Engaging the public in sidewalk astronomy

This year, a sidewalk astronomy project started by two friends who have a passion for astronomy is celebrating 10 years of building an urban stargazing community with pop-up events and experiential learning.

Called #popscope, the project began almost by accident when co-founders Michael O’Shea and Viva Dadwal set up a telescope in Ottawa’s ByWard Market one evening in 2014.

Now a higher education scholar whose research focuses on building more equitable, democratic education systems, Dr. O’Shea – who recently completed his PhD in higher education at the University of Toronto’s Ontario Institute for Studies in Education – remembers it didn’t take long after setting up the telescope before he and Ms. Dadwal were approached. “All these people came up, curious and asking questions. We just thought, ‘Gosh, we need to keep doing this,’” he said over Zoom from his current home base in Boston, Mass., where he is an as early college program manager at Cambridge Public Schools, strengthening academic pathways between high school and university.

So began #popscope, short for “pop-up telescope.” It’s since expanded to chapters in Montreal, Baltimore, New York City, Washington, D.C., Boston, Jacksonville, Fla., and Philadelphia, thanks mostly to the movements of volunteers from the original Ottawa and Washington, D.C. chapters. Dr. O’Shea estimated they’ve met 21,000 people at over 500 volunteer-run events, with most chapters meeting on a monthly basis, he said.  

Dr. O’Shea emphasized the informal, free-choice learning that #popscope events offer. “Free-choice learning recognizes the autonomy of the learner – the person doesn’t have to come to the telescope, but they do,” he said. He sees #popscope as a bridge to people who might not have the time, interest, or opportunity to attend more formal institutional events, like observatory nights at universities or lecture series.

The #popscope project is “not the only game in town – we have friends across the world who are equally geeked about putting telescopes on sidewalks and getting people to look up,” said Dr. O’Shea. “We’re tapping into this moment of wonder that I would say 99 per cent of humans feel – I have yet to meet someone who’s not blown away by a solar eclipse or Saturn’s rings. These end up being just really joyful experiences.”

Jack Hewitt, associate professor of physics at the University of North Florida, has been a #popscope volunteer for nine years. He integrates #popscope into some of the university courses he teaches, giving students the option to run sidewalk astronomy events as part of their final project.

“I think it engaged the students in a way that different projects or reports haven’t,” said Dr. Hewitt. “They see how excited other people are about astronomy … knowledge of astronomy, this fundamental idea of Big Bang cosmology and just the size and scale of the universe; it really changes perspectives.”

#Popscope’s urban focus differentiates it from most other sidewalk astronomy projects, said Dr. O’Shea. While galaxies and distant stars may not be visible from city streets due to light pollution, telescopes can still help people see major astronomical landmarks in greater detail, like the moon, bright stars and planets.

“Even if you can’t see galaxies, it’s still worth it and it’s still valuable from a social capital, education perspective, to show someone the moon, or Jupiter or Saturn from a street corner,” Dr. O’Shea said.

That is especially true in the U.S.: “Because we’re so residentially segregated … urban neighbourhoods are frequently low-income, communities of colour, and so we’re intentionally going to those areas that are often overlooked by other astronomy groups because they’re so light-polluted,” he said.

After a down period during the pandemic, #popscope events are ramping back up, all with the aim to turn meetings on street corners into moments of community connection.

“It’s really a passion project,” agreed Dr. Hewitt. “I don’t see a lot of professional astronomers as excited about sharing astronomy as Michael and Viva have been.”