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NRF|SAAO Cape Town Open Night
December 6 @ 8:00 pm - 10:00 pm
Join us for Open Nights at the South African Astronomical Observatory (SAAO) in Cape Town, held on the second and fourth Saturday of every month. (NOTE: Open Nights for December 2025 are scheduled for all 4 Saturdays of the month)
Each evening begins with an engaging presentation on astronomy or a related field of science, followed by a guided tour of the Observatory’s rich history—including our library, museum, and the historic 120-year-old McClean Telescope.
Weather permitting, guests will have the opportunity to enjoy stargazing through the McClean and additional smaller telescopes.
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- Gates open at 7:30 PM.
- Free entry for children aged 6 and under.
Please email cptbookings@saao.ac.za or call +27 21 447 0025 if you have any queries regarding bookings.
Speaker: Anke van Dyk
Title: “Harmonics of the Cosmos: Resonance, Music, and the Universal Search for Order”
Abstract: Across scales from vibrating atoms to orbiting planets, nature organises itself through resonance — frequency relationships that enhance stability, reinforce structure, and enable coherent motion. This talk examines how the same mathematical principles underpinning musical harmony also manifest in celestial systems. We begin with resonance as a physical process, showing how orbital configurations, stellar oscillations, and spin–orbit coupling settle into simple ratios reminiscent of musical intervals. We then explore how humans independently discovered these ratios in tuning systems, from the purity of just intonation to the engineered compromises of equal temperament, and compare these adjustments to dynamical detuning and precession seen in planetary systems. Beat phenomena provide a bridge between domains: interference between musical tones mirrors modulation patterns observed in astrophysical time-series data. Having established resonance as both a physical and perceptual organising principle, we extend the narrative to sound in the universe — from solar oscillations and pulsar rhythms to gravitational-wave “chirps” — and show how sonification allows us to listen to patterns normally encoded in light or spacetime. The talk concludes by reflecting on how composers have interpreted cosmic order, from Holst’s The Planets to works that directly incorporate astronomical data, suggesting that humanity’s instinct to hear harmony in the cosmos reflects genuine structural parallels rather than poetic metaphor.
Bio: Anke van Dyk is a PhD candidate in Astronomy at the South African Astronomical Observatory and the University of Cape Town. She works with Prof. David Buckley and Prof. Patrick Woudt to study cataclysmic variables and related white dwarf binaries. Her research focuses on reconstructing the evolutionary histories of rapidly spinning white dwarf systems, including binaries that blur the traditional distinction between magnetic and non-magnetic systems.
Alongside her scientific work, Anke has a passion for teaching and public engagement in astronomy. She has played violin and piano since childhood, performing in orchestras for many years. This musical background nurtured her interest in the physics of sound and resonance, and now enriches her work in time-domain astronomy, where she highlights parallels between harmonic structure in music and frequency-driven behaviour in astrophysical systems.