HartRAO Home > Xtra links

Astronomy in South Africa

• Hartebeesthoek Radio Astronomy Observatory - National Research Facility for radio astronomy and space geodesy using VLBI, SLR and GPS
• Square Kilometer Array and Karoo Array Telescope - South Africa's bid to host the SKA
• eXperimental Development Model at Hartebeesthoek for the Karoo Array Telescope
• South African Astronomical Observatory - National Research Facility for optical and infrared astronomy
• Southern African Large Telescope - new 10m optical telescope at Sutherland
• National Astrophysics and Space Science Programme - postgraduate courses by a consortium of Universities and Research Facilities
• North-West University Potchefstroom Campus: Physics Department
• Rhodes University: Department of Physics and Electronics
• University of Cape Town: Department of Astronomy
• University of Cape Town: Cosmology group
• University of the Western Cape: Physics Department Astronomy Group
• University of the Free State: Physics Department and Boyden Observatory
• University of South Africa: Department of Mathematics, Applied Mathematics and Astronomy
• University of Kwazulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg: Astrophysics and Cosmology Research Unit
• Astronomical Society of Southern Africa - ASSA has centres in various cities and towns

Meet with others in Gauteng who are interested in Astronomy

• ASSA Johannesburg Centre
• ASSA Pretoria Centre
• West Rand Astronomy Club
• Johannesburg Planetarium

Solar Eclipses over Southern Africa

• Eclipse reports - 2002 Dec 04
• Eclipse 2002 Dec 04 - Info and Links
• Eclipse reports - 2001 June 21

Asteroid Impact Craters in South Africa

• Tswaing is 40km north of Pretoria - a one kilometer diameter, 200 000 year old crater.
• Vredefort, 100km south west of Johannesburg, is where "Deep Impact" really happened!

Southern African Science Centres

• SAASTEC, Southern African Association of Science and Technology Centres - the places that make science into fun for everybody

General Astronomy

• Astronomy picture of the day - see something new each day
• Heavens-above - checkout which satellites you can see tonight, make star charts for tonight at the click of a mouse, etc.
• Skymaps.com - What's in the sky this month? Download a chart and info.
• Hubble Space Telescope - stunning pictures from the telescope orbiting the Earth
• The Nine Planets - great site about the solar system (even though we now only have eight planets officially)
• Astronomy software for home computers - get your own programs to show you what stars and planets are up in your sky tonight, and more
• Astronomy Notes - lots of basic information about astronomy by Nick Strobel
• The NASA Astrophysics Data System - index to all astronomy research publications

Radio Astronomy

• Basics of Radio Astronomy - a NASA guide for a telescope like that at Hartebeesthoek
• Resources for amateur radio astronomy
• Essential Radio Astronomy - 3rd - 4th year level University course

Astronomy and Science News

• Spaceflight Now - Astronomy and spaceflight news
• Unverse Today - latest astronomy discoveries
• Sciencedaily - general science news
• New Scientist - general science news
• Scientific American - general science news

Space Exploration

• South Africa's first astronaut, Mark Shuttleworth
• Where is the International Space Station now?
• When can I see the International Space Station?
• All the NASA space missions
• The European Space Agency
• Basics of spaceflight
• South African National Space Agency (SANSA) Space Operations Directorate. This was orginally built as a NASA Satellite Tracking and Data Network (STADAN), and then became the Satellite Application Centre of the CSIR. It became part of SANSA on 1 April 2011. It is also located at Hartebeesthoek, on the hill above HartRAO, and is sometimes confused with HartRAO. Its missions are spacecraft tracking, telemetry and communications activities, launch support, in-orbit testing, mission control and space navigation. Satellite imagery can be obtained here. Phone +27 12 334-5000.