International Research Grant & Student Essay Competitions
Grants to support bold, innovative research by scientists and essay prizes to inspire a new generation of thinkers exploring these four deep and profound Big Questions:
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What was the earliest state of the universe?
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Is our universe unique or is it part of a much larger multiverse?
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What is the origin of the complexity in the universe?
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Are we alone in the universe? Or, are there other life and intelligence beyond the solar system?
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News & Information
Former AfAS President, Hakeem Oluseyi, selected to be a TEDGlobal 2012 Fellow
The founding president of the African Astronomical Society, Hakeem Oluseyi, has been selected to be 2012 TED Global Fellow. He will participate in the TED conference in Edinburgh, Scotland, June 25-29. Dr. Oluseyi is an astrophysicist, inventor and science educator whose research focuses on measuring the structure and evolution of the Milky more
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The History of African Astronomical Society (AfAS)
The call for a Pan-African professional society of astronomers goes back several years. In 2008 both Peter Martinez (South Africa) and Pius Okeke (Nigeria) published articles on ways to develop astronomy in Africa, the latter specifically calling for the formation of a Pan-African African Astronomical Society.
Regional professional astronomical societies had been formed in both West Africa and East Africa. Colleagues in North Africa also have organized professional astronomy organizations, and the history of astronomy in South Africa is well documented.
At the 2010 launch of the African Physical Society in Dakar a number of astronomers from throughout the continent and the African diaspora resolved to form the African Astronomical Society in much the same manner as the African Physical Society was being formed. Following this meeting Pius Okeke wrote a whitepaper on the formation and the structure of the African Astronomical Society that was widely dissiminated amongst African astronomers.
At the same time Claude Carignan of Burkina Faso, who was also at the Dakar meeting, was actively organizing an IAU Symposium on galaxy formation in Ouagadougou for December 2010. This was the first IAU Symposium ever in Africa outside of South Africa. The Dakar meeting participants decided to form the African Astronomical Society at this IAU sypmposium.
In a visit to Cape Town, Carignan and Kevin Govender, then the manager of the Collateral Benefits Division of SAAO, agreed to organize a Skype teleconference to gain support for the African Astronomical Society. After this teleconference an "Interim Working Group" was formed that was to carry out the formation of the African Astronomical Society at the Ouagadougou meeting.
The Ouagadougou meeting is historic in that it marks the official formation of the AfAS in addition to being the first IAU Symposium ever in West Africa. It was in part made possible through the generous support of UNESCO, Sweden's International Science Progamme and the National Society of Black Physicists.
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Research Telescopes in Africa
Operational Telescopes
Southern African Large Telescope
The Southern African Large Telescope (SALT) is the largest (11 m in diameter) single optical telescope in the southern hemisphere. SALT is located in Sutherland where the major telescopes of the South African Astronomical Observatory are located.
KAT-7
Located in Carnavon, South Africa, KAT-7 is a 7-dish working prototype of the planned 64-dish MeerKAT radiotelescope. KAT-7 became operational in December 2009 when interference fringes were seen between two of the dishes.
The High Energy Stereoscopic System (H.E.S.S.)
Located near the Gamsberg mountain in Namibia, H.E.S.S. investigates cosmic gamma rays in the 100 GeV to 100 TeV energy range
Future Telescopes
MeerKAT
MeerKAT will be the most sensitive centimetre- wavelength radio telescope in the southern hemisphere. The reference design is an array of 64 x 13.5m effective diameter offset Gregorian dishes fitted with wideband single-pixel cryogenic receivers. It will provide an array in the southern hemisphere that complements the eVLA from L-band to X-band. The array will be optimized for deep and high fidelity imaging of extended low-brightness emissions, the detection of nano-jansky radio sources, the measurement of polarization, and the monitoring of radio transient sources.
Marly Telescope
1.0 meter optical telescope, moved from the La Silla Observatory in Chile and being rebuilt on mount Djogari, in Burkina Faso (first light, beginning of 2012).
Mozambique Radio Astronomy Observatory (MRAO)
A partnership with South Africa, this 20 meter telescope will be operational in early 2012.
Nigeria Radio Telescope
Nigeria is constructing a 25 m radio telescope that will be operational by 2012. The telescope will operate in the 1.2-25 cm range and be part of the global VLBI network. Plans for scientific investigations include radio-timing of young to middle-aged pulsars, radio-spectroscopy on molecular clouds, and to study radio pulsars, to do radio-spectroscopy, and various studies in planetary and solar science.
Square Kilometer Array
The SKA is a global collaboration of 20 countries which may provide answers to fundamental questions about origin and evolution of the Universe. It is a radio telescope in development which will have a total collecting area of approximately one square kilometre.
It will operate over a wide range of frequencies and its size will make it 50 times more sensitive than any other radio instrument. It will be able to survey the sky more than ten thousand times faster than ever before. With receiving stations extending out to distance of 3,000 km from a concentrated central core, it will continue radio astronomy's tradition of providing the highest resolution images in all astronomy.
The SKA will be built in the southern hemisphere, either in South Africa or Australia, where the view of our own galaxy, the Milky Way, is best and radio interference least.
Cherenkov Telescope Array
Surveys with gamma-ray telescopes like H.E.S.S. in Namibia have revealed a sky rich with different classes of objects emitting gamma-rays in this energy regime. More than 80 TeV-sources are known so far, with energy spectra reconstructed from about 100 GeV up to almost 100 TeV. Gamma-ray astronomers have embarked on a design study of a new generation ground-based gamma-ray observatory, the Cherenkov Telescope Array (CTA). Though the design study is not yet complete, southern Africa is expected to submit a strong bid to host this new-generation gamma-ray telescope.
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