SITP JHB & ASSA Symposium 2010 Pretoria

Fluxosaurus has been a busy little Dinosaur. Recently I attended the Astronomical Society of Southern Africa Symposium held in Pretoria.

Not only did I get to attend the Symposium which featured two days of fascinating lectures over two days, but we were hosted by the Council for Geosciences, and enjoyed an awesome day trip to a Radio Telescope Observatory and a meteorite impact crater.

On top of all that, I flew up to Egoli the night before, and was warmly welcomed to the monthly meeting of the Johannesburg (Jhb) chapter of Skeptics in the Pub.

As the local organizer of the Durban chapter of this fine meet-up event designed to provide community and drinking opportunities to Skeptics, free thinkers, critical thinking proponents, intellectuals and nerds of all kinds, it was great to extend the boundaries of my geeky social circles and interact with some of the Jhb Skeptics.

After a good nights rest at the B&B, my buddy Pravin (who flew in that morning to make up the Durban contingent) picked me up and we made our way to the Symposium venue, which was at the nearby Council for Geoscience building.

Geosciences Entrance

After a warm reception, we registered and got our cool conference gear which included folios with pens and paper (for all the important notes we were to make) and made our way to the inner corridors of the Geoscience’s building for the first event of the day, a tour of the facilities. Luckily, I am almost as interested in Geology as Astronomy so this was a huge bonus for me.

Here are some pictures from the Jhb SITP, the tour of the Geological equipment and the Symposium – you can click on a gallery pic to get more info:

Some point is being made with much vociferous hand gesturing

Geosciences tour

An x-ray based machine for determining the crystalline structure of geological samples.

Inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry machine

Andrie welcomes us to the Symposium

Michael Poll – President of Assa welcomes us.

The participants

Prof. Phil Charles – Repair status of SALT/Progress at Sutherland

Prof. Phil Charles2

Dr Hubrecht Ribbens – Techniques to observe and analyse celestial objects and phenomena

Hendrik van Heerden – Boyden Observatories Museum – An Overview

Andrie van der Linde – Laser Workshop

Johan Smit – The dark side of light – Light and spectrum pollution

Michael Poll – Astronomy in Cartoons

Prof Barbara Cunow – 30 Years of Observing Saturn – light, shadows and seasons

Prof Barbara Cunow – 30 Years of Observing Saturn – light, shadows and seasons2

Case Rijsdijk – Exotic Stars

Case Rijsdijk – Exotic Stars2

Prof Matie Hoffman – Assessment of the Expected Impact on Observing Conditions at Boyden Observatory of light pollution associated with new developments in the area

H Bauermeister – Evolution of the KAT antennae

Danie Barnardo – Impact craters and Tswaing:

M Neale – SA involvement in utilising space resources

Prof Derck Smits – Cosmic Masers

On the way to the HART Observatory

Scope dish in the distance

The Durban Assa members looking almost as good as that dish.

We arrive

Talk by Marion West

In the control room

Skeptical

The VLBA equipment – on loan from the U.S.

Control room

Pulsar timing unit

The need for cooling and its effect on signals is explained

Yikes – bad day at the dish

VLBA equipment

The Global VLBI Array

You beauty

Fluxosaurus in front of the dish

The dish – that thing is huge.

Pravin in front of the dish mechanism

Scale shot

Dish

Folks on the tour

The receiver bit – 18cm off axiz detection

The 18cm detector, next door is the regular detector

The laser range finder – bounces a pulse of laser light off of mirrors on the moon, for ranging data

Kat 7 dish

Broken bearings repaired

I love the dish.

How cool is this dish.

Another shot of the KAT 7 dish

The mount point

The detectors on the Kat7 dish

This was cool

I heard that!

We arrive at Tswaing

The sign

We shelter under the shade for a while before driving to the crater

We travel in convoy to the crater

It was damn hot

This is how Astronomy geeks prepare for a walk – uber cool.

We leave for the walk

Pravin took some nice pics – many of the pics in this gallery, are his.

Ejecta from the impact has metamorphised these rocks and left them strewn around.

Walkin on the trail in 40 degree C heat

Wrong way, we turn around and get on the right trail

A red roman – super cool – Entemology too!

Pretty flower

Tswaing crater

Plaque

In the crater

It was super hot down there

Pravin takes a break

Stinky in the crater – bacteria in the water. Fluxosaurus is not impressed.

Fluxosaurus at Menlyn Park Mall on our last night in Pretoria.

The township we drove through to get back to Pretoria

Fluxosaurus waits for the plane.

The township we drove through to get back to Pretoria – nice tyre shop.

~ by Fluxosaurus on November 7, 2010.