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Close encounters of the planetary kind

28 January 2021 | Story Igno van Niekerk | Photo Supplied

conjunction_web read more — Pictured from the left: Lucas Erasmus from the Department of Physics, Piet le Roux from the Astronomical Society of SA – Bloemfontein, Quinton Kaplan from the Department of Physics, Thinus van der Merwe from the Astronomical Society of SA – Bloemfontein. Front: Prof Matie Hoffman

In his book, The World is Flat, Thomas Friedman mentions how at first countries, then companies, and eventually communities went global. In true flat-world fashion, a combined team of the University of the Free State (UFS) and the Astronomical Society of South Africa – led by Prof Matie Hoffman, Associate Professor in the Department of Physics – participated in a once-in-a-lifetime event with their counterparts from the Ellinogermaniki Agogi School and the Skinakas Observatory in Greece.

On 21 December 2020, Earth was treated to the Jupiter-Saturn conjunction, when the two planets were only 0.1 degrees apart in the sky. Although conjunctions are regular phenomena, NASA mentions that the great conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn in 2020 was the closest since 1623 and the closest observable since 1226! A pinkie finger at arm’s length could cover both planets – although they were still millions of kilometres apart in space.

Planning started months ahead of the event, with the Ellinogermaniki Agogi Observatory in Greece and the Boyden Observatory in Bloemfontein chosen as the two selected vantage points. From both the Southern and Northern Hemisphere, the conjunction would be broadcast live on YouTube. As with any other technical project on an international scale, challenges arose. For example, in the Northern Hemisphere, it was already dark at 17:45 while the South African astronomers were still basking in sunlight until after 19:00. The conjunction would only be visible from South Africa after 19:30, almost two hours after it would be visible in Athens. The time was well used, with the event including a word of welcome by the Consul General of Greece in South Africa, Ioannis Chatzantonakis, presentations on Saturn and Jupiter, as well as a virtual tour of the Boyden Observatory, emphasising its connection with Greece through its first Director, Stefanos Paraskevopoulos.

On Saturday, 19 December, the teams ‘gathered’ on opposite sides of planet Earth to do a dry run. One could sense the urgency and tension as both teams realised that they would have a huge captive audience on YouTube, and plans had to be made in case of connectivity challenges and if the weather did not allow the conjunction. As preparations progressed, Prof Hoffman was talking to his Greek counterparts and was simultaneously walking around with his laptop to share the landscape and activities via his webcam with colleagues in Greece.

Monday 21 December 2020 – the weather prediction was correct. Clouds covered the Free State sky and scattered raindrops started to fall. Revert to Plan B. A recording made on Saturday evening was shared via the YouTube link, while a live feed of the conjunction from elsewhere in South Africa was arranged. From both sides of the world, information was shared about the history of the venues, as well as the marvel of what was happening in space. Fortunately, expert planetary photographer Clyde Foster was able to share a live feed just after 19:30 from the observatory at his home in Centurion, Gauteng. Those attending the event where visuals and speakers were together on one screen – yet thousands of kilometres apart – watching an event in outer space, will indeed agree with Thomas Friedman: the world is flat. The live-stream event of the conjunction was a catalyst that will result in continued collaboration between the UFS and colleagues in Greece in the field of astronomy.

By the time of this writing, the livestream has reached more than 50 000 people.

Watch: Coverage of the Jupiter-Saturn conjunction here

News Archive

Four modernised controlled environment cabinets inaugurated

2006-07-27

Photographed in a controlled environment cabinet were at the back from the left: Mr Adriaan Hugo (head of the UFS Electronics and Mechanisation Division), Prof Herman van Schalkwyk (Dean: Faculty of Natural and Agricultural Sciences at the UFS) and Prof Koos Terblans (lecturer at the UFS Department of Physics). In front is Mr Koos Uys (engineering consultant from Experto Designa who helped with the cooling systems of the cabinets).
Photo: Leonie Bolleurs

Different look for research in controlled circumstances at the UFS

Research in controlled circumstances at the University of the Free State (UFS) turned a new page today with the inauguration of four modernised controlled environment cabinets of the Department of Soil, Crop and Climate Sciences.

“The controlled environment cabinets, which are situated next to the glass houses on the eastern side of the Agriculture Building on the Main Campus in Bloemfontein, were installed in the early 1980’s. The cabinets, used for research purposes in controlled circumstances by the UFS for many years, became dysfunctional and needed to be repaired and put into use again,” said Prof Herman van Schalkwyk, Dean: Faculty of Natural and Agricultural Sciences at the UFS.

“The cabinets are used by the agronomics, horticulture and soil science divisions of the Department of Soil, Crop and Climate Sciences to control factors such as the temperature, the intensity and quality of light, synthesis and humidity. This is done 24 hours a day, with hourly intervals,” said Prof Van Schalkwyk.

The cabinets are ideally suited to determine the joint and separate effects of these factors on the growth of plants. The adaptability of plants to climate can also be investigated under controlled circumstances. All of this leads to a better understanding of the growth and development process of plants, more specifically that of agricultural crops.

“The effect of these environmental factors on the effectiveness of insect killers such as fungus killers, insecticide and weed killers can also be investigated and can help to explain the damage that is sometimes experienced, or even prevent the damage if the research is timeously,” said Prof Van Schalkwyk.

A new cabinet can cost between R2-3 million, depending on the degree of sophistication. “Although controlled environment cabinets have been used for agricultural research for a long time, it has become costly to maintain them and even more impossible to purchase new ones,” said Prof Van Schalkwyk.

According to Prof Van Schalkwyk the cabinets were re-built by die UFS Electronics and Mechanisation Division. Some of the mechanisms were also replaced and computerised.

“The re-building and mechanisation of the cabinets were funded by the faculty and because the work was done by our own staff, an amount of about R1 million was saved. The maintenance costs will now be lower as the cabinets are specifically tailor made for our research needs,” said Prof Van Schalkwyk.

Where all monitoring was done manually in the past, the cabinets can now be controlled with a computer. This programme was designed by Prof Koos Terblans from the UFS Department of Physics.

According to Prof Van Schalkwyk the modernisation of the cabinets is part of the faculty’s larger strategy to get its instruments and apparatus up to world standards. “With this project we have proved that we can find a solution for a problem ourselves and that there are ways to get old apparatus functional again,” said Prof Van Schalkwyk.

Media release
Issued by: Lacea Loader
Media Representative
Tel: (051) 401-2584
Cell: 083 645 2454
E-mail: loaderl.stg@mail.uovs.ac.za
26 July 2006

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