When power stations are attacked and the power goes out, astronomy students turn to the stars.
The students reached out to Astronomy for Equity (A4E) for help acquiring telescopes to take advantage of the brightly shining stars in the darkened skies above their cities. A4E responded with a crowdfunding campaign for telescopes that were sent to four Ukrainian schools in 2023.
Wanting to do more to help these young people whose futures had suddenly become uncertain, A4E assembled a diverse team to make the trip to Ukraine. The team visited some of the schools that had received telescopes already and several more, traveling the length of Ukraine in November 2024.
All the schools received telescopes that were generously donated by supporting telescopes companies Explore Scientific (USA) and Baader Planetarium (Germany). The team received the telescopes in the Warsaw hotel where it assembled for the train ride to Kyiv. Getting them onto the train into Ukraine was a tight squeeze!
The team included A4E staff Mike Simmons and Cassondra Holmes from the US. Professional astronomers Mirjana Povic joined from Ethiopia and Kateryna Frantseva from Vinnytsia, Ukraine where one of the schools is located.
The team was joined by Emmy-winning documentary filmmaker Dean Love whoe production company, Dean Love Films, will tell this story of resilience and hope through astronomy, with the darkness of conflict and blackouts transformed into an opportunity for discovery and wonder, in a new film to be released in early 2026.
Inspired by the students she met in classrooms and bomb shelters across Ukraine, team member Cassondra Holmes returned to Ukraine in March 2025 to conduct observing sessions that were captured by Dean Love for the documentary.
