New Telescope for UKZN

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UKZN’s School of Mathematics, Statistics and Computer Science (SMSCS) has been awarded the South African Astronomical Observatory’s (SAAO) 0.75m telescope after submitting a motivation to take over the instrument which was being redistributed by the observatory.

The telescope, manufactured by Grubb Parsons in the 1970s, is being donated to UKZN by the SAAO in advance of its replacement by a modern one metre aperture telescope. The telescope, one of two smaller telescopes offered for donation, is due to arrive at UKZN in January 2015.

In its motivation for the telescope, the SMSCS said it planned to use the instrument for student research projects at undergraduate, honours and masters levels as well as for outreach purposes. This will allow the SMSCS to increase the capacity and knowledge of its students as well as contribute to increased public knowledge through the arrangement of evenings when the telescope is open to the public.

The SMSCS is looking into various options for housing the large piece of equipment. The School has the support of the eThekwini Municipality, who may provide a suitable, off-campus site for the housing of the telescope. Alternatively it may find a home on the Westville campus. The bid also had the support of the University of Zululand, meaning that the telescope’s eventual placement will be decided after due consideration is given to the convenience of students from both institutions.

‘Not many Universities have access to their own telescope of this size,’ said SMSCS’s Dr Matt Hilton about the donation and its implications for the School. ‘We plan to introduce a new major in Astronomy at the undergraduate level beginning in 2015. In addition, UKZN will host a node of the National Astrophysics and Space Science Programme from 2016, and will run Honours and Masters courses in Astrophysics and Space Science. The telescope will be used to provide hands-on training in observational astronomy in all of these courses.

Use of the telescope will also enable students to learn how to design and execute simple research projects.  Some students may also design and build simple instruments that can be used on the telescope, such as imaging cameras or spectrographs.

-          Words by Christine Cuénod

-          Photograph by Marek Chrastina