Norway Helps Bosnian Children See Stars

A Bosnian amateur astronomy society, known as Orion, plans to hand out 1,000 small telescopes, known as Galileoscopes, to schools after securing financial backing from the Norwegian embassy in Bosnia. 

The Galileoscopes were developed for the International Year of Astronomy in 2009, which commemorated the 400th anniversary of the Italian scientist Galileo's first use of a telescope to study the heavens.

"Through this project we will enable most primary schools in Bosnia to include at least some astronomy content in their curriculum," Muhamed Muminovic, Orion's chairman, told Balkan Insight. "We hope to awaken children’s curiosity about the universe," he added.

Muminovic said the project formed part of Orion’s long-term campaign to revive professional and amateur astronomy studies in Bosnia and rebuild the country’s only observatory on Mt Trebevic near Sarajevo, which was destroyed in the 1992-95 war. 

Before the war, astronomy was a popular subject in Bosnian secondary schools and at university. The Sarajevo observatory, built by an astronomical society of which Muminovic was a member, was the largest in the former Yugoslavia. The society assembled a large library and was a prolific publisher of astronomical literature.

But astronomy studies were discontinued after the war, since when the authorities, burdened with pressing economic and social problems, have shown little interest in rebuilding the observatory.

Muminovic explained that Orion members would personally distribute the telescopes to schools within the next few months so that they could train children and teachers to assemble and use them. The Orion volunteers also plan to deliver astronomy lectures in the schools they visit.

Muminovic said that the name of the project to distribute telescopes, "One Sky for All", could be seen as containing an important message for Bosnia's ethnically divided society.