With all the interest in life on Mars, it’s little wonder that January has those of us in the Southern Hemisphere star gazing. Thanks to the Astronomical Society of Southern Africa and Penguin Books for publishing the hard science Sky Guide Southern Africa 2025 – a must-have astronomical handbook that presents an accessible wealth of information about the sun, moon, planets, comets, meteors and bright stars, including detailing a celestial almanack of observable events.
Since time immemorial our ancestors turned to the starry night skies, seeking signs from celestial formations. For those in the vicinity of the Cradle of Humankind (North West and Gauteng), summer skies are set to soon become a lot more visible. The Wits Anglo American Digital Dome (formerly the WITS Planetarium, digitaldome.wits.ac.za) opens to the public in February 2025 and allows us humanoids a chance to explore the wonders of the universe in what was the first full-sized planetarium in Africa. The high-tech, multidisciplinary Wits Anglo Digital Dome will offer a 360-degree immersive experience and feature programming for all ages.
In the Cradle of Humankind surrounds, Toppieshoek, located on the banks of Hartbeespoort dam, is part of the Tshwane University of Technology and within the UNESCO-designated Biosphere Reserve and has been recently unveiled as a National Heritage Site.
Putting the place on the map officially, academics, enthusiasts, dignitaries, scientists and politicians recently gathered in the highveld heat as Professor Tinyiko Maluleke, Principal and Vice Chancellor of TUT unveiled two historic blue plaques and marked the publication of The Heritage Treasures of Toppieshoek, a book about exploring the cosmic wonders and heritage treasures of Toppieshoek written by renowned historians Vincent and Jane Carruthers.
Day trips include viewing the Leiden University Observatory Southern Station’s two telescopes, built in the early 1900s and operating until 1978. There is much excitement around the revival of interest that comes with a renewed commitment from the Dutch University. Along with the night skies, watch this space for future stardust updates.
For those in the Cape, South Artist Noland Oswald Dennis explores celestial themes at the artist’s solo in Cape Town at the V&A museum Zeitz MOCAA. On display is a new configuration of the widely travelled wall installation Black Liberation Zodiac (Molalatladi)(2018 – ?), which features iconography of Black and African liberation archives and their shared histories that, when mapped onto the southern hemisphere night sky, offer a counter system for thinking about global, celestial, and universal relations.
As part of the museum’s ‘UNDERSTUDIES’ showcase, Dennis offers a soft science series of ‘propositions to reconceive our own relationship to forms of instruction and authority’.
Through a set of conceptual devices, the artist’s practice subverts and contends with universalised and exclusionary perceptions of the ‘known’ world.
The museum offers daily tours, so visitors can explore the artists’ first major museum solo until the end of May 2025.
In the Cape, at Spier Wine Farm in Stellenbosch artist Berco Wilsenach’s ‘Project for The Blind Astronomer’ is a unique exhibition that challenges the way we connect with the cosmos through Braille, touch and interactive puzzles, inviting us to map the stars not with sight but with our fingertips.
Project For The Blind Astronomer exhibition dates have been extended by popular demand.
