The sky is free, and everybody should be able to look at it closely and enjoy it.

That is the core belief of Manila Street Astronomers (MSA), a nonprofit, volunteer-driven astronomy outreach group that advocates for astronomy education, collaboration and communication for all.

Founded by Gary Andreassen, along with Norman Marigza, Christopher Lu and Anthony Guiller Urbano, MSA is composed of volunteers from a broad swath of interests and professions, but who bond over the same passion for sharing the beauty of the sky, particularly through their free telescope viewings conducted in malls, schools and even on street corners.

Colleen Santos was a third-year journalism student at the Polytechnic University of the Philippines when she first volunteered for MSA more than six years ago. She’s now working as a court employee at the Manila Regional Trial Court and has been a member of the core group since 2017.

“I’d describe astronomy as an interest of mine that fell asleep, waiting for something to awaken it and make it spark,” Santos said.

And that’s where MSA came in: She was walking around the mall with her family one Sunday evening when she saw a bunch of telescopes at the open area. People were lining up to take a peek behind them, so she joined the crowd and was able to see a magnified Jupiter and the moon.

She couldn’t sleep that night, her experience having left her completely in awe. “I kept on remembering how great if felt when I was looking at the moon up close. What I felt was ineffable and totally beyond words.”

At the time, she became certain about one thing: “I want other people to feel that same feeling.”

Just show up

MSA has no membership system, participation being purely voluntary: “Show up in one of our events, tell us that you’re interested to volunteer with us so we can teach you the basics, and that’s it. We do not require any credentials. What we need is your interest and your genuine intent to share the beauty of the sky with the public.”

During free telescope viewings, volunteers would point their telescopes to viewable objects in the sky to show participants. “Most of the time, it would be the moon; but if we’re lucky, we can also show planets, specifically Jupiter, Saturn, Mars and Venus, as well as star clusters and nebulae,” Santos explained. “Recently, we have been including a meteorite exhibit in our set-ups as well, hosted by one of our volunteers, Ramon Santiago.”

MSA volunteers encourage participants to stare at the celestial objects for long periods of time. “We want them to savor the moment. We want to influence them to be interested. And we want them to want to learn more.”

As a core group member, Santos is in charge of entertaining invitations for collaborations and making them happen. She also looks for set-up locations so that they can reach different places and bring their advocacy to more people.

Back to free telescope viewings

“Before the pandemic lockdowns, we had active partnerships with multiple SM and Ayala Malls branches, a local food park, and a few high schools in Marikina City,” Santos said. “We even went to General Santos City and held a public viewing event of the solar eclipse in December 2019.”

Because the nature of their activities largely involves physical human interaction where they assist people in viewing celestial objects through their telescopes, help them take photos using their phones and converse with the participants from time to time, especially when they have questions about the object that they’re viewing or even about any astronomy-related topics, the pandemic had been a particularly hard time for the group.

“We eventually adjusted and decided to conduct online talks and lectures for the meantime,” Santos said.

They held an online lecture with Andreassen, who has moved to Australia but left his equipment for MSA to use. They also conducted online viewings of the moon and one solar eclipse.

“As of now, we’re just glad that we are somehow able to slowly go back to our physical free telescope viewings once again,” she added.

“As long as our volunteers are here and as long as there are people who are willing to learn, we will keep on moving.”