Commemorating the introduction of the Zimbabwean Astronomical Society – 19th October 2024
On Saturday the 19th of October 2024, the University of Zimbabwe (UZ) in collaboration with the Zimbabwean Astronomical Society (ZAS) held an exciting and engaging event commemorating the introduction of ZAS to interested parties in Harare.
We welcomed students from the Space Science degree program at UZ, the Astronomical Society of Harare (ASH), representatives from Arundel school, and St George’s school respectively, and a crowd of curious astronomy enthusiasts. The event, chaired by the Vice-President Mr. Shingirai Makechemu opened with a warm welcome, setting the stage for an informative and exciting day. Coordination and facilitation of this event were led by a dedicated team comprising Dr. Gift Muchatibaya (UZ, ZAS), Dr. Terrence Mushore (UZ), Prof. Emmanuel Mashonjowa (UZ), Mr. Makhosi Mpofu (UZ), Mr. Peter Morris (ASH), Mr. Tony Alegria (ASH), Ms. Michaela Baker (ASH), and Mr. Shingirai Makechemu (ZAS).
The day began with science talks from Mr. Mpofu and Mr Makechemu respectively, where Mr. Mopfu talked about his 4th year research project with the Zimbabwean National Geospatial and Space Agency (ZINGSA) where he is investigating the effects of space weather on our technology and environment; and Mr. Makechemu shared research from his PhD where he presented a talk on the properties of galaxies in the local and distant universe.
This smoothly followed into a talk where the activities of ZAS, past, present, and future were explained. Information on how to join ZAS, and how others can be involved in our activities were also shared with those in attendance. We are sure that this will lead to plenty of excitement and engagement with ZAS activities in the near future! Both with organisations such as ASH, but also educational and research institutions such as schools, UZ, and ZINGSA.
Inspired by Dr. Themba Dlodlo’s activities of teaching physics in Ndebele, and preaching the importance of doing science in our indigenous languages, we had an interactive session of astronomy in Shona – the aim was to raise awareness of the fact that science need not only be conducted in European languages, and that we must build the capacity to talk about modern scientific terms in our own languages!
We finished off the event with the Astronomical Society of Harare introducing us the the importance of Amateur Astronomy, as well as the activities that they are involved in as an organisation, from talking about various astronomical events, to training people to use telescopes at Mukuvisi Woodlands
Lastly, we went to the rugby pitches at the University of Zimbabwe to observe the sky that night. We managed to observe Saturn, and the once in an 80,000 year comet “C/2023 A3 Tsuchinshan-ATLAS”! As well as general lessons on what various objects in the sky are, such as Venus, Alpha Centauri, and nearby stellar constellations.
Overall, this event was deemed a huge success, we hope to build on the future of this event, and the previous event at NUST, in the near future!
