North West University’s Mahikeng campus scores its first astronomy observatory
North West University’s Mahikeng campus has been become the first historically-disadvantaged tertiary institution in South Africa to develop an observatory for astronomy research.
Its brand new telescope, a 16-inch Meade LX200 GPS, is central to the Mahikeng Astronomy Telescope (MAT) programme, and is expected to be launched on September 7.
“North West University regards it as one of the important programmes we have. Furthermore, astronomy is an area of science that easily attracts the minds of young people, hence it is a very good vehicle for reaching out to them and attracting them into science in general,” Professor Thebe Medupe told News24 about the MAT.
Source: News 24
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