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You're listening to NEWS Plus Special English. I'm Paul James in Beijing.
The success of Chinese lunar probe Chang'e-3 has created a surge of public enthusiasm for astronomy.
On Dec 14, Chang'e-3 set down on the moon, making China the third country in the world to make a soft landing with a lunar probe.
The probe carried a telescope, which scientists say can offer a unique view of the cosmos.
Ouyang Ziyuan, a senior adviser for China's lunar program, says it is the dream of scientists to look into space from the moon, where observation is better because the moon has no pollution.
This is the first moon-based astronomical telescope. Many countries are planning similar projects, but China was the first to do it.
In an observatory in Taiyuan, capital of northern China's Shanxi Province, people queued up to look at the moon and search for the Chang'e-3 landing area.
Astronomer Yan Xiaodong explains it was impossible to see Chang'e-3 and Yutu rover with the 40-centimeter-diameter telescope at the observatory, given that the probe and rover are 380,000 kilometers away. But, the astronomer says, people will have fun with the observations and gain scientific knowledge from them.
Meanwhile, three young men in Hubei province in central China used plastic tubes to make an astronomical telescope. With this telescope, which is 80 millimeters in diameter, they can see the moon's craters.?
These young men bought the plastic tubes in a building-materials market and the viewfinder was taken from a toy gun. They're planing to make more complicated telescopes for further observations.
Another amateur astronomer, 33-year-old Chen Tao from Suzhou in eastern China is building a private observatory in Tibet autonomous region. Construction of the observatory started in late November in Ngari prefecture in Tibet.
Chen says, located on an altitude of 5,100 meters, the observatory on the Tibetan Plateau is able to operate more than 300 days a year. When it is completed, Chen will remote-control the devices and the observatory via computers at home in Suzhou.
