Just learned our preferred viewing spot is swarming with several hundred cars. Wow! So we're changing our viewing loc on the fly.
African News (8)
South Africa’s knowledge economy has already received a huge boost and will continue to grow as the Meerkat project is being completed
So often with large science projects politicians and some sectors of the general public will criticise the investment. Their argument is that the money should be used to build more houses or to improve the lot of the poor.
When South Africa launched the pathfinder satellite SumbandilaSat, the Minister of Science and Technology was taken to task in an article in one of the Sunday papers accusing the DST of wasting money.
At another media briefing the minster was asked why the government did not rather spend the money to fix potholes. Not short of words the Minister replied “without my satellite how will they find all the potholes!”
The American Space programme had its fair share of similar criticism. In South Africa it is now the SKA.
What if on 14 February 2012, the International Advisory Consortium recommends Australia as the SKA host country; have we wasted the huge investment in developing the precursor KAT 7 system and the work started on Meerkat?
What the critics forget is that these projects have the major benefit of building a knowledge economy – something South Africa seriously requires.
On the one hand they talk about the brain drain and on the other hand they criticise efforts to create environments that will encourage South Africa’s best brains to remain in the country, attract expertise from overseas and train a new generation of young scientists.
And that is precisely what the SKA projects have done. If South Africa is not selected as the SKA host, we will still have the Meerkat; which will come on stream around 2016 and provide the world with mega astronomy science opportunities at least a decade or longer before the SKA will come on stream.
As a nation we have already accumulated dividends during the preparation for the SKA bid which was submitted in September 2011.
South African engineers at the MeerKAT project office in Cape Town have taken the lead in the development of new generation astronomy tools such as the ROACH (reconfigurable open architecture computing hardware) boards.
MeerKAT
Published in
African News
January 06, 2012
“What sets her apart is she wants what she tells people to benefit them.” -- Averil Macdonald
As a child growing up in the city of Cotonou in Benin, West Africa, Aude Alapini-Odunlade “used to look at the night sky all the time” from her bedroom window, she recalls. She says she was fascinated by “the vastness of the universe, the flickering lights from the stars, the silver shine of the moon, and the exotic nature of space,”. When she was 10, she asked for a science encyclopedia for Christmas so she could learn about astronomy. By 11, she had decided to become an astronaut.
When, a year later, she learned that her eyesight wasn't good enough to become a space shuttle pilot, she decided to pursue astrophysics. A love of science outreach, and personal circumstances, caused her to shift gears again, leading Alapini-Odunlade, 28, to go into teacher training.
Learning astronomy
A “great” physics teacher at Alapini-Odunlade’s French private school in Cotonou, who ran after-school astronomy clubs, consolidated this early passion. Alapini-Odunlade received the highest grade in her year for her baccalauréat, in 2001, and obtained funding from the French government’s Bourses Excellence-Major program to study physics and chemistry at the Université Paris-Sud 11.
In 2004, she started a master’s degree program in physics at Paris-Sud. She spent her first year at the University of Manchester in the United Kingdom via the European Union’s ERASMUS educational exchange program. Learning new science and integrating fully with her fellow students in a new language was tough at first, she says, but “I knew that as a scientist, English was very important.”
Giving back to her country
Back in France for her second year, Alapini-Odunlade specialized in astronomy and astrophysics, taking courses at the Observatoire de Paris. One of her professors, Didier Pelat, suggested she return to Benin to observe the March 2006 solar eclipse; Benin was one of the sites where the eclipse would be total.
The trip became a pilgrimage: All 16 students in her master’s degree course, five lecturers, and four support staff members spent a week in Benin. The Observatoire de Paris covered most of the expenses and Alapini-Odunlade and her family assisted with the logistics.
Along with their telescopes, the group packed donated science textbooks and several hundred pairs of special glasses for viewing the solar eclipse. “We realized we were going to attract a lot of attention from the local community, and wanted to provide them with the tools to observe [the eclipse] safely,” Alapini-Odunlade says. Alongside her fellow students, she visited local schools to discuss the eclipse. “It was the first time I’d had the responsibility of having to be scientifically correct, and making it clear when I was guessing rather than saying actual facts. It was really good skills to learn.”
Alapini-Odunlade and the Observatoire de Paris maintained contact with the schools they visited in Benin, as well as with the local authorities. They returned in March 2007 for a total lunar eclipse, and again in April 2009 for the International Year of Astronomy. On each visit, they gave astronomy talks and ran telescope observation sessions at schools and cultural centers. “You have so much impact when you go to remote places where they’ve never talked about such science before,” Alapini-Odunlade says.
Published in
African News
Friday, 06 January 2012 02:14
South Africa desert town battles for radio telescope
Written by Super User
CARNARVON, South Africa (Reuters) - The occasional sheep seeks respite from a sun that has scorched rocks black in this semi-desert region that South Africa hopes will host the world's most powerful radio telescope.
Chosen because of its remoteness, with hills providing an extra shield against radio interference, the Carnarvon area could emerge as the African base for a telescope 50 times more sensitive and 10,000 times faster than any in existence.
Africa is competing against Australia for the right to host the 2 billion euro ($2.62 billion) Square Kilometre Array (SKA) telescope, and its antennas and other receptors will extend in a pin-wheel design for 3,000 square kms (1,200 square miles).
Its centre must be in as remote a place as possible, free from electronic signals, and that is why Carnarvon, about 450 km northeast of Cape Town, is the site of a pilot project.
The SKA project, funded by a variety of countries and research institutions, is expected to come on line in 2023 and a decision is expected in February on whether Africa or Australia-New Zealand will be the site of the one of the world's biggest scientific construction projects.
"There are not many opportunities to serve as this kind of catalytic agent to catapult South Africa and the continent into the league of a serious scientific player," Deputy Science Minister Derek Hanekom told Reuters.
BOOST FOR AFRICA
South Africa already hosts the Southern African Large Telescope, the largest of its sort in the southern hemisphere.
Australia is building what it says is one of the world's premier sites for radio astronomy in the sparsely populated Mid West region of Western Australia.
Its bid with New Zealand boasts "extreme radio quietness and excellent atmospheric conditions" as well as a greater ease of doing business and greater safety than southern Africa.
Published in
African News
If, billions of years from now, extraterrestrials were to come across one of our far-flung interstellar space probes, what could they learn of us? In the 1970s, as NASA prepared to send its first probes beyond the distant reaches of the solar system, this was the question that worried renowned scientist and author Carl Sagan.
Sagan, who died 15 years ago on this day, was enormously influential in a number of ways—he was a prolific researcher and publisher of articles on planetary science, and his books and popular PBS series Cosmos inspired a generation with the remarkable discoveries of astronomy and astrophysics. But his most long-lasting and significant impact might indeed be the time capsule he placed on the NASA probes: a gold-plated record titled “The Sounds of Earth.”
“From the beginning, Sagan was a strong believer in the probability that there is intelligent life out there,” says Jim Zimbelman, a geologist at the Air and Space Museum, which holds a replica of the gold record in its collection. “And because of that, he said, ‘Look, these are the first man-made objects to leave the solar system. What if someone finds them?’”
Sagan was instrumental in having small metal plaques attached to Pioneers 10 and 11, the first probes to leave the solar system, that would theoretically indicate to extraterrestrials the origin of the probe if ever discovered. But for Voyagers 1 and 2—a pair of spacecraft designed to survey Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune—he and others wanted something more comprehensive: a record of images and sounds that would represent the diversity of the human experience.
Published in
African News
Friday, 06 January 2012 07:32
The Gods must be crazy: Metal ‘Teletubby head’ falls near Namibian village
Written by Super User
Mystery surrounds a 13-pound unidentified flying object which fell from the skies in northern Namibia. Despite efforts by researchers to identify its composition and origins, nobody has been able to establish where the metal sphere came from.
The ball, weighing 13 pounds (5.9 kilograms) and measuring 14 inches (35 centimeters) in diameter hit the ground next to the Namibian village of Omanatunga in the Omunsati region in the north of the country.
Locals reported hearing a series of loud explosions before the sphere was found by a farmer sometime between November 15 and November 20. The metal ball was found some 60 feet (18.3 meters) away from a small crater it is assumed to have created when it fell.
Ever since, local officials and researchers have been kept busy investigating the origins and make-up of the mysterious ball. Local police chief Vilho Hifindaka was quick to calm everyone down by saying the object did not pose any danger, as it was hollow inside.
The director of the Namibian National Forensic Science Institute, Paul Vidik, said the two sides of the ball appear to be welded together and that the sphere contains a metal alloy used in spaceships. He rejected the idea that it could be an extraterrestrial object and said such findings are commonplace throughout the southern hemisphere – in South America, Africa and Australia.
Russian specialist Igor Lisov, a columnist for the magazine Novosti Kosmonavtiki (Astronomy News), believes the sphere is part of the third stage of the Russian “Soyuz-U” rocket that carried the transport ship “Progress M-13M” on October 30.
Published in
African News
Sunday, 05 February 2012 06:51
Help African kids to see stars
STARGAZERS on Wearside will give children in Ethiopia an out-of-this-world experience.
A new project is being launched by the Sunderland Astronomical Society to send telescopes to the Horn of Africa so pupils there can enjoy the wonders of the universe.
Their aim is to collect hundreds of unwanted binoculars from across the North East and to pull them apart so they can use the lenses inside.
David Hughes, vice-chairman of the Sunderland Astronomical Society, said: “A friend of ours called David Kidd, from the South Shields society, is working in Ethiopia as a teacher.
“On going out there he discovered that the closest the children get to seeing the stars is by rolling up a piece of paper and imagining what they might look like.
“So David wrote to me and asked if there were any spare binoculars that people could donate.
“This is when we decided to launch Telescopes for Ethiopia in an attempt to help give those schoolchildren the same opportunity that we have.
“But as the government in Ethiopia applies an import tax on binoculars, our plan is to strip the lenses out and then send them on to be distributed.”
He explained that once the lenses arrive they will then be reassembled to create a number of small telescopes.
David said: “It is a fantastic thing for the North East to be involved in and it will be life-changing for the kids in Ethiopia.
“It was definitely life-changing for me when I first became involved in astronomy and it will teach them so much.”
There is also a plan to take an 11-inch telescope mirror to the main university in the capital of Ethiopia, Addis Ababa, which will be used to view the solar eclipse of 2013.
He said: “If this project is successful we plan to extend the model around the world inviting other societies to give help and support to regions where technology and money are hard to come by.”
Published in
African News
Sunday, 05 February 2012 07:01
The ex-unionist behind the SKA telescope
Avery Carpenter
BERNIE Fanaroff, the man behind SA’s bid to build the world’s most powerful radio telescope, is no stranger to power – he once served as deputy director-general for star of the Struggle, Nelson Mandela.
Now he works for the stars of the universe.
Fanaroff is committed to building the SKA (Square Kilometre Array) telescope in SA.
“We have an outstanding site for the SKA, as well as the people and expertise to build and operate this mega-instrument,” he said.
The self-effacing Fanaroff, who has driven SA’s astonishing bid, is something of a renaissance man.
He has a PhD in radio astronomy and was a formidable union leader in the 1980s.
He was asked to run the SA SKA Project in 2003 by Rob Adam, then director-general of Science and Technology.
“I studied radio astronomy and I had also worked in government, so it was a good fit for the project,” Fanaroff said.
After receiving a PhD at Cambridge University, he worked as an astronomer in SA for two years and went on to serve as a trade union organiser during the critical apartheid years.
For 19 years Fanaroff worked as a organiser, negotiator and national secretary for the National Union of Metalworkers SA.
“My training in physics and astronomy made it relatively easy to understand the industry and its processes,” Fanaroff said in an interview published on the National Astrophysics and Space Science Programme website.
Published in
African News
Sunday, 05 February 2012 07:08
South Africa vs Australia in world’s largest telescope bid
Written by Super User
It’s not just on the cricket fields that South Africa and Australia are arch-rivals. Now there’s a mighty battle raging at technological level to host the world’s most powerful telescope that aims to find the answers to the burning questions of the origins of the human race and whether there is life elsewhere in the universe.
South Africa is ready to host the Square Kilometre Array (SKA) in the heart of the almost desert landscape of the Karoo in the Northern Cape province, and has already gone a long way towards the project by developing the MeerKAT (sic) system, the largest telescope yet.
Australia is also edging ahead to secure the bid, which is expected to be finalised in the first half of this year by a consortium of the major international science funding agencies, in consultation with the SKA Science and Engineering Committee (SSEC).
Published in
African News