Saturday 3 November 2012

Popular on the blog: How to find the South Celestial Pole (SCP) almost accurately.



The Most Pobular Post on the Blog!

Sky Guide Africa South 2013

Prepared by the Astronomical Society of Southern Africa for use by novice, amateur and professional astronomers, Sky Guide Africa South 2013 is a practical resource, offering information for the whole year on the movement of the planets, upcoming eclipses, the dates of meteor showers, as well as star charts to aid in identifying stars and constellations in the southern African night skies.

The book also presents a wealth of information in a clear and accessible way about the Sun, Moon, planets, comets, meteors and bright stars, with many supporting diagrams, charts, illustrations and images.

An annual publication, Sky Guide Africa South is an invaluable resource for anyone with an interest in the night skies of southern Africa; ‘… an absolute must for first-time star-gazers and professional astronomers alike’.

Monday 29 October 2012

ASSA Symposium 2012 - Videos on YouTube


Several talks given recently at the ASSA Symposium in Cape Town can now be watched on YouTube, and more are being added.

  • The MeerKAT radio telescope - the path to the SKA mid-frequency array, presented by Justin Jonas
  •  Radio astronomy: SKA-era interferometry and other challenges, presented by Jasper Horrell
  •  Galaxy Clusters, presented by Maciej Soltynski
  •  Astrophotography from a backyard observatory, presented by Dale Liebenberg
  •  Some open clusters I didn’t discover, presented by Auke Slotegraaf
  •  A pictorial history of SAAO Sutherland, presented by Willie Koorts
  •  Doing astrophotography with a DSLR on a tripod, presented by Barbara Cunow
  •  The shaping and testing of two 20-inch optical telescope mirrors, presented by Johann Swanepoel

More to come

SpaceX capsule completes successful first mission

The unmanned SpaceX capsule made a safe splashdown in the Pacific Sunday after successfully delivering its first commercial payload to the International Space Station.
The capsule parachuted into the water at 1922 GMT after an 18-day mission to resupply the station and was now being recovered by a team of divers, US-based SpaceX said in a brief statement on its website.

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