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SAAO Cape Town Open Night
October 12 @ 8:00 pm - 10:00 pm
The SAAO Open Nights in Cape Town take place on the second and fourth Saturday of every month.
All Open Nights will start with a presentation on topics of astronomy or related science fields. Visitors will then be given an introduction to the history of the observatory, library, museum, and the 120 year-old McClean telescope. If the weather permits, stargazing will take place with McClean and smaller telescopes.
Please email cptbookings@saao.ac.za or call +27 21 447 0025 if you have any queries regarding bookings.
Speaker:
Kathryn Rosie is a Mechanical Engineer in the Instrumentation Division at the South African Astronomical Observatory. She received her MSc Eng at UCT in 2011, with a focus on materials and how they break. She worked at the South African Nuclear Energy Corporation as a structural analyst before astronomy beckoned. In 2015, she joined the South African Radio Astronomy Observatory (SARAO) as a project engineer and structural analyst, and in 2019 expanded to optical astronomy at SAAO, where she is responsible for instrument design and providing technical support to maintenance and operations. She has very little idea of what astronomers actually do, but thinks their toys are really cool.
Abstract:
A candid look at the different types of instruments in use on the various telescopes on the Sutherland plateau, and the planning and design of new instruments, with a heavy focus on hardware and nuts and bolts. Key examples will include:
Mookodi: a new imager and spectrograph on the Lesedi telescope;
The instrument selector: bringing the 74 year old 74″ telescope into the 21st century;
Detectors: how do we count light?