Department of Astronomy, University of Cape Town

SKA SA fellow is lead author of first scientific paper from KAT-7 results

First paper: Dr Richard Armstrong (right) and Assoc Prof Patrick Woudt,on top of UCT’s RW James Building, home to the astronomy department.Armstrong is the first author of a scientific paper based on observations performed with South Africa’s new KAT-7 radio telescope.Woudt and Prof Rob Fender (not in picture) of the University of Southampton and a SKA visiting professor at UCT are co-authors.

The first author of a scientific paper based on observations performed with South Africa’s new KAT-7 radio telescope is alumnus Dr Richard Armstrong, a Square Kilometre Array (SKA) SA Fellow at UCT.

UCT Astronomy department hosting large international conference on Galactic and extragalactic novae

In the week of 4-8 February, UCT Astronomy is hosting a large international conference on Galactic and extragalactic novae. This meeting, named "Stella Novae: Past and Future Decades", is the 4th international conference in a series of conferences on classical novae. It follows "Novae and Related Stars" in Paris (1976), "Physics of Classical Novae" in Madrid (1989), "Classical Nova Explosions" in Sitges (2002) and brings together 90 experts and young emerging researchers from around the world to discuss their latest research in understanding the evolution scenarios of the binary systems in classical novae, the physics of the nova explosion, understanding the energetic feedback of the nova ejecta into the interstellar medium, multi-wavelength observations and modelling of the nova outburst and the relation between novae and type Ia supernovae.

First emission line image of the Tarantula Nebula using the UCT teaching telescope

First emission line image of the Tarantula Nebula, taken on 23/01/2013, using the UCT teaching telescope. The Tarantula Nebula (also known as 30 Doradus, or NGC 2070) is an H II region in the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC). It was originally thought to be a star, but in 1751 Nicolas Louis de Lacaille recognized its nebular nature. The image was fully reduced by Luc Turbide from the Université de Montréal. It consists of 10 x 5 minutes exposures in the Halpha and the OIII interference filters, added together. The gas in this region is ionized by the bright and massive OB stars in the Doradus region.

"First Light" from the new teaching telescope

First light image of 30 Doradus taken on January 20, 2013 with the UCT teaching telescope. This is a raw image (22 x 30 seconds exposures with the L filter, automatic off-axis guiding and adaptive optics) with no calibration (flat field, bias, dark frames) taken in very strong wind conditions. Despite the wind, the image quality is quite good over the whole field of view. The image is binned 4 x 4, so ~3.0 arcsec/pixel for a field ~37' x 25'. The CCD detector is Peltier and water cooled at ~ -20C. The filters available are the broadband LRGB set and UBVRI set, plus Halpha and OIII interference filters. The C14 (35.5 cm) optical tube is combined with a focal reducer, which changes the focal ratio from F/12.6 to F/7.3, which still yields a pixel of 0.725 arcsec with no binning. The telescope is installed on a Paramount MX mount and is equipped with an instrument rotator and an automatic focuser. Still to be commissioned is the self-guided spectrograph, which will yield resolution from 9 to 1 Angstroms/pixel.

Departmental Profile

The Department of Astronomy at the University of Cape Town is the largest university-based astronomy group in the country and has strong ties (and joint positions) with the South African Astronomical Observatory and the South African Square Kilometre Array office. The department primarily comprises observational (optical, near-infrared and radio) astronomers, with international leaders in the fields of large-scale structure of galaxies, dark matter in galaxies, low surface brightness galaxies, the uncovering of galaxies hidden by the Milky Way, the extra-galactic distance scale, and cataclysmic variable stars. The department is also closely associated with a number of other groups within various UCT departments, such as the cosmology group of the applied mathematics department, the astro-particle group of the physics department, and members of the electrical engineering department who are involved in space science and radio telescope technology development.