 The Johannesburg Planetarium seen from Yale Road | |
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| Established | Construction: 1959 Opened: 12 October 1960 |
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| Location | University of the Witwatersrand, Braamfontein,  South Africa |
The Johannesburg Planetarium is a planetarium owned by the University of the Witwatersrand, located on the University's East Campus in Braamfontein, Johannesburg. It was the first full-sized planetarium in Africa, and the second in the southern hemisphere. [1]
The idea of setting up a planetarium in Johannesburg was first discussed in 1956 when the Festival Committee — which had been instituted to organise the celebrations of Johannesburg's seventieth anniversary — decided to raise the funds necessary to buy and house a Zeiss planetarium to be set up for the celebrations. As there was too little time to obtain a new instrument, it was decided to buy an existing planetarium projector from Europe.
After lengthy negotiations, the Festival Committee was successful in persuading the Parliament of Hamburg to sell their planetarium's projector which had been in use there since 1930. The Hamburg Parliament, however, imposed as its conditions that the planetarium's projector be fully modernised in the Zeiss factory at Oberkochen, and that Johannesburg would in due course have a new planetarium built for Hamburg. The Hamburg projector was immediately dismantled and moved to Oberkochen for an overhaul, and was in time completely rebuilt.
Soon, the responsibilities of the Festival Committee were taken over by the Johannesburg City Council, which after further negotiations, sold the projector to the University of the Witwatersrand for use as both an academic facility for the instruction of students, and as a public amenity. Plans for a new building to house the projector were first drawn up in 1958, and construction began in 1959. The planetarium finally opened on 12 October 1960. [1]
The Johannesburg Planetarium is often consulted by the media, and the public, in order to explain unusual occurrences in the skies over South Africa. [2] [3] In 2010, the Johannesburg Planetarium celebrated its golden jubilee. [4]
Johannesburg is the most populous city in South Africa with 4,803,262 people, and is classified as a megacity; it is one of the 100 largest urban areas in the world. It is the provincial capital of Gauteng, the wealthiest province in South Africa. Johannesburg is the seat of the Constitutional Court, the highest court in South Africa. Most of the major South African companies and banks have their head offices in Johannesburg. The city is located within the mineral-rich Witwatersrand hills, the epicentre of the international-scale mineral, gold and (specifically) diamond trade.
A planetarium is a theatre built primarily for presenting educational and entertaining shows about astronomy and the night sky, or for training in celestial navigation.
The Adler Planetarium is a public museum in Chicago, Illinois, dedicated to astronomy and astrophysics. It was founded in 1930 by local businessman Max Adler. Located on the northeastern tip of Northerly Island on Lake Michigan, the Adler Planetarium was the first planetarium in the United States. It is part of Chicago's Museum Campus, which includes the John G. Shedd Aquarium and The Field Museum. The Planetarium's mission is to inspire exploration and understanding of the universe.
Gauteng is one of the nine provinces of South Africa.
The University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, commonly known as Wits University or Wits, is a multi-campus public research university situated in the northern areas of central Johannesburg, South Africa. The university has its roots in the mining industry, as do Johannesburg and the Witwatersrand in general. Founded in 1896 as the South African School of Mines in Kimberley, it is the third oldest South African university in continuous operation.
Morehead Planetarium and Science Center is located on the campus of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. As a unit of the university, Morehead receives about one-third of its funding through state sources, one-third through ticket and gift sales, and one-third through gifts and grants.
Oberkochen is a municipality in the Ostalbkreis, in Baden-Württemberg, in Germany.
The William M. Staerkel Planetarium is a planetarium at Parkland College in Champaign, Illinois. It is the second largest planetarium in the state, the largest being the Adler Planetarium in Chicago, and has the first Carl Zeiss M1015 opto-mechanical star projector installed in the western hemisphere. The Staerkel Planetarium provides science education programs and light show entertainment to as many as 40,000 people each year. It has a 50-foot dome, seats 144, and private group and school show reservations can be made beyond the regular public offerings.
A Zeiss projector is one of a line of planetarium projectors manufactured by the Carl Zeiss Company. Main models include Copernican (1924), Model I (1925), Model II (1926), Model III (1957), Model IV (1957), Model V (1965), Model VI (1968), Spacemaster (1970), Cosmorana (1984), Skymaster ZKP2 (1977), and Skymaster ZKP3 (1993).
The Rand Afrikaans University was a prominent South African institution of higher education and research that served the greater Johannesburg area and surroundings from 1967 to 2004. It has since merged with the Technikon Witwatersrand and two campuses of Vista University to form the University of Johannesburg.
Transvaal University College was a multi-campus public research university in South Africa which gave rise to the University of the Witwatersrand and the University of Pretoria.
The Rand Show, previously known as the Rand Easter Show, is an annual show held in Johannesburg, South Africa, and is the largest consumer exhibition in Southern Africa. It has been an important event in the city for many years, attracting in excess of 400,000 visitors in 2007. It was also called the Grand Rand Show, when it was held a few weeks outside of Easter in the late 1980s.
The following is a timeline of the history of the city of Johannesburg, in the Gauteng province in South Africa.
There have been pride parades in South Africa celebrating LGBT pride since 1990. South African pride parades were historically used for political advocacy protesting against legal discrimination against LGBT people, and for the celebration of equality before the law after the apartheid era. They are increasingly used for political advocacy against LGBT hate crimes, such as the so-called corrective rape of lesbians in townships, and to remember victims thereof.
Fulufhelo Vincent Nelwamondo (OMS) is an electrical engineer by training, and holds a PhD in Electrical Engineering from the University of the Witwatersrand, in South Africa. He is the youngest recipient of the Harvard-South Africa Fellowship Programme amongst other honours. His research and practical experience has covered a wide spectrum of areas, including software engineering and computational intelligence. His interests include biometrics-based systems, data mining and machine learning tools.
The Professor Aristóteles Orsini Planetarium, also known as the Ibirapuera Planetarium, is a planetarium in Ibirapuera Park, São Paulo. It opened in January 1957, and was the first planetarium in Brazil and Latin America. It is one of three planetaria in São Paulo, with the others being Carmo Planetarium and the Johannes Kepler Planetarium at Sabina Escola Parque do Conhecimento.
Cameron Mackenzie was a South African politician and Member of Parliament in the National Assembly for the Democratic Alliance from 2014 to 2021. Mackenzie was also the Shadow Deputy Minister of Communications and Digital Technologies.
Tsepo Winston Mhlongo is a South African politician. As a member of the Democratic Alliance, he served as a councillor in the City of Johannesburg until the 2014 national election, when he was elected to the National Assembly of South Africa. After that, he was appointed Shadow Deputy Minister of Rural Development and Land Reform. Mhlongo became the Shadow Minister of Sport and Recreation in January 2017 before he was selected to be Shadow Minister of Sports, Arts and Culture in June 2019. On 1 December 2023, Mhlongo was expelled from the DA and lost his parliamentary membership. He has since joined ActionSA.
Nompendulo Thobile Mkhatshwa is a South African politician, former student leader and former #FeesMustFall activist who served as a Member of the National Assembly of South Africa for the African National Congress (ANC).
