In preparation for the IAU-GA2024, it is essential to bring together the African astronomical community to discuss how the continent can maximally benefit from the opportunity of hosting this event, as well as follow up on discussions from previous meetings on how best to facilitate participation by countries in Africa. The 2022 Forum on Astronomy in Africa took place on 25 October 2022. The forum was fully virtual and brought together members of our community of astronomers, enthusiasts, outreach and education specialists, and policymakers. The purpose of the Forum was to maintain momentum towards GA2024, building on the work of the last forum (held in October 2021) and to allow updates on preparations, Vision 2024 and other projects.
Participants were welcome to view the presentations from the last forum and to get in touch if they wished to update their previous contributions with new information or anything they might have missed last year. The links to those recorded presentations are on last year’s programme.
Format: Virtual Forum for African astronomy community via Zoom
Date: 25 October 2022
Venue: Online on Zoom (the Stream is now available to catch-up on Youtube)
Programme:
This is an up-to-date version of the progamme.
| Time | Agenda Item | Speaker |
| 09:00 | Welcome and Overview | Charles Takalana |
| 09:05 | Special guest welcome remarks – Department of Science and Innovation (DSI) – National Research Foundation (NRF) | Takalani Nemaungani Clifford Nxomani |
| 09:15 | Message from the International Astronomical Union (IAU) | Debra Meloy Elmegreen |
| 09:30 | Update on Vision 2024 | Vanessa McBride |
| 09:45 | Status of Astronomy in Africa | Thebe Medupe |
| 10:00 | Reflections on Busan | Sally Macfarlane |
| 10:10 | Expectations for Cape Town (Tourvest – IME) | Thembi Kunene-Msimang |
| 10:20 | Discussion | |
| 10:30 | Break/informal networking/gather.town | |
| 11:00 | Vision 2024-funded projects – Anna Aikohi, Space in Africa – Chukwujekwu Nworah, Astro Prison in Nigeria – Doreen Agaba, African Astronomer for a Day – Melvin Hoare, DARA projects – Miracle Chibuzor, Searching for Asteroids through Citizen Science – Pide Aristide Ahanhanzo, Bénin Astro – Proven Emmanuel, Unearthing rich cultural astronomy in Ghana – Solohery Randriamampandry, Malagasy Astronomers Conference – Tolu Biressa, Jimma Outreach programme for Science Education – Wathela Hassan, Zamzam refugee camp outreach programme – The Future of Meetings, What If? – Prospery Simpemba, Copperbelt University – James Chibueze, Hands-on radio interferometry – Olayinka Fagbemiro, NARSDA – Benard Nsamba, Small and affordable radio telescopes in schools | |
| 11:55 | Remote/robotic observing in Africa | Michele Gerbaldi |
| 12:00 | Science flagship/activities | Bradley Frank Bonita de Swardt David Buckley |
| 12:30 | Outreach flagship/activities | Sally Macfarlane Duduzile Kubheka |
| 13:00 | Break/informal networking/gather.town | |
| 14:00 | Working session: achieving Vision 2024 | Vanessa McBride |
| 16:00 | Closing remarks and thoughts from the participants | |
| 16:30 | End |
Click Here To Register!
