Creates a telescope with two buckets and a mirror: 17-year-old realizes his dream of seeing stars and planets (and brings his invention to schools)

For many teenagers, social media is a pastime. For Lucas Gabriel Ribeiroinstead, they became the place to share a passion capable of changing his life. The young man, just 17 years oldlives in Teixeira, in the Sertão of the Brazilian state of Paraíba, and has transformed a simple curiosity about the sky into a project that today involves thousands of people. It all started observing the Moon with the cell phone camera. Those images, although limited, ignited the desire to go further and understand what was really hidden in space.

The first telescope built with two buckets and a mirror

Unable to purchase professional tools, Lucas decided to find an alternative solution. After studying how telescopes work, he made his first model using two buckets of margarine and a simple household mirror.

An artisanal project which, despite the simplicity of the materials, allowed him to observe the Moon much more closely. That success represented the turning point: instead of stopping, he started read up more and more on astronomy and optics.

The donations transformed an experiment into a real astronomical laboratory

The photographs published on social media attracted the attention of enthusiasts from different regions of Brazil. Impressed by the boy’s ingenuity, many decided to send him components and accessories. Thus came eyepieces, smartphone holders and other tools that allowed him to assemble increasingly sophisticated telescopes, to the point of building a model to 200 millimeters.

Thanks to this new equipment Lucas was able to observe phenomena and celestial bodies which until recently seemed unattainable: the Jupiter’s spots, Venus, Mars, Saturn and even there Orion Nebulaone of the most famous in the night sky.

The project that brings Space to schools and squares

His initiative, called “Exploration in Space”is not limited to publishing photographs online. In fact, Lucas organizes meetings and astronomical observations open to the public in the schools and squares of his region. Students, families and the curious thus have the opportunity to look at the sky through built instruments almost entirely with his work and creativity.

Over a million views and a future among the stars

The social profile dedicated to the project has now passed one million viewsreaching users even outside Brazil. An outcome that Lucas did not imagine when he began sharing his first observations. His passion, however, does not stop at telescopes: he also creates cardboard models of famous space vehicles, including one replica of the Perseverance Roverthe robot sent to Mars in 2021.

His goal is to continue his studies and build a career in the space sectorexpanding the project and introducing more and more young people to the exploration of the universe. A story that shows that, sometimes, to look at the stars you don’t need expensive tools, but curiosity, inventiveness and determination.