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15 June 2022 | Story Leonie Bolleurs | Photo Leonie Bolleurs
from the left: Dieter Schwab and Alex Reither from Sky-Skan, and Prof Matie Hoffman, Barry Crous (Instrumentation), and Pat van Heerden (Department of Physics) from the UFS
During the installation of the new computer and projector equipment at the Naval Hill Planetarium, were from the left: Dieter Schwab and Alex Reither from Sky-Skan, and Prof Matie Hoffman, Barry Crous (Instrumentation), and Pat van Heerden (Department of Physics) from the UFS.

The Naval Hill Planetarium at the Centre for Earth and Space on Naval Hill was inaugurated on 1 November 2013. It was the first digital planetarium in Africa south of the Sahara. 

The Department of Physics at the University of the Free State (UFS) is responsible for the Naval Hill Planetarium (formerly the Lamont-Hussey Observatory). The department uses the planetarium to educate and inform citizens about the natural sciences. The planetarium, together with the Boyden Observatory, is also important for the display and communication of South Africa’s astronomical heritage.

The planetarium system was recently upgraded in a project that cost R6 million. According to Prof Matie Hoffman from the Department of Physics, it was time to upgrade the computers and graphic cards, and to replace the lamp projectors with laser projectors.

Funding for the state-of-the-art equipment came from the Faculty of Natural and Agricultural Sciences and the Information and Communication Technology Services (ICT Services) at the university. Businesses in Bloemfontein – First Technology and Raubex Construction – also contributed to the project. 

Presenting programmes more often

Planetarium specialists Dieter Schwab and Alex Reither from Sky-Skan Europe, based in Germany, installed the new equipment over a period of two weeks.

Prof Hoffman says the new equipment will enhance the experience of people visiting the planetarium for a close encounter with the wonders of the universe to deepen their appreciation of science and astronomy.

“Besides a clearer image with better colour, the new projectors will also be more economical to operate. This means we will be able to offer programmes at the planetarium more often,” he says. 

The upgrades also include new software. Prof Hoffman explains that the software will enable more sophisticated presentations and open the door to the use of the planetarium for higher level visualisation of scientific data where any large data sets with many variables are involved, such as climate science, astrophysics, and cosmology. 

Offering an incredible experience

After completion of the installation, a period of two weeks will be spent on training to master the use of the new equipment and the software. The public can expect the first show with the new equipment at the end of June. 

“I am most looking forward to the planetarium creating an incredible experience – better than in the past – for the public and increasing everyone's admiration and understanding of the universe. I also believe the planetarium is an excellent facility to improve students' skills in science communication, and it provides these students the opportunity to share their knowledge with the public,” concludes Prof Hoffman. 

News Archive

Einstein's gravitational waves as creative as Bach's music, says UFS physicist
2016-02-19

Description: Gravitational waves  Tags: Gravitational waves

Profile of the gravitational waves of the colliding black holes.

Prof Pieter Meintjes, Affiliated Researcher in the Department of Physics at the University of the Free State, welcomed the work done by the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO) science team.
 
For the first time, researchers from two of the American Ligo centres, in Washington and Louisiana respectively, observed gravitational waves directly, 100 years after Albert Einstein said they existed. "My study field in astrophysics involves relativistic systems. Therefore, Einstein's view of gravity is crucial to me. I consider the theory as the highest form of human creativity - just like the music of JS Bach. Over the past 100 years, the theory has been tested through various experiments and in different ways.
 
“The discovery of gravitational waves was the last hurdle to overcome in making this absolutely unfaltering. I am therefore thrilled by the discovery. It is absolutely astounding to imagine that the equations used to make the predictions about the gravitational-wave emissions when two gravitational whirlpools collide - as discovered on 14 September 2015 by LIGO - are basically Einstein's original equations that were published way back in 1916 - in other words, 100 years ago.
 
“The LIGO detectors have been operational since the early 1990s, but they had to undergo several stages of upgrades before being sensitive enough to make detections. LIGO is currently in its final stage, and is expected to function at optimal sensitivity only within a year or two. To be able to conduct the measurements at this stage is therefore a fantastic achievement, since much more funding will certainly be deposited in the project,” Prof Meintjes says.

Description: Prof Pieter Meintjes Tags: Prof Pieter Meintjes

Prof Pieter Meintjes
Photo: Charl Devenish

The search for gravitational waves by means of the Square Kilometre Array (SKA) is one of the focus points in research by both Prof Meintjes and PhD student, Jacques Maritz. This involves the study of radio signals from pulsars that might show signs of effects by gravitational waves. They are looking for signs of gravitational waves. The gravitational waves discovered and studied in this manner would naturally vary much more slowly than the signal discovered from the two colliding gravitational waves.
 
The discovery will definitely provide renewed impetus to the Square Kilometre Array (SKA) Project to use the dispersion of pulsar signals, and to search for the impact of gravitational waves on signals as they travel through the universe. According to Prof Meintjes, the SKA will definitely contribute fundamentally to the Frontier research, which will provide a good deal of publicity for the UFS and South Africa, if significant contributions are made by local researchers in this field.

Video clip explaining gravitational waves

 

  • The Department of Physics will present a general, non-technical talk concerning the recent detection of gravitational waves by the 2 Laser Interferometer Gravitational Wave Observatories (LIGO):

Wednesday 24 February 2016
11:00-12:00
New lecture auditorium, Department of Physics

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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