Ian Glass is an infrared astronomer and scientific historian. He is a member of the Royal Society of South Africa, and the International Astronomical Union. He has twice been elected President of the Astronomical Society of Southern Africa and in 2016 was made an honorary member thereof. *
Read More
PROF. IAN GLASS, CEDERBERG ASTRONOMICAL OBSERVATORY, WESTERN CAPE
FULL MOON # 3, CEDERBERG
STADSAAL CAVES # 2, CEDERBERG
TRUITJIESKRAAL CAVES # 5, CEDERBERG
TRUITJIESKRAAL CAVES # 2, CEDERBERG
TRUITJIESKRAAL CAVES # 3, CEDERBERG
AFRIKAANS TAALMONUMENT, PAARL, WESTERN CAPE
'"Ten . . . Nine . . . Eight . . . Seven . . . Six . . . Five . . . Four . . . Three . . . Two . . . One . . . Zero!"
The constant punch of thunder shakes the whole area. All eyes are focussed on the heavens or monitors that show images of the heavens. Inside them VR3 shrinks on top of an intense column of fire, first moving slowly, then faster, then unbelievably fast until it microscopically swims into the blue sea of heaven.'
'If man ventures out into space, he needs to be prepared to realise quite a few other things. That he was not the first intelligent being to do so and that he was not even the first child of Terra to leave his mother planet in this way. He'll learn to be humble. And further: That Terra is not the only planet in the heavens. That he can forget his allegiance to Terra. That he himself might change out in space, that he will never totally be and think the same as his fellow humans on Terra.'
From chapter 1 and chapter 11, Die Groen Planeet (The Green Planet), Jan Rabie, First edition, 1961. Translated from the original Afrikaans by Nic Grobler.
Photograph inspired by Die Groen Planeet, Jan Rabie, 1961.
NEELSIE AND JAKHALS # 2 (FROM LOELOERAAI BY LANGENHOVEN, 1923) KLAASTROOM, WESTERN CAPE
'To whom shall I dedicate this book? It is about a being who is not human, who is higher than man - an unattainable superior.
I think I will go to the opposite - and then I will not have to look very far. I lost a friend a long time ago - a friend that I loved and who loved me. I will never see him again forever; but forever I will never forget him. Now, after all these years, there is not a day that passes without his image coming before me and I'm grieving about him. To him I was the higher being - a Loeloeraai of a higher existence. To me he was the ultimate perfection I found on earth, of love and faithfulness and virtue. And I lost him, and I miss him dearly. . .
I dedicate this work:
To the memory of
MY FRIEND AND DOG, JAKHALS’
From the dedication of Loeloeraai, CJ Langenhoven, 4th Edition 1929, First published 1923. Translated from original Afrikaans by Nic Grobler.
Photograph inspired by Loeloeraai, CJ Langenhoven. Loeloeraai is a visitor from Venus, who spends about two weeks with a family in Oudtshoorn. They end up going on a small trip to the moon before Loeloeraai returns to Venus.
Read More
CHRIS FORDER'S TELESCOPE, CEDERBERG ASTRONOMICAL OBSERVATORY, WESTERN CAPE
'We got music going - we try to keep it to calm music, so that we are not too excited. If you get too excited then things start going wrong and you start doing stupid things. You must just keep calm the whole time while you are imaging. After all, the stars will wait - if you don’t get them tonight, you can get them tomorrow night. Time is nothing to them, time is everything to us. '
Chris Forder. Amateur Telescope builder.
Read More
METEORITE, PLANETARIUM, CAPE TOWN, WESTERN CAPE
'It was formed around the same time as our Sun and the Earth and after a leisurely tour of the Solar System as the centre of an asteroid, it came crashing down into southern Africa as the Gibeon Meteorite.
The Nama people used smaller bits of the meteorite for tools and countless chunks remained scattered over a large area. In 1836 Englishman J. E. Alexander collected samples and sent them to London. John Herschel confirmed they were indeed not of this planet.' *
ANNA SKIPPERS, SUTHERLAND, NORTHERN CAPE
Anna lives in Sutherland, close to the largest single optical telescope in the Southern Hemisphere.
Read More
CHRIS FORDER, TELESCOPE BUILDER, CEDERBERG ASTRONOMICAL OBSERVATORY, WESTERN CAPE
'If you consider there are between 10 and 20 times as many galaxies outside ours as there are stars in our galaxy - and we have maybe 200 billion stars, so multiply that between 10 and 20 and that is the number of galaxies, and each of those may have 200 billion starts. So we are pretty insignificant. If you go and look at a piece of sand outside. That is how insignificant we are. We think we are important but we are not.' - Chris Forder. Amateur Telescope builder.
Read More
NICO SMIT, SCI-FI WRITER, CLANWILLIAM, WESTERN CAPE
‘The half blood is not accepted by anyone, he is not ethnic enough for his own group and not good enough for the group he is descended from. So both groups reject him, but he posesses the skills and knowledge of both groups - the strong characteristics of both groups is combined within him. Even though he is initially rejected by the modern group and the historical native group, at the end of the day he unites them - he is the glue that keeps them together. He is the connection or the missing link between them and the two groups then fight together against what you can call the evil side - the bad guys in the story. With him as the leader figure. In the beginning the natives from the planet Kazdan, the Hunters didn't trust the Neanites who were technologically advanced - almost seen as gods. Like it was in the past when the white man landed in the Cape - everybody thought it was amazing and at the end of the day it wasn't that amazing and there is a golden middle groud to be followed and somebody has to take the lead - that is the half blood that brings the groups together. That is the initiating concept of my sci-fi story.’
Nico Smit, Sci-Fi Writer, Clanwilliam
Read More
SKAAP, CARNARVON, NORTHERN CAPE
HEMELBLOM (1971), CARNARVON, NORTHERN CAPE
'Only in the morning, when the daylight crossed over the highland rocks and fynbos, they saw how strange and otherworldly the hemelblom was. The seeds that fell the previous afternoon shot up incredibly fast, each on a lump of roots that didn't enter the ground, but just gripped the ground from above. In one single night each plant became fully grown and was spreading seeds so that new plants would shoot up. In one night the hemelblomme multiplied a hundredfold. For now it was just strange. Only later it would become frightening.'
From Die Hemelblom (The Heavenly Flower) by Jan Rabie, 2nd edition 1974, Tafelberg, first published 1971. Translated from the original Afrikaans by Nic Grobler.
Video inspired by Die Hemelblom (The Heavenly Flower), an Afrikaans sci-fi novel by Jan Rabie.
The Hemelblom was sent to the earth by a concerned galactic council to ensure the survival of life on earth in the face of a new world war. The plant was specifically grown to remove the poisonous elements introduced by humans - feeding on pollution it would rapidly cover the earth and wipe out most of humankind but leave a new earth covered with fresh fertile soil.
DANIE GOUWS, SANSA, HERMANUS, CAPE TOWN
The Hermanus Magnetic Observatory also supplies one-minute data to the World Data Centre for Geomagnetism, Kyoto in Japan, for the generation of the Dst ringcurrent index, which is the most commonly used measure of geomagnetic storm intensity. *
Read More
JAKHALS, KLAARSTROOM, WESTERN CAPE
'To whom shall I dedicate this book? It is about a being who is not human, who is higher than man - an unattainable superior.
I think I will go to the opposite - and then I will not have to look very far. I lost a friend a long time ago - a friend that I loved and who loved me. I will never see him again forever; but forever I will never forget him. Now, after all these years, there is not a day that passes without his image coming before me and I'm grieving about him. To him I was the higher being - a Loeloeraai of a higher existence. To me he was the ultimate perfection I found on earth, of love and faithfulness and virtue. And I lost him, and I miss him dearly. . .
I dedicate this work:
To the memory of
MY FRIEND AND DOG, JAKHALS’
Translated from original Afrikaans by Nic Grobler, Loeloeraai, CJ Langenhoven, 4th Edition 1929, First published 1923.
Video inspired by the dedication of the 1923 Sci-fi novel, Loeloeraai by CJ Langenhoven.
Read More
TRUITJIESKRAAL CAVES # 6, CEDERBERG
MAGNETIC OBSERVATORY, SANSA, HERMANUS, WESTERN CAPE
The observatory is an active participant in the International Real-time Magnetic Observatory Network, one of a large number magnetic observatories which monitor and model variations of the Earth’s magnetic field. *
Read More