|
|
W.P. Koorts and A. Slotegraaf (ASSA) (talk presented by Slotegraaf) spoke on "/Xam astronomical references in GR von Wielligh's Boesman-Stories". Von Wielligh was the Surveyor-General of the Transvaal Republic and collected bushman tales in the NW Cape at about the same time as the more famous Bleek and Lloyd pair. In "Comets in bushman paintings", Brian Fraser (ASSA, Johannesburg) showed a selection of slides of bushman drawings said to represent comets from the collection by Bert Woodhouse and asked the audience to draw their own conclusions on the matter.
The following two talks dealt with the astronomical beliefs of present-day indigenous peoples. Tembo Matomela (Iziko Planetarium, Cape Town) discussed Xhosa beliefs and celestial nomenclature. The reappearance of the Pleiades (Isilimela) was used to set the date of initiation ceremonies. Lerothodi Leeuw (University of Chicago) discussed the astronomical beliefs prevalent in the Setswana linguistic area (parts of South Africa and Botswana), with special reference to the Moon and Venus.
Thebe Medupe (SAAO) and colleagues from UCT presented a paper on "The Timbuktu Science Project". In Timbuktu there are many manuscripts written in Arabic characters, but sometimes in the local language, on a variety of subjects, including astronomy. The manuscripts date from the middle ages and are contained in a number of libraries, most of them private. The project aims to study them, including an investigation of their originality, and will produce translations of the more important ones.
Anne Rogers presented an account of the research that went into the film "Cosmic Africa", a documentary. Extensive interviews were conducted through interviewing village elders, sky experts, shamans, historians and various other experts from seven countries. The final film concentrated on the early Egyptian site of Nabta Playa, on the Dogon people of Mali and the Ju/'hoan culture of NE Namibia. A special showing of "Cosmic Africa" took place at 6pm.
The first part of the afternoon contained talks of a more organisational nature about the future of Cultural history studies. Dr Jarita Holbrook talked on "The cultural astronomy of Africa - recent studies", in which she summarised the gradually expanding numbers of presentations and articles on the subject, including the conferences of the recent past and intended for the near future.
Prof Keith Snedegar (Utah Valley State College) talked on "Problems and prospects in the cultural history of South African astronomy". He reflected on the manner in which South African astronomical history was presented in the past. Studies or regional ethno-astronomies has value in advancing relevant science education. Snedegar's interests uniquely cover both the areas of traditional and of scientific astronomy and he discussed the historiography concerning both amateur and professional groups.
The second part of the afternoon was intended to be a discussion of "Social and historical aspects of the proposed NRF Astronomy Frontiers Programme", facilitated by Ms Candice Levieux (NRF). The AFP is a comprehensive plan for the structure and funding of astronomy in the future and the discussion was intended to cover what might be called the humanistic aspects of the programme – for example studies of the place and meaning of the night skies in African society past and present.
Prof Keith Gottschalk (University of the Western Cape and current Chairman of the Cape Centre of ASSA) gave an interesting and provocative talk on the promotion of astronomical studies from a political point of view. He commented on the value of the subject as seen by the post-apartheid government and its support of projects such as SALT, the proposed SKA and a National Space Agency.
Dr Otsile Ntsoane of the Department of Science and Technology spoke on indigenous knowledge systems.
The last paper of the afternoon, by Drs K.J. de Beer and M.J. Hoffman (University of the Free State), was about the value of astronomical history, traditional and scientific, as an aspect of tourism in, for example, the Northern Cape.
By the end of the session, the participants were becoming exhausted, but many stayed for the screening of "Cosmic Africa".
The day concluded with a very jolly dinner at the Wild Fig restaurant nearby, where the remains of the Stellekaya wine gift added to the conviviality of the occasion.
9 November - Contributions to Modern Astronomy
The second day started with a talk by Prof Brian Warner (UCT) on "The origin and development of the Royal Observatory, Cape of Good Hope". The talk, illustrated with slides, gave an overview of the origins of the R.O., its construction and its early days.
A complete change of era was provided by Kobus Meiring, the Project Manager of SALT, who gave the next talk, on "The Southern African Large Telescope". In this he traced the genesis of the project, from the time that the Hobby-Eberly-type design was adopted to its present state. He summarized the international nature of the project, its management and organisation, the technical changes introduced and the performance specifications.
The historical papers continued with "Discovery of the Nearest Star" by Dr I.S. Glass (SAAO). Thomas Henderson of the Royal Observatory, Cape, made the first successful parallax observation of a star, namely Alpha Centauri, though he was not the first to publish. Innes of the Republic Observatory discovered a high proper motion star, subsequently named Proxima Cen, which he attempted to determine the distance of, but Voute (RO, Cape) did a better job of it. Only with the more precise work of H.L. Alden (at the Yale station in Johannesburg) was it definitely established as the nearest star, a distinction which it still holds.
D.J. Vermeulen offered a most interesting talk "Some glimpses into the past at the Johannesburg Observatory", presented by A.W. Herder. Little has been published on this subject, and this paper included many fascinating glimpses into the history of the Union Observatory, headed for many years by R.T.A. Innes, a fascinating and in some senses dubious character about whom much remains to be told. Vermeulen hopes to publish a book on the subject shortly.
Chris de Coning then gave a summary of the ASSA historical web site, explaining its content and the motivation behind setting it up.
Dr Patrick Seitzer (University of Michigan) talked on "The Large American refractors in South Africa". Several American universities set up stations in South Africa in the 'twenties of the last century. Most of the telescopes they installed were refractors. Interestingly, the buildings of the Yale-Columbia telescope (on the Wits campus) and the Lamont-Hussey telescope (Michigan) on Naval Hill in Bloemfontein still exist, though they are now devoted to other uses.
Dr Hakeem Oluseyi of the University of Alabama, Huntsville, talked about the difficulties that African-American astronomers at first encountered in obtaining professional employment and discussed the careers and work of several past and present examples. Some of these are very well-known and have had very successful careers, especially in the field of solar astronomy. Perhaps the currently most famous are Gibor Basri, who works on brown dwarfs and the ultraviolet astronomer Carruthers.
Tour
Just before lunch, a guided tour of the Royal Observatory campus was offered by Prof Brian Warner. This included the main building of SAAO, the De la Rue Heliograph (the dome of which dates from 1849), and the 18-inch telescope (ca 1952) used by the celebrated Alan Cousins for fundamental photometry (the mount and dome were formerly associated with Gill's Repsold heliometer).
Afternoon sessions (9 Nov)
Dr Wayne Orchiston (James Cook University) gave a fascinating account of amateur astronomical activities in Australia and South Africa. He discussed, inter alia, Tebbutt in Australia, Grigg in New Zealand and Roberts in South Africa, astronomers active in the period 1850-1930. He commented on the apparent lack of South African amateurs in the earlier part of this period and wondered whether volunteer assistants had been present during, for example, Gill's observations of the Transits of Venus in 1882.
Rupert Hurly (ASSA, Cape Centre) talked of a number of interesting instruments that have come and gone at the Royal Observatory site. These included the searchlight used to try to determine if there were thin clouds high up in the atmosphere, the kine-theodolite and Moonwatch telescopes used to track the early artificial satellites, the Danjon astrolabe and other instruments.
Willie Koorts (SAAO) discussed the relics of the Transit of Venus expeditions in South Africa in the 19th century. He described his extensive investigations of the sites of Simon Newcomb's observatory at the Huguenot Seminary in Wellington as well as the places at Touws River and Aberdeen Road where observations took place.
Derck Smits told of the development of the University of South Africa's astronomy courses since 1923, which have grown from a rather old-fashioned concentration on positional astronomy to courses on modern astrophysics. The department currently offers a full range of astronomy degrees.
Dr Mike Gaylard described the "Forty years of radio astronomy at Hartebeesthoek", from its origin as a NASA tracking station to its present position as a general radio astronomy observatory with interests in many fields such as pulsar studies and molecular line work. The surface of the antenna has been upgraded several times to allow operation at shorter and shorter wavelengths, offering better spatial resolution and the possibility of studying the spectral lines of more and more molecules.
In conclusion, I.S. Glass thanked all those who contributed or attended and Chris de Coning, as head of the Historical Section of ASSA, thanked the Organising Committee and made presentations to those who bore the brunt of the work.
Poster papers
I.S. Glass: "Royal Observatory, Cape of Good Hope: the vanished past" This poster showed an index map of the site and photographs of many vanished or changed buildings.
Graham Rodgers: "San scientific astronomy" The San used an astronomical instrument, a modified form of digging stick and bored stone, to site and orientate observing shrines.
W.P. Koorts: "The nature of the Dawn's Heart Star" One of the most developed San narratives is the story of the Dawn's Heart Star, which is here interpreted in detail, with critical remarks on Bleek's account.
Acknowledgments
SAAO granted free use of the new auditorium to the Symposium, which had the honour of being the first conference to be held in the facility. The National Research Foundation (NRF) made a substantial grant for bringing in participants from other countries as well as other parts of South Africa. Maciej Soltynski negotiated this grant and conducted the extensive correspondence related to its disbursement. Registrations were handled by Willie Koorts and general arrangements by I.S. Glass. Auke Slotegraaf acted as webmaster for the conference, which involved constant up-dating of changes, and also prepared the logos, posters, the conference programme as well as executing many other tasks. Willie also ensured that the right computers and audio-visual devices were in readiness for each talk. Useful suggestions for programme items and other forms of help were received from other members of the organising committee. Cliff Turk (ASSA Treasurer) kept track of incoming payments. Finally, Hettie Glass, Heather Carter (friend), Karen Koch and Val McConnell (ASSA, Cape Town) arranged the catering (two lunches, four teas and the eats at the cheese-and-wine). To those explicitly mentioned and many others who also gave us their support the committee would like to express their thanks. (ISG)
 Report of AAHS as published in MNASSA, 2005 December, vol 64(11&12), 189-199.
|
|
(top) Mr Willie Koorts (SAAO) pointing out a detail of the 4-inch solar telescope to Dr Patrick Seitzer (University of Michigan), housed in the dome (below) next to the new SAAO Auditorium, where the symposium was held.
(top) Dr Ian Glass (SAAO) describing the 18-inch reflector used for many years by Dr Alan Cousins for fundamental photometric work.
(top) Brian Fraser (Director, ASSA Occultation Section) and Jan Hers (Director, ASSA Variable Star Section).
(top) The catering for the symposium lunches and teas was capably taken care of by Hettie Glass and Karen Koch.
(top) Maciej Soltynski (AAHS financial organiser) and Ian Glass (chair of the AAHS scientific committee).
(top) A delighted Dr Jarita Holbrook, one of the lucky-draw winners of a select bottle of Stellekaya wines (below).
(top) Dr Hakeem Oluseyi (University of Alabama, Huntsville) in conversation with Mr Lerothodi Leeuw (University of Chicago).
(top) Prof Derck Smits (UNISA), Ms Anne Rogers (AAHS organizing committee, 'Cosmic Africa' film maker).
|
|
