These cliffs are always reminding us of the ‘End of the Earth’ - here indeed ends, it seems like it just falls into the deep dark sea.
Read MoreSTIPAGROSTIS OBTUSA (DELILE) NEES # 1, BETWEEN CALVINIA AND WILINSTON, NORTHERN CAPE
SUN MAN (SU-GAR), 10.15 AM, CAPE TOWN
The Sun Man, as some refer to him, stares at the sun every day. He makes a little hole between his fingers to protect his eyes, but they still become red and swollen on some days. We realised that he changes position and posture based on the availability of sunlight in certain areas and the position of the sun. When it is midday for instance, he needs to sit down to be able to lean back and stare straight up to the sun.
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ANNA VAN WYK, SUTHERLAND, NORTHERN CAPE
”Sarie, loving, loving child. Listen. I am what you can become, and you are what I want to become.” - Eva Stellaris to Sarie, Swart ster oor die Karoo by Jan Rabie, 1957. Translated from Afrikaans to English.
Photograph inspired by ‘Swart ster oor die Karoo’ (Black star over the Karoo) by Jan Rabie, 1957
Used to transport the signals generated by the focal-plane detectors of the K600 magnetic spectrometer at iThemba LABS.
‘As you have your brain that collects all of the information that your eyes process, here is the same thing, you have the detector, that are your eyes, and then you need something that process all the information.."
Dr. Luna Pellegri, Senior researcher, iThemba LABS
RIBBON CABLES, ITHEMBA LABS, CAPE TOWN
Used to transport the signals generated by the focal-plane detectors of the K600 magnetic spectrometer at iThemba LABS.
‘As you have your brain that collects all of the information that your eyes process, here is the same thing, you have the detector, that are your eyes, and then you need something that process all the information.."
Dr. Luna Pellegri, Senior researcher, iThemba LABS
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VOLCANO #2, SALPETERKOP, NORTHERN CAPE
Salpeterkop (Saltpetre Hill) was an active volcano around 66 million years ago – estimated as the last one in Southern Africa. It is interesting to note that about 2 km of of its original height has been eroded down, so we are seeing at a level 'deep in the throat of the volcano'. The remains of this volcano is visible from the SALT (South African Large Telescope) site near sutherland.
Read MoreRAJIN RAMPHUL, SALT SAAO, SUTHERLAND, NORTHERN CAPE
The thing is we observe most of our targets for other people, so we don’t really know exactly what they are. We sort of understand a little bit. My job is mostly to make sure that they get their data properly, but their science reasoning is not my specialisation.
Read More7 SKIES # 6, N1 NEAR MATJiESFONTEIN, WESTERN CAPE
”…we know that have lost contact with the Earth, and that the Sun became invisible behind us. But just in this moment lieutenant Viljee’s observations proved that we are not at the height of Uranus - but that of Jupiter! Still at 140,000km but it is so big that we can observe it’s horizon, even the famous red circle on it’s surface. This means we are busy flying inwards into the solar system - in other words, back to the Earth.“
Series inspired by ‘Swart ster oor die Karoo’ (Black star over the Karoo) by Jan Rabie, 1957. Sci-fi Novel about a future human race that has to live in a solar system where the Sun has gone dark. Translated from Afrikaans to English.
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IAN GLASS, CEDERBERG ASTRONOMICAL OBSERVATORY, CEDERBERG, WESTERN CAPE
‘I enjoyed the scientific work, especially solving problems and understanding the physics of the stars, so doing something like this is a kind of motivation for other people to become interested in astronomy and until you study physics and astronomy, you don’t really know what is going on in the stars and you don’t see what professional astronomers are interested in. There are many things happening in our own galaxy and in our own solar system and of course with the space age we know a lot more now about planets and asteroids and many things. So even quite nearby objects turned out to be more interesting than people realised in the past. I studied the heat radiation from stars, with infra-red light. Usually stars that are forming or stars that are dying have a lot of dust around them and this shows up very strongly in the infra-red, so I studied basically variable stars that show up brightly in the infra-red and I studied certain types of galaxies which have active centers, the nuclei we call them - and quasars. So you think of stars, but dust and gas are also very important parts of the galaxies in the sky.’
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MeerKAT, SKA site, CARNARVON, NORTHERN CAPE
'We saw it from far away, the dish - we saw it going up and then turning. Turning all around. It doesn't move fast - just slowly all around. It is very beautiful to see it happening.' - Abie Makok, Church Warder, United Reformed Church, Carnarvon, Northern Cape.
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SIVUYILE MANXOYI, SAAO, OBSERVATORY, CAPE TOWN
‘So I think it can form a basis for humanity, the world, to say that we all have a relationship with the stars and we have used stars for different purposes. If we start sharing those experiences, those practices, those stories - it is one way in which we can unite our people.’
Sivuyile Manxoyi, South African Astronomical Observatory, SALT Collateral Benefits Programme
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BIG MOON # 3 (MC CLEAN TELESCOPE), SAAO, OBSERVATORY, CAPE TOWN
REVERSIBLE TRANSIT CIRCLE TELESCOPE # 3, SAAO OBSERVATORY, CAPE TOWN
This building houses the Gill Reversible Transit Circle, built in 1905 to measure the position of stars as they pass the north-south meridian and to check the accuracy of clocks. It was also used to contribute to the Catalogue of Fundamental Stars (Fundamental Katalog FK4), and was in use until around 1980 - after which the use of space satellites became the norm in the 1990s. The building is in need of repair and apparently one of its chimneys is housing a bee hive.
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SAAO #1, OBSERVATORY, CAPE TOWN
View of the McClean telescope dome, South African Astronomical Observatory. The Observatory garden contains many beautiful flowers and plants including rare species, having become somewhat of a sanctuary in the area. Flowers in the foreground are Leucospermum cordifolium - Pincushion, Bobbejaanklou, Luisiesboom, Luisiesbos.
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TEMBA MATOMELA, EDUCATOR, PLANETARIUM OUTREACH OFFICER, EXPERT OF INDIGENOUS ASTRONOMY
'Meteorites or shooting stars are regarded in the Xhosa speaking community as a bad luck omen. This is because it is believed that when somebody dies they become an ancestor and the spirit of that dead person is wandering among the stars guarding us from the evil spirits. So if, perhaps, one dies as a bad person then that person would be a bad spirit or ancestor and up in the celestial sphere the good ancestors would kick out the bad ancestors - so when you see a meteor coming down you are actually seeing one of those bad ancestors being kicked out of the celestial sphere and it falls down. When you see this we say ‘let the bad luck pass us for we are not the only one who saw that’ - meaning that we associate that with bad spirit.'
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ASTROGRAPHIC TELESCOPE BUILDING 1890, SAAO, OBSERVATORY, CAPE TOWN
‘Of course I hope with peoples interest we could take tours to see it properly - we have some ideas in the future to have a kind of heritage trail around the place. A lot of interesting scientific discoveries were made there - the discovery of oxygen in stars for example. At the moment there is a more modern telescope mounted on the mount, but that is not used - I would like to put the old telescope back there and restore it to the original. It should be possible. It was moved about 20 years ago but it is still in the dome actually. Of course it is heavy - we’ll need some proper tackle and things to mount it.’
Ian Glass, Professor of astronomy
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MANATOKA TREE # 2, SAAO, OBSERVATORY, CAPE TOWN
The inside area of the tree revealed that although there were numerous trunks, it seemed to be one organism, with the oldest, thickest trunk appearing to have fallen over many years ago - some of its branches entering into the ground and then growing up out of the ground again.
These trees are known for being salt, wind and fire resistant and are originally from Australia. They are popular in coastal gardens but are invading coastal fynbos, dunes and river valleys as well as being poisonous to mammals.
This ancient animal like tree can be found in a clearing adjacent to the South African Astronomical Observatory buildings - a site that was known, in the early years of the observatory as a place surrounded by marshes and covered in snakes.
'Only one spot seemed to meet all these requirements, a low hill a few miles out on the Flats from Devil's Peak which gloried the name of Slangkop, meaning "snakehill". The name was accurate, as several astronomers would later testify in unequivocal terms. Additionally it was almost devoid of soil, while being surrounded by extensive marshes, down to which a variety of wild animals would occasionally make their way. For years, in fact, there existed a body of folk-lore on the conduct of astonomy in the presence of various unsavoury beasts.'
From The Whisper & the Vision, Donald Fernie, 1976.
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KAROO FYNBOS, BETWEEN CALVINIA AND WILLISTON, NORTHERN CAPE
BIG MOON # 2 (ASTROGRAPHIC TELESCOPE BUILDING 1890) SAAO OBSERVATORY, CAPE TOWN
This photograph was taken during the night of 14 November 2016, with the biggest supermoon since 1948. When a full moon takes place when the Moon is near its closest approach to Earth, it is called a Supermoon. The next super moon similar to this will only take place in 2034. Supermoons generally appear 14% bigger and 30% brighter than other full moons.
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