A sidewalk telescope in Madrid offers a glimpse into the night sky’s unknown

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On clear evenings in Madrid, Alfredo Paniagua sets up his 180-pound telescope in the center of the city. Curious passersby soon begin to line up to peek through the lens.

It’s a nightly ritual Mr. Paniagua has performed for two decades. He often stays past midnight, sharing his telescope with hundreds of strangers free of charge.

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The stars have inspired wonder and contemplation from time immemorial. On Madrid’s sidewalks, one man is helping locals experience them today with a glimpse through his telescope.

For as long as there has been a record, the night sky has captured imaginations from every corner of the world. For Mr. Paniagua and countless others, there is something transformative about that feeling of unfathomable vastness. And a growing body of psychological research is corroborating what philosophers and religious thinkers have long posited – that awe and wonder are a central part of what it means to be human, connected to a wider whole.

That’s what Ana Afonso Martin says she felt looking through Mr. Paniagua’s telescope. She and three friends just arrived from the Canary Islands for a weekend in Madrid. A telescopic view of Jupiter was the last thing she expected to find in the capital.

“We are teeny tiny, and this is immense,” she says. “If you’re always stuck in your world, and you don’t look up at the sky, you don’t realize that.”

As the rest of the city heads out on a Friday evening, Alfredo Paniagua dons a lime-green vest, loads his 180-pound telescope into a van, and drives into the center of Madrid.

He sets up the telescope at the mouth of the busy Ópera metro station, a block from the Royal Palace. The sun still setting, he swivels the massive cylinder to an invisible point in the sky and fiddles with the focuser. And then he waits.

It doesn’t take long for curiosity to pique. Children tug on sleeves and point. Friends dressed for an evening out stop to ask what’s up there.

Why We Wrote This

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The stars have inspired wonder and contemplation from time immemorial. On Madrid’s sidewalks, one man is helping locals experience them today with a glimpse through his telescope.

“Jupiter,” says Mr. Paniagua. “The view is spectacular tonight.”

A line begins to take shape, curious passersby waiting their turn to peek through the lens. Mr. Paniagua places a footstool for those who need it and lifts the smallest kids up himself. He shows each viewer how to focus the image. Then he steps back for his favorite part. Eyebrows raised, he watches face after face light up at the sight: a perfectly round ball of bright gas marked by two clear stripes near its equator, tiny to the eye yet big enough to fit 1,321 Earths. Four moons stretch out in a straight line below.

He gives visitors their own time with the infinite, jumping in with information only when asked. What are those dots? How many moons does Jupiter have? How far away is it?



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