African Astronomy Meeting 25-26 March 2019

#1

As we continue to celebrate the most significant decision by the International Astronomical Union to host the 2024 General Assembly in Africa for the first time, let us also think strategically about how we would like Astronomy in Africa to evolve over the next 6 years, and beyond.

With this spirit please reserve in your calendars the dates 25-26 March 2019 for a meeting on Astronomy in Africa. The venue will be the South African Astronomical Observatory in Cape Town, South Africa.

Detailed information in the attached "concept" document, which speaks to the motivation behind this meeting and how it fits into the bigger picture for Astronomy in Africa.

Please contact Kevin Govender directly if you have any comments, queries, or suggestions.

More details will follow but for now, please save the dates: 25-26 March 2019.

Shared on behalf of IAU Office of Astronomy for Development

Update

Preregistration for Africa Astronomy meetings in 2019 is now open:

http://africa.astro4dev.org/registration/

#2

The Astronomy in Africa meeting that took place at South African Astronomical Observatory in Cape, was a two days series of presentations and intense discussions. The meeting was successful, and during the second day (26th March 2019), the meeting adopted a new constitution for the African Astronomical Society (AfAS); accepted an offer of the South African government to host a staffed secretariat for the first 3 years; and elected an Executive Committee to take the organisation forward. You can find out more about the process and the outcome of the meeting here. One of the presentations was about MeerKAT Array radio telescope, the precursor to the Square Kilometre Array (SKA), which has recently produced the brightest images of galaxies ever. See attached MeerKAT photos.