MNASSA : Monthly Notes of the Astronomical Society of South Africa

These form an important part of a research facility, often as a sort of prepublication discussion or a discussion of an individual’s current research, and as such it is virtually impossible to “publish” this material. However by recording the topics discussed in the form below does indicate to those, who are unable to attend, what current trends are and who has visited to do research: it keeps everyone ‘in the loop’ so to speak

Also included in this section are the colloquia/seminars at the SAAO, UWC, the Astrophysics, Cosmology and Gravity Centre at UCT, ACGC and the NASSP lectures, aimed the at the students and interested astronomers. In addition there are the SAAO Astro-coffees which are 15-20min informal discussions on just about any topic including but not limited to: recent astro-ph papers, seminal/classic publications, education/outreach ideas and initiatives, preliminary results, student progress reports, conference/workshop feedback and skills-transfer.

Since the author took over this section there have been a number of highlights, most notably:

• Building relationships within the South African Astronomical Community including the ASSA Council and members, SAAO, the Shallow Sky specialists, Boyden Observatory/UFS Physics dept, and various social media forums
• Extensive ongoing international interaction, on a number of forums, on high resolution planetary and lunar imaging.
• Submission of articles/images to MNASSA and Sky Guide, as well as BAA and ALPO journals internationally.
• Pro-Am collaboration supporting the NASA Juno mission at Jupiter and SAAO/NASA New Horizons mission (2014MU69 occultation)
• Tim Cooper’s current and ongoing analysis of the widely observed Bolide/Fireball on 15 June.
• Invitation for the author to present a paper on his Mars Observations (2015-2017 apparition) at the European Planetary Science Congress in Latvia in September 2017.
  

ASSA administers two scholarships: ASSA Scholarship – one available, for BSc 2nd year to BSc (Hons); currently R19 000;

HartRAO-ASSA Scholarships – three available, for BSc (any year); currently R16 000.