On Friday evening, April 24th, a coalition of local astronomy-outreach groups joined forces to bring more than a dozen telescopes onto Boston Common to share views of the night sky. The Space Week Star Fest capped off this year’s International Dark-Sky Week (April 13-20) and was the signature stargazing event for Massachusetts Space Week 2026 (April 20-26).

Never before have so many telescopes looked skyward from Boston Common. The “observing site” was by the baseball field in the Common’s southwest corner. From dusk until late evening, over 600 visitors peered through all kinds of telescopic equipment — from binoculars to refractors and Dobsonian reflectors to compact digital “smart scopes” — to view the Moon, Jupiter, Venus, Beehive star cluster, double stars, and spiral galaxies. 

Organized by the Space Consortium and DarkSky Massachusetts, this public stargazing event brought together volunteers from the Amateur Telescope Makers of Boston (ATMoB), #popscope Boston, and the UMass Boston Astronomy Club. Thanks to them, members of the public from all walks of life witnessed up-close celestial sights that most had never experienced before.

For the first two-thirds of the night, the sky was mostly hazy or cloudy, but the 56% illuminated waxing gibbous Moon was able to shine through the thin layer of clouds above. Surprisingly, a line of 40+ people soon formed behind one Dobsonian telescope aimed at Jupiter and operated by Sarthak Maniar. Jupiter was only visible for seconds at a time between minutes of passing clouds. Maniar would scramble to re-aim his 4-foot long, 8-inch diameter Dobsonian telescope every time Jupiter appeared from the clouds and hurry the next person in line to gaze at the sight.

By 9:00 p.m., the clouds had cleared away, and we had unobstructed access to Jupiter, spiral galaxies, star clusters and other deep-sky objects. Telescopes were now pointed in a multitude of different directions as guests roamed around for their next new celestial object to observe. 

Nazmus Nasir, Corey Mooney, and Venu Venugopal brought digital “smart” telescopes that captured long-exposure images of faint objects that were displayed on tablets and a portable projection screen. Those who stopped by could admire galaxies that included the Pinwheel, Messiers 81 and 82, Leo Triplet, and more.

Many guests were surprised to gawk at and view through Dave Sopchak’s homemade Dobsonian telescope. Sopchak had ground and polished the 6-inch diameter glass mirror by hand, installed it in a cardboard tube, and mounted the tube on a wooden base.

Throughout the night, Ted Zhu served as greeter for the large crowd waiting in lines to observe through telescopes, inviting them to join in on this historic event on the Common. Sometimes he had to reassure wary visitors that participation was free and open to all. 

While heading home on a Red Line train, dragging along his wagon of astronomy outreach supplies, #popscope founder Michael O’Shea was met by an MBTA employee, who told him that passengers were positively buzzing after they visited our telescopes, and that kids were proudly wearing stickers and gushing about how they saw Jupiter’s moons.

Everyone went away happy and newly aware of how light pollution robs us of dark, starry skies (the well-lit Boston Common provided a perfect example). But they also learned about its effects on the circadian (day-night) cycle in humans, the disruption in nocturnal  wildlife, and wasted electricity. Currently, the state legislature is considering the “Dark-Sky Bill,” which would require new or replacement state- and municipally-funded light fixtures to follow outdoor-lighting best practices. See this post to learn how to contact your state representative and senator to let them know that the Dark Sky Bill matters to you.

Special thanks to all the volunteers and their organizations who helped with this event: April Anamisis¹, Kelly Beatty^2,3, Aradh Bisarya¹, Brandon Carroll⁴, Makeighly dos Santos⁵, Steven Feinstein^3,4, Quinten Geldhof^3,4,6, Alissa Haddaji⁵, Etienne Haddaji⁵, Siddarth Jain^3,4, Rachel Johnston⁴, Marc Lamere³, Sarthak Maniar^3,4, Corey Mooney³, Nazmus Nasir^3,4,7, Michael O’Shea^3,4,5, Feni Pandya⁴, Dave Sopchak^3,4, Ahkeel Timothy³, Venu Venugopal³, and Ted Zhu^2,3,4,5.

¹UMass Boston Astronomy Club; ²DarkSky Massachusetts; ³Amateur Telescope Makers of Boston; ⁴#popscope Boston; ⁵The Space Consortium ; ⁶Boston Museum of Science; ⁷Naztronomy