Malick Ndiaye made a telescope with the few tools he had because he was interested in space and had spent hours reading the book The Whole Universe.
The boy from Senegal, who was only 12 years old, made his own telescope out of his father’s old high-magnification glasses, a camera lens, wire, paper, cans, and a cane.
With these things, the young African man made a telescope that let him see the stars and the Moon’s surface in detail.
“It took me two weeks to build the telescope,” the little boy dressed in a NASA polo shirt explained in a report to the Spanish media El País, “when I focused on the night sky and saw the details of the Moon’s surface, it seemed to me that I could touch it with your hand. One day I was at the door of the house and a man who worked on the road works passed by. He asked me if it was something about topography and I told him no, that it was a telescope that I had made myself. So he took photos and a video of me and uploaded them to Facebook.”
Malick didn’t know that this video would be copied thousands of times and end up in the hands of scientists in the area, who contacted the young man right away.
Along with scientists, journalists also went to Senegal to find out more about the young genius from that country.
Maram Kaire, who is the president of the Senegalese Association for the Promotion of Astronomy, went to Malick Ndiaye’s house and gave him a second, more professional telescope that would help him learn more about space.
“When I was able to see the video it reminded me of myself when I was younger and I thought of all the efforts we make to spread this science. I did not hesitate to react because I know how difficult it is to contemplate the stars without a suitable instrument, to have a passion and not be able to develop it,” Maram told the aforementioned medium.
When asked about his dreams for the future, the young man has always said: “I just want to look at the stars.”