Star gazing Archives - Astronomers Without Borders Nigeria

In commemoration of all that Yuri Gagarin achieved as the first man to go to space, Astronomers Without Borders Nigeria organized a Yuri’s commemorative symposium at the Defence Space Administration Headquarters, Abuja. In the symposium, the National Coordinator, Mrs. Fagbemiro, made an introductory speech about our purpose at the meeting and she introduced the AWB members to the audience, which comprised mainly of staff of the Defence Space Administration. Engr. Timi Ekubo, an AWB member, made a presentation about Astronomers Without Borders Nigeria, our activities and upcoming projects. This was followed by a presentation by Engr. Onuche Ogu. Mr. Ogu made a presentation on Yuri Gagarin and Space exploration timeline from before the 1500’s.

The next day, April 12, 2019, AWBNigeria celebrated Yuri’s night in conjunction in National Space Research & Development Agency. Short talks were given about Yuri Gagarin, Space related questions were entertained and answered, and people were able to view the Moon and Sirius with AWBNigeria telescopes.

AWBNigeria in collaboration with Space Generation Advisory Council organized a Yuri’s night event tagged Inspire Abuja. It was packed with series of space related presentations and it ended with a star gazing session.

Against the odds that the weather posed in the evening of April 14, we celebrated our Yuri’s night at Julius Nyerere Crescent, Asokoro. The team worked hard on their preparations and publicity prior to the event but Mother Nature had her own plans.

Regardless, we had an eventful Yuri’s night. On arrival at the venue for the event, we set up our Telescope and like a magnet it attracted many curious bystanders. They wanted to know what the Telescope could do and the purpose for the event. This created an opportunity which we used to educate them about Astronomy, Yuri Gagarin and the capability of our Telescope & Binoculars.

We had giveaway flyers that had top facts about Astronomy, Space travel and Yuri Gagarin. We also had light refreshments for our audience. The clouds made it impossible to view any stars and the moon nevertheless, curious people used it to view objects in the distance. We had a star chart in order to show people the location and names of stars. We had several people that were seeing a Telescope for the first time, Kids that were excited about Astronomy and lots of questions to answer.

It was a lovely day and another step in the right direction for AWB Nigeria. One People, One Sky.