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21 June 2018 Photo BackpagePix
KC the countrys best netballer
The impressive Khanyisa Chawane in action as the centre player of the Free State Crinums.

Khanyisa Chawane, centre player for the Free State Crinums and Kovsies netball teams, is officially the best netball player in the country. She was named Player of the Tournament at the conclusion of the Brutal Fruit Netball Premier League (BFNPL) on Sunday (17 June 2018). It is the premier competition on the South African netball calendar. She also earned the award of Best Centre Court Player.

Khanyisa, or simply KC as she is known, was a consistent performer for the Crinums   earning three Player of the Match awards. Although she is the shortest player in the team she impressed with her speed and handling skills on the court.
 
The Free State Crinums, packed with Kovsie players, finished the competition in fourth position. 

The Crinums is a ‘de facto’ Kovsie sports team, with all 15 squad members currently completing a course at the university. All of them will be available to play in the University Sport South Africa (USSA) tournament that is taking place in the first week of July 2018 in Bloemfontein. 

The Crinums, who ended fifth last year after losing a number of key players from the 2016 team, were officially the youngest participating team with an average age of 21 years and five months by the start of the league last month.

News Archive

New digital planetarium first of its kind for Sub-Saharan Africa
2013-10-10

Mr Andrew Johnson, Sky-Skan engineer, explains how the dataprojector of the new digital planetarium functions.
10 October 2013

The University of the Free State (UFS) is the first in the world to boast a modern digital planetarium which was erected within an existing observatory.

It is also the first planetarium of its kind for Sub-Saharan Africa.

“What makes the project unique is the fact that we convert the existing observatory structure into a modern digital planetarium. It hasn’t been done anywhere else,” says Andrew Johnson, engineer at Sky-Skan, the company supplying the equipment and also installing it.

Andrew has worked on similar projects, with his company installing digital planetariums around the world.

What makes the planetarium so special is the fact that it offers visitors an inclusive experience.

“Previously visitors could only watch projected stars and constellations, but with the digital planetarium they can now experience a journey through space which feels very close to reality.”

Andrew points out that, apart from stargazing and travelling through space, the digital planetarium allows the audience to visit planets, explore the secrets of the oceans or even organs in the human body.

The planetarium will also be used for concerts, state-of-the-art presentations, theatre productions, as well as meetings, conferences and exhibitions.

The auditorium can seat approximately 90 adults or 120 children.

The digital dome that was recently fitted into the existing observatory structure, is a 12-metre seamless aluminium screen complemented by a powerful surround-sound system and multiple data projectors from Sky-Skan. This results in an immersive experience of the digital universe, as well as the recreation of the macro and micro cosmos an a variety of other environments.

The planetarium will be officially opened on Friday 1 November 2013 by Derek Hanekom, Minister of Science and Technology. Prof Matie Hoffman from the Department of Physics at the UFS is delighted at this visit from Minister Hanekom.

“This recognition and national interest demonstrates the importance and contribution of the first digital planetarium in Sub-Saharan Africa to science and astronomy.  It is also evidence that a facility like this is important for the training of the next generation of scientists.”

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