MNASSA : Monthly Notes of the Astronomical Society of South Africa

We describe the history of the SAAO Archives and the scope and limits of the current project. It was originally intended to scan, classify and inventory the collections of photographic material within the Observatory but it became evident on examination of the “collections”, or rather accumulations, that a wider approach was desirable.

A lifelong interest and fascination with telescopic eyepieces has led to the understanding of the importance of an eyepiece. The eyepiece is after all a critical component of a telescope; if the instrument is to realise its potential for optical excellence, the eyepiece needs to be at least as good as the objective. Over the years a number of different eyepieces have been accumulated through judicious opportunism in purchasing 2nd-hand items as their former owners follow the neverending quest for perfection. Eyepieces belonging to others have also been tried as has a great deal of reading and experimenting. In that time more optical design could have been studied, but life took a different turn, and as an empiricist, current knowledge is based more on practical experimentation than optical theory.

A bright bolide (South African Fireball Catalogue (SAFC) #316) was widely seen over the Western Cape at 20h14m53s SAST on 16 January 2019. It exploded at an altitude of around 46km, was followed by audible noise and vibrations and left a persistent train visible for several minutes. The first person to advise of this event was Kos Coronaios, who said he received reports of a ‘double bang, followed by rumbling’ at around 20h15 SAST. Later that evening and the following morning, we continued to log sightings of the event, as well as two videos and several images of the persistent train left behind by the meteor. The observed duration and speed, and the appearance in the videos are all consistent with a bright meteor. Notably the event was not detected by US government sensors, and therefore was probably less energetic than the daytime fireball which detonated with an energy of 0.1 kT just west of Cape Town shortly after noon on 12 March 2013 (SAFC #249). A rough triangulation from the more reliable eye-witness accounts, and more importantly from images of the smoke train, gives the tentative path shown in Figure 2. The meteor approached from the south descending at a steep angle, moving slightly towards the east, and disintegrated with two explosions just south of the coast between Hermanus and Pearly Beach, probably in the vicinity of Gansbaai.