Link to ASSA History Archive
The Astronomical Society of South Africa (ASSA) hosted it’s first symposium in 1992. This event was suggested by J.A. da Silva Campos during his term as President of ASSA. Due to the success and popularity of the event Council decided that a symposium should be held every second year. Thus the idea of a Bi-Annual Symposium was born. The second symposium was held a year after the first one.
The venue alternates between the Centres of ASSA to try and spread the responsibility as evenly as possible. Sometimes a symposium is scheduled because of special circumstances, such as the 2002 symposium coinciding with a solar eclipse, and the 2012 symposium to coincide with the Cape Centre’s centenary. At the eight symposium held in Durban the concept of a theme was introduced to address topical issues.
The symposia hosted by ASSA (including those based on speciality topics) are:
- First ASSA Symposium: Cape Town 1992
- Second ASSA Symposium: Pretoria 1993
- Third ASSA Symposium: Bloemfontein 1995
- Fourth ASSA Symposium: Cape Town 1999
- Fifth ASSA Symposium: Pretoria 2002
- Sixth ASSA Symposium: Johannesburg 2004
- African Astronomical History Symposium: Cape Town 2005
- Seventh ASSA Symposium: Bloemfontein 2006
- Eighth ASSA Symposium: Durban 2008
- Ninth ASSA Symposium: Pretoria 2010
- Tenth ASSA Symposium: Cape Town 2012
- Eleventh ASSA Symposium: Cape Town 2018
- Twelfth ASSA Symposium: Cape Town 2022 (ASSA Centenary)