ASTRONOMICAL SOCIETY OF SOUTHERN AFRICA
 

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Archive

Republic Observatory
Return to Republic Observatory Main Page.

Popularly known as Johannesburg or Union Observatory
1903 - 1971

Note: The name of the Observatory changed three times, reflecting  the political changes in South Africa during its existence. The official names were as follows: [Personal communication with Vermeulen; CL]

  • Transvaal Meteorological Department 1903 - 1909
  • Transvaal Observatory                         1909 - 1912
  • Union Observatory                              1912 - 1961
  • Republic Observatory                           1961 - 1971
 
Minutes of the Observatory
The minutes recorded from 1910 to 1971 are available today as a result of the foresight of Jan Hers, last director of the Republic Observatory (1965-1971). He was tasked with closing down the Observatory. He had all the handwritten minutes of the Observatory typed and after his retirement, with the advancement of the computer technology, he scanned the typed sheets with character recognition technology into the format in which it is available here. The whereabouts of the original handwritten minutes is not known.
Director of the Historical Section: Chris de Coning
Transvaal Observatory:

1910 / 1911

Union Observatory:

1912 / 1913 / 1914 / 1915 / 1916 / 1917 / 1918 / 1919

1920 / 1921-22 / 1923 / 1924 / 1925 / 1926 / 1927 / 1928 / 1929

1930 / 1931 / 1932 / 1933 / 1934 / 1935 / 1936 / 1937 / 1938 / 1939

1940-41 / 1942 / 1943-44 / 1945 / 1946 / 1947 / 1948 / 1949

1950 / 1951 / 1952 / 1953 / 1954 / 1955 / 1956 / 1957 / 1958 / 1959

1960

Republic Observatory:

1961 / 1962 / 1963 / 1964 / 1965 / 1966 / 1967 / 1968 / 1969

1970 / 1971
 
Interesting Links:
Link to Objects Lost and / or Found.
Link to a short History of Astronomy in Southern Africa.
Link to a Time Line to see how Events on this page relates to the bigger time dimension.
Link to view the Achievements and other Interesting Aspects of Southern African Astronomers.
Link to the Telescope Manufacturers.
Link to the Main Bibliography Section and more information about Sources and the Archive.

Director Historical Section: Chris de Coning - siriusa@absamail.co.za

Webmaster: Christian Hettlage - webmaster@assa.saao.ac.za