October 6, 2003
By Lucille Davie
THE Johannesburg Observatory, in the suburb of the same name, turns 100 this year. Planned celebrations include a formal evening under the stars and a programme of fun educational activities in World Space Week.
The educational activities are free for children in grades 4 to 8 and include a space science show, a star laboratory, a southern skies challenge competition, and daytime viewing of the sun and stars. All activities take place from 7 to 11 October at the observatory. The full programme of events can be accessed from the World Space Week's website
The 35-hectare site on which the observatory stands was declared the city's first meteorological observatory site in 1903, the land having been given to the government by the Bezuidenhout family, one of the first white land owners in the area. It was donated for the purpose of "science carried on in an observatory, for meteorological, astronomical or strictly allied subjects".
Astronomer Dr Robert Innes moved from the Royal Observatory in Cape Town to become the director, and Herbert Baker designed a meteorological observatory, built on the hill and opened in 1905. The small, attractive stone building with its cupola still sits on the hill, and offers splendid views over Bellevue and Sandton, and on clear days, the Voortrekker Monument, south of Pretoria. An early photograph shows it standing on the rocky hill, with bare, barren veld in front of it. The site today is filled with tall conifers.
The observatory contained a seismograph to record mining tremors, an evaporation pan and a device to record lightening strikes which are particularly virulent on the Witwatersrand.
First telescope
The first telescope, installed in 1906, was lent by the Imperial Observatory in Pulkowa in Russia. It became known as the Union Observatory.
In those early days Innes lived in an attractive wood and iron house on the site. The house was originally imported from England and erected at Roberts Heights (now Voortrekkerhoogte airbase), but then dismantled and erected in Observatory. A second house from the base was dismantled and erected for President Jan Smuts, at Irene, where it still stands, and is now a museum.
The Innes house still exists at the observatory, now unoccupied but feeling its age. In 1910 Innes moved into a new house built on the site, also designed by Baker but built by the Department of Public Works, not with Baker's hallmark stone but with imported red brick. It's a simple but attractive one-storey structure, with three arches marking its entrance and two symmetrical wings on either side. The building now houses the SA Institute of Electrical Engineers.
Building on the large domed observatory that dominates the site had started, and the building was ready in 1912. The dome was finally finished in 1925.
Meanwhile Innes had started efforts to obtain a 26½-inch (72cm) telescope, a mission which took him 20 years. He became well known for his observation of double stars.
Once the telescope was obtained, he discovered the closest known star to our solar system, Proxima Centauri, approximately 4,5 light years away, and the closest companion star to Alpha Centauri. In the first six months of operation, 303 new double stars were discovered. By 1970 a further 6 000 were discovered. More than 20 000 double stars have been catalogued.
In 1961 the observatory changed its name to the Republic Observatory. In 1972, due to Johannesburg's bright lights and pollution, it closed as a weather station and moved to Sutherland in the Northern Cape, where it still resides. The site was taken over by the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research for telecommunications research.
The Observatory remains in use, and the main telescope is used by amateur astronomers and members of the public. Every last Friday of the month, a scientific talk-for-the-layperson is given, after which the public is permitted to view the skies through the telescope.
AS&TS
In the late 1980s the Associated Scientific and Technical Societies of South Africa (AS&TS) bought the building. The AS&TS dates back to 1897 when discussions took place regarding a federation of South African scientific societies. In 1916 nine societies formed a committee, and in 1920 the AS&TS was born and up until recently had 63 member societies with membership of 78 000 people.
Their first home was at 100 Fox Street in the city, subsequently called Kelvin House. At the inaugural meeting it was decided that the main goal of the body was "that the views, voiced from the united societies, would carry more weight with the government than if represented by the societies individually - a view still held today".
In 1990, with an exodus of corporates and others from the CBD, combined with parking problems, the AS&TS moved into Observatory.
Back in 1924 the AS&TS was the first to get a public broadcasting licence in South Africa, and began operating a radio station, just two years after the BBC. Another claim to fame is assisting in keeping the local power station running during the 1922 strikes, when Joburg found itself at war with its citizens. It also contributed more recently to policy-making on education in science and technology.
In recent years the AS&TS has begun to unwind, and the observatory is now managed by the National Research Foundation's science outreach business unit, the South African Agency for Science and Technology Advancement, the organisers of the educational programme.
Bookings for the educational programme can be made through Adelaide on 011 475 1258 or 082 978 1493.
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