellations, with Serius, the ‘dog star’, prominent overhead. By then it had clouded up, so it was back to the computer presentation about constellations that could be seen in the night sky over Nairobi. He even had a photo of the big telescope in Chile in the Atacama. You might think a group of 7^th and 8^th grade girls would not be too interested, but they paid rapt attention throughout and were disappointed when the evening was over. The adults had a great time, too!

By the way, Father Jim’s old telescope is gathering dust in his basement. He offered it to Hekima Place if Kate would have a building built for it. She was VERY enthusiastic about that idea.