With his telescope and the help of a clear night, Brendan Happe is offering passersby on South Street a glimpse into space, writes Matt Guilhem for Billy Penn at WHYY.

Once he gets somebody’s attention, usually by asking them if they want to see the Moon, Happe launches them on a tour of the cosmos. Depending on the calendar, the stops on the tour can include Jupiter, Saturn, or a myriad of other objects in the night sky.

The most common response he gets once people see one of the celestial bodies?

“Whoa … that’s amazing,” said Happe.

By setting up a telescope on a sidewalk of a light-soaked city, Happe is bringing the observatory to the people along South Street. This practice is called sidewalk astronomy.

Happe’s mission is to offer “a view of the planets and the moon in order to share something that people aren’t going to stumble upon naturally.”

Happe got interested in astronomy and specifically the Moon after he saw the Earth’s satellite for the first time through his binoculars.

“Seeing the mountains and the craters on the moon with my own eyes – it was beautiful,” he said.

Read more about sidewalk astronomy that Brendan Happe shares with the community in Billy Penn at WHYY.

_____