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SAAO Cape Town Open Night
May 13 @ 8:00 pm - 10:00 pm
This week’s talk: Siddharth Maharana
The SAAO Open Nights in Cape Town take place on the second and fourth Saturday of every month at 20:00.
All Open Nights will start with a presentation on topics of astronomy or physics. Then, visitors will be given an introduction to the historic McClean telescope, the observatory museum, and the library. If the weather is clear, there will be a chance for stargazing using telescopes set up for the night.
Please email enquiries@saao.ac.za if you have any queries regarding bookings and tours for Cape Town Open Nights.
Speaker:
Siddharth Maharana completed his Ph.D. in astronomy from the Inter-University Center for Astronomy and Astrophysics (IUCAA), Pune in India in 2022 and did a short stint at the Institute of Astrophysics in Crete, Greece. He did an undergraduate degree majoring in Mechanical Engineering in India.
His main work is centered around the development of novel instruments for astronomical observations. Since 2017 his major research efforts have been in building a new generation of “polarimeter” instruments known as polarimeters called the Wide-Area Linear Optical Polarimeters (WALOP). These will be used to create the map of dust and magnetic fields in our galaxy to pursue questions such as: how interstellar dust forms, evolve; what is their composition, etc.
Talk Abstract:
Astronomy is an observational science – we use high-end telescopes and instruments to observe and understand the physics of celestial objects, such as supernovae, exoplanets, galaxies, etc. In his talk, he will present how and why telescopes are useful in making observations, and give examples of how cutting-edge science and engineering are enabling astronomers to make new discoveries in astronomy.