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SAAO Cape Town Open Night
February 17 @ 8:00 pm - 10:00 pm
This week’s speaker: Prof. Petri Vaisanen
The SAAO Open Nights in Cape Town take place on the second and fourth Saturday of every month at 20:00.
Please email enquiries@saao.ac.za if you have any queries regarding bookings and tours for Cape Town Open Nights.
Speaker: Prof. Petri Vaisanen
Petri Vaisanen is the Director of the South African Astronomical Observatory (SAAO). He obtained his PhD from the University of Helsinki, and after spells in the USA and European Southern Observatory in Chile, he came to South Africa in 2004 working for many years for the Southern African Large Telescope (SALT), before taking up his current position in 2018. His research is on colliding and interacting galaxies and violent star formation. He fell in love with the night sky and stars as a child already, and still has a passion for observing the universe, for education, outdoors, and is a big fan of science fiction and literature in general, in addition to science.
Talk Abstract:
The South African Astronomical Observatory (SAAO) in Cape Town operates a multitude of telescopes at the Sutherland observing site, including the 10-m optical Southern African Large Telescope (SALT). I will present recent developments, updates, and future vision at the SAAO, and South African astronomy, and touch on how we connect to the global effort in exploring the Universe. I will also highlight some of the important and exciting results in astronomy over the past year, both from our research and telescopes and from facilities worldwide.