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.
Read MoreSTIPAGROSTIS OBTUSA (DELILE) NEES # 2, BETWEEN CALVINIA AND WILINSTON, NORTHERN CAPE
CEDERBERG ASTRONOMICAL OBSERVATORY # 4, CEDERBERG
BIG MOON # 4 (MC CLEAN TELESCOPE), SAAO OBSERVATORY, CAPE TOWN
BIG MOON # 3 (MC CLEAN TELESCOPE), SAAO, OBSERVATORY, CAPE TOWN
TRUITJIESKRAAL CAVES # 7, CEDERBERG
TRUITJIESKRAAL CAVES # 1, CEDERBERG
REVERSIBLE TRANSIT CIRCLE TELESCOPE # 3, SAAO OBSERVATORY, CAPE TOWN
MANATOKA TREE # 1, SAAO OBSERVATORY, CAPE TOWN
REVERSIBLE TRANSIT CIRCLE TELESCOPE # 2, SAAO, OBSERVATORY, CAPE TOWN
VISITOR CENTER, SUTHERLAND, NORTHERN CAPE
FRANCOIS VAN WYK # 2, NIGHT ASSISTANT AND SERVICE OBSERVER, SUTHERLAND, NORTHERN CAPE
ANNA SKIPPERS # 2 SUTHERLAND, NORTHERN CAPE
‘That was the most beautiful to me, when there is a shooting star, I always believed you could make wish - for good luck. Then I asked some questions and they answered, ‘o, no - when there is a shooting star, it means it is dead and it is going to fall’ and there where it falls, everything must just pray and ask ‘God don’t let it fall on a house, don’t let it fall on a person’ - because it can burn and kill, and you don’t know if it has fire inside, you don’t know if it has hail inside or even iron inside.’
Anna Skippers, Kamammas Community centre coordinator, Sutherland, Northern Cape.
Anna lives in Sutherland, close to the largest optical telescope in the Southern Hemisphere.
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