The International Astronomical Union, which has been in existence for over 100 years, is the world’s largest body of professional astronomers. Every three years it holds a General Assembly, bringing together astronomers from around the world. This meeting will take place for the first time on the African continent in 2024. Cape Town has been selected to host the meeting, and the National Research Foundation (NRF) is the official host organisation. In preparation for this event, it is essential to bring together the African astronomical community to discuss how the continent can maximally benefit from this unique opportunity as well as how best to facilitate participation by countries in Africa.

Format: Virtual Forum for African astronomy community via Zoom

Date/Duration: 27 – 29 October 2021 (3 days)

Venue: Online on Zoom and live on Youtube

Contributions: Contributions were in the form of short recorded talks about ideas or initiatives related to the IAU GA 2024, and then real-time (during the Forum) proposals for discussion in the “unconference” session.

Purpose: Engage the African Astronomy community, including astronomers, amateur astronomers, education and outreach community, to obtain commitment on participation and appoint country ambassadors.

Spirit: The October Forum should be based on the principle of shared ownership. Different stakeholder groups (e.g. astronomers, amateurs, science centres, outreach professionals, etc) should drive activities agreed upon at the forum.

Who should attend: Astronomers, amateur astronomers, education and outreach community or anyone with an interest in astronomy research, infrastructures, education, outreach, development; amateur astronomy, astrotourism, astronomy arts & culture, etc. In particular, those interested in proposing an IAU Symposium or Focus meeting at the 2024 GA were encouraged to express their interest during the Science session on Day 3.

Participants list: View the full list of 430 registered participants at this link.

Essential reading: In preparation for participation in the Forum, everyone was asked to please read through the 2024 Vision document which one can find info about at this link or access directly as a Google doc where one could leave comments. This document formed the core of the discussions at the Forum and includes actions needed. Participants of the Forum would ideally take on some of these actions.

Unconference: On Day 2 the discussions were in the form of an “unconference” – this means that the topics of discussion were based on the participants’ interests. If there was a topic that interested someone, they were able to propose it or, if someone else had already proposed it, vote for it. Most popular proposals were given a time slot on Day 2.

Slack channel: A Slack channel was set up for the Forum for participants to engage with each other. Participants could join via this link and start chatting with fellow participants prior to, during and after the Forum.

Gather.town: Participants were welcome to meet and network during the breaks in Gather.town.

Outcome: By the end of the Forum there was an updated vision document with specific actions and people/organisations volunteering to drive those actions. Thanks to the South African Department of Science and Innovation we have funds available to support these actions towards 2024.

Recordings: Each day’s discussions were broadcast live on Youtube, where it remains as a recording of the discussions (see links below)

Summary of links:
1. Latest programme and information about the Forum (this page)
2. Zoom link to connect to the meeting (same for all days – now expired)
3. Live stream on Youtube (see recordings below)
4. Slack channel for chatting with fellow participants
5. Gather.town link for networking during the breaks (same link for all breaks – now expired)
6. List of registered participants (430 in total)
7. The latest 2024 Vision Document on which you can leave comments/suggestions
8. The Unconference document where you could propose/view/vote for Day 2 topics
9. Recording from Day 1
10. Recording from Day 2
11. Recording from Day 3 Science Parallel Session
12. Recording from Day 3 Outreach Parallel Session
11. Recording from Day 3 plenary

 

 

Programme

Where pre-recorded videos are available, you can click on the title link to view it, then click “back” on your browser to return.

Day 1: 27 October 2021	All times in Central African Time (CAT)
09:30	Optional Gather.town and Zoom networking
10:00	Welcome messages from key stakeholders
	International Astronomical Union	José Miguel Rodriguez
	Department of Science and Innovation	Takalani Nemaungani
	National Research Foundation	Kurt van der Heyden
	African Astronomical Society	Jamal Mimouni
10:10	Overview of GA2024, Vision and expected outcomes of workshop	Vanessa McBride and Kevin Govender
10:30	Science flagship intro	Bradley Frank and Bonita de Swart
10:40	Outreach Flagship intro	Carolina Odman and Niruj Mohan
10:50	Possibility of AfAS astronomy hubs to implement flagships	Kevin Govender
11:00	Current and proposed astronomy research activities on the continent
	South African Radio Astronomy Observatory (SARAO) and MeerKAT	Khulu Phasiwe
	Oukaimeden Observatory	Benkhaldoun Zouhair
	Hydrogen Intensity and Real-Time Analysis eXperiment (HIRAX)	Kavilan Moodley
	Astronomy Development in Egypt: New Facilities and Frontiers	Somaya Saad
	South African Astronomical Observatory (SAAO)	Petri Vaisanen
	The South African Gamma-Ray Astronomy Programme (SA-GAMMA)	Markus Böttcher
	Stellar Occultations in Africa in Support of NASA Missions	Anne Verbiscer
	Overview of research done at UCT Astronomy	Patrick Woudt
	In-field identification of Moroccan meteorites using Laser-Induced Breakdown Spectroscopy (LIBS) handheld instrumentation	Giorgio Senesi
	Ionised bubbles before the epoch of reionisation	José Miguel Rodriguez
	African VLBI Network (AVN)	Carla Sharpe
	South African National Space Agency (SANSA)	Martin Snow
	Spectroscopy of variables stars at Oukaimeden Observatory	BENHIDA Abdelmajid
	Post-forum submission: Kenya Optical Telescope Initiative	Nadir Omar Hashim
	Current and proposed astronomy outreach activities on the continent
	Women in Astronomy and activities at the IAU	Mamta Pommier
	Inspiration and Engagement with Astronomy Through Khoi and San Starlore	Daniel Cunnama
	The Travelling Telescope	Susan Murabana Owen
	African Science Stars (ASSAP)	Unathi Kondile
	Astronomy outreach and development in Benin	Prudence AYIVI
	The Wits Digital Dome	Roger Deane
	CosmoLAb Magazine	Thierry Martial Tchangole
	Affordable Radio Telescopes for Education and Outreach	Ikechukwu Obi
	Astronomy in developing countries using Virtual Observatories	Khadija El Bouchefry
	THE ACTIVITIES OF OUR ASSOCIATIONS (الجمعية الموريتانيه لعلم الفلك Mauritanian Association of Astronomy)	ELY CHEIKH Ould Mohamed Navee
	Pan-African School for Emerging Astronomers (PASEA)	Chukwujekwu Ofodum
	Astronomy Outreach in Libya	Amjed Khurwat
	Astronomy Outreach in Ethiopia	Kirubel Menberu
	Astronomy Outreach in Egypt	Somaya Saad
	Astronomy Outreach in Botswana	Molly Kgobathe
	Current and proposed collaborative initiatives on the continent
	African Astronomical Society	Charles Takalana
	African Planetarium Association	Lucia Marchetti
	Arab Astronomical Society	Raid Suleiman
	African Initiative for Planetary and Space Science (AFIPS)	David Baratoux
	East African Astronomy Research Network	Simon Anguma
	South African Institute of Physics	Makaiko Chithambo
	IAU Office for Astronomy Outreach	Lina Canas
	IAU Office of Astronomy for Education	Tshiamiso Makwela
	IAU Office of Astronomy for Development	Kevin Govender
	Development in Africa with Radio Astronomy (DARA)	Melvin Hoare
	DARA Big Data	Anna Scaife
	Development of astronomy in East Africa and focus areas to invest in the region	Alemiye Mamo
	National Astrophysics and Space Science Programme (NASSP)	Ros Skelton
	IAU Office for Young Astronomers and International School for Young Astronomers (ISYA)	David Mota
	ISYA South Africa	Moses Mogotsi
	Astrotourism	Stelios Tryfon
	African Network for Women in Astronomy (AfNWA)	Mirjana Povic
	Creating international support groups to build and sustain local capacity and build local expertise	Noorali Jiwaji
	Using Big Data for Scientific (Astronomical) Data Computing and Management	Tsegazeab Hailegebriel
	A Platform of collaboration for research and education across Africa	Tolu Biressa
	GA2024 – An engineering point of view	Yosry Azzam
	Infrastructure and collaboration	Solomon Tessema
	African Radio Astronomy Network	James Chibueze
	West African Regional Office of Astronomy for Development (WAROAD)	Nnaemeka Dom Onyeuwaoma
	Portuguese Language Centre of the OAD (PLOAD)	Gustavo Rojas
	Lessons learned from “The Future of Meetings”	Vanessa Moss
13:30	Break (Optional Gather.town and Zoom networking)
14:00	Working session: achieving the vision (walk through vision doc, identify gaps, assign actions)
	Unconference instructions and determination of programme for Day 2
15:00	Optional Gather.town and Zoom networking
Day 2: 28 October 2021	All times in Central African Time (CAT)
09:30	Optional Gather.town and Zoom networking
10:00	Reflections on Day 1
10:15	Vision discussion/unconference #1 (see topics, propose, and vote at this link)
	The AfAS survey	Charles Takalana
	Amateur community in Africa	Paul Ludick
	Benefits for African school children from GA2024; Astronomy education in Africa	Ruth Taju; Zakaria Belhaj
	Data archiving from telescopes on the continent	Vanessa McBride; David Buckley
	Recording, preserving, and sharing astronomy heritage data (perhaps via a digital repository)	Auke; Somaya
	Possibility for any African countries to join large projects such as SKA	Ange Cynthia Umuhire
	Astronomy at universities for undergraduates	Michele Gerbaldi
	Why should every physicist (and chemist) and even citizens be astronomy literate! Making a case for it.	Jamal Mimouni
	Using Virtual Observatories for Astronomical Research and for Education and Outreach	Khadija El-Bouchefry
	A brief introduction to Gather. town (and the future of meetings); barriers and challenges for online	Vanessa Moss
12:30	Break (Optional Gather.town and Zoom networking)
13:00	Vision discussion/unconference #2 (see topics, propose, and vote at this link)
	Possible Programs for Women in Astronomy WG	Priya Hasan
	Planetary (Solar system, Asteroids, Fireball, meteoroids, comets, … )	Jean-Baptiste Kikwaya
	Globalization of Astronomy terminologies and descriptions	Noorali Jiwaji
	Initiating departments for “Astronomy Engineering” at the colleges of engineering in the continent	Yosry Azzam
	Dark sky conservation and Astro-tourism initiatives in Africa	Alemiye Mamo Yacob
	Making the IAU GA multilingual	Thierry Martial Tchangole
	Facilitate the exchange of African students and researchers	Abdelmajid Benhida, NooraliJiwaji
14:00	Determination of additional parallel sessions for Day 3 (no additional parallel sessions – only Science and Outreach)
14:30	Optional Gather.town and Zoom networking
Day 3: 29 October 2021	All times in Central African Time (CAT)
09:30	Optional Gather.town and Zoom networking
09:45	Reflections on Day 2
10:00	Parallel sessions:
	Parallel Session 1: Science
10:00	Intro to Session	Brad/Bonita
10:10	Flagship Projects	David
10:20	I-How Meetings	Brad
10:30	IAU Symposia & Focus Meetings: Previous Meetings in Africa	Mirjana
10:50	IAU Symposia & Focus Meetings: The proposal evaluation process	Renee
11:00	Discussion	With Mirjana/Renee, Chaired by Brad & Bonita
11:15	Short break, depending on length of discussion
11:20	Intro & Disclaimer to session on Symposia	Brad/Bonita
11:25	Symposium: Inclusive AGN	Sarah & Sthabile
11:35	Symposium: Pulsars and Radio Transients	Marisa
11:45	Symposium: Gravitational Waves	Paul
11:55	Symposium: Galactic Plane	James
12:05	Symposium: Radio Astronomy	Patrick
12:15	Symposium: X-Ray Binaries	Itumeleng
12:25	Discussion
12:40	Focus Meeting: High Energy	Michael
12:50	Focus Meeting: Gas in Galaxies	Sarah & DJ
13:00	Discussion & Closing Remarks	SSC
	Parallel Session 2: Communications, Education and Outreach
10:00	Welcome & Introduction to the programme	Carolina and Niruj
10:10	Flagship project discussion	Led by Niruj
10:40	Planetaria discussion	Led by Lucia
10:55	Science Centers discussion	Led by MJ
11:10	Education and African NAEC network discussion	Led by Sally
11:25	Schools discussion	Led by Sivuyile
11:40	Amateur Astronomers discussion	Led by Daniel
11:55	Astrotourism discussion	Led by Anthony
12:10	Industry discussion	Led by Anton
12:25	Wild ideas discussion	Carolina
12:40	Pan-African coordination	Niruj
12:55	Consolidation	Carolina
13:00	Close
13:00	Break (Optional Gather.town and Zoom networking)
13:30	Plenary (Report back from parallel sessions and discussion)
14:00	Action items, summary and way forward
15:00	Close

Poster

Download the poster here:

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Galaxies, Extrasolar planets and Stellar physics: Gazing into the deep space, searching for new worlds, an insights into stellar interior physics.

6 – 17 September 2021 

The ongoing activities of the Square Kilometer Array (SKA) telescope have accelerated the development of astronomy research on the African continent especially in the field of galactic studies. These activities are no longer concentrated in South Africa only, but have also spread to the Sub-Saharan African region. Furthermore, space missions such as NASA’s Kepler and NASA’s TESS (Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite) have further enhanced the development of other astronomy research fields, mainly exoplanet and stellar physics exploration. The future of these research areas is expected to become even brighter with the magnificent observations expected from ESA’s PLATO (PLAnetary Transits and Oscillations of stars) mission planned to be launched in 2026. A number of African universities from the Sub-Saharan African region have embraced the open access data from these space missions and SKA telescopes, striving to make essential contributions to these research science fields, hence, aiding our understanding of the universe. 

Mbarara University of Science and Technology (MUST) in conjunction with the Max-Planck-Institut für Astrophysik (MPA),  Thüringer Landessternwarte Tautenburg(TLS), and  Instituto de Astrofísica e Ciências do Espaço (IA) are organising a Sub-Saharan Africa Advanced Astronomy Summer School in Uganda focusing on three fields of scientific research, namely galaxies, extra-solar planet science, and stellar interior physics. The goal of the summer school is to invite experts to share the state-of-the-art techniques/methods currently employed in these scientific research areas. In addition, research areas such as exoplanet and stellar physics studies have strong synergies and therefore present opportunities for generating research ideas which cut across the two fields, thus creating avenues for networking and building substantial collaborations among researchers and students in these fields. Students and postdoc researchers will be given an opportunity to present their own research work in the form of posters.

The summer school is open to 30 participants, i.e., mainly MSc./PhD students, and early career postdoc researchers in physics, astronomy or astrophysics from the Sub-Saharan African region. BSc. students in their final year with prospects of pursuing careers in physics, astronomy or astrophysics will be considered. The summer school will be held in Uganda from September 6th – 17th, 2021.

More information and School website

Founded in 1820, the SAAO is the national centre for optical and infrared astronomy in South Africa. Its primary role is to conduct fundamental research in astronomy and astrophysics by providing a world-class facility to scientists. The SAAO also promotes astronomy and astrophysics in Southern Africa, by sharing research findings and discoveries, and participating in education and outreach activities to inform and enthuse citizens about physics and astronomy.

Unveiling of the National Heritage Site: 20 October 2020

The events will kick off with the virtual unveiling of the National Heritage site which will be held on the morning of the 20 October 2020, 200 years to the day since the establishment. Attendees are invited to join this exciting event online before the official symposium begins.

SAAO Virtual Symposium: 20-23 October 2020

• African ethnoastronomy and indigenous knowledge
• History of Astronomy in Africa
• Contributions to global astronomy
• Developments in African Research Astronomy in recent decades
• Astronomy and Society

More information and Symposium website