The historic observatory site, long under-utilised, is about to get a major revamp.
It is managed by the National Research Foundation's science outreach business unit, the South African Agency for Science and Technology Advancement (SAASTA).
"We want to provide a facility that will create a unique science and educational experience at the site," said Beverley Damonse, executive director of SAASTA, at a briefing called last week for the neighbours who will be affected by the construction.
The 35ha site was declared the city's first meteorological observatory site in 1903, after the land was given to the government by the Bezuidenhout family. But since the early 1970s the site has no longer functioned as an observatory facility. Because of the bright lights and polluted skies of Joburg, it was moved to Sutherland in the Northern Cape.
Damonse cited a number of challenges for the site. The most urgent one is the deterioration of the historic buildings. Security is also an increasing risk, as there have been burglaries in the library and the small observatory on the crest of the hill.
The Johannesburg observatory
SAASTA has a number of objectives: building the quantity and quality of maths and science students at school level; and communicating science and scientific research to the public in innovative ways, for example, through drama and art, which will stimulate debate.
The revamp will be done in several phases. Phase 1 will start in August, with a re-modelling of a 1960s admin building on the site. Construction should be complete by the end of February next year.
The building will undergo changes to make it more user-friendly, to cater for both daily public and school visits, with three laboratories. The offices will be refurbished, as well as the parking and maintenance areas.
Damonse stressed that the developments wouldn't intrude beyond the site, and would bring buses onto the site, instead of parking in the street.
Long-term plans include accommodation facilities for long-distance visitors and training facilities. There'll be space for permanent displays and exhibitions, and future attractions include a camera obscura, a science theatre and a restaurant.
Architect Gerrit Jordaan, of the Holm Jordaan Group, said the revamp of the admin building would include making it eco-friendly, with sunscreens to save energy, a solar seal on the northern edge of the building, and water harvesting from the roof.
Jordaan assured the residents that the attractive observatory building would still be the focal point of the site, with other developments remaining low-key.
Damonse says R7-million has been budgeted for Phase 1 and the beginnings of Phase 2, when more funds will need to be raised.
"We can't wait too long for Phase 2 and 3, but raising funds will be easier if the site is 50 percent operational." These phases will probably take several years to get off the ground, and involve the restoration of the main observatory, parking, an auditorium, restoration of the koppie, including the buildings, and storm water management.
She added that the site would complement developments in Newtown, like the Sci-Bono Discovery Centre, and the Origins Centre on the Wits University campus.
Posted 26 June 2006 courtesy of www.joburg.org
History:
The Johannesburg Observatory, located in 18A Gill Street, Observatory, turned 102 years in October 2005.
Famous finds:
* Between 1911 and 1938 the Observatory detected 146 new minor planets. At the time it was a record for any institution. * Robert Thorburn Ayton Innes made the discovery of Proxima Centauri, a faint companion star of Alpha Centauri, in 1915. * Over 6 000 double stars were discovered and over 20 000 double stars catalogued at the observatory
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.
The site now belongs to SAASTA, South African Agency for Science and Technology Advancement.
The 5-hectare site on which the observatory stands was declared the city's first meteorological observatory site in 1903, the land having been sold for 500 pounds to the Transvaal 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".
The meteorological building, designed by Herbert Baker
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 bluegums.
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.
The original wood and iron director's house
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 (67cm) telescope, a mission which took him 20 years. He became well known for his observation of double stars.
An English amateur atronomer, John Franklin-Adams, donated two of his telescopes to the Union Observatory. One of them, a 10-inch F4.5 photographic refractor was used to do a photographic atlas of the entire sky. It was this instrument that Proxima Centauri was discovered with.
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 an observatory and merged with the Royal Cape Observatory on a new site in 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.
